The Golden Compass. London premiere.

"If Darth Vader wore a blond wig, a slinky dress and a dab of Chanel behind each ear, he could hardly be as evil as Nicole Kidman, playing the gorgeous villainess Mrs Coulter in this spectacular new movie version of [The Golden Compass], the opening episode of Philip Pullman's fantasy series His Dark Materials," writes the Guardian's Peter Bradshaw. "This is the very best sort of part for her: statuesque, elegant, seductive, with a hint of cold steel. In many ways, it's her juiciest character since the sociopathic meteorologist in To Die For."

"When she walks down the hall of fictional Jordan College in a figure-hugging gold lamé gown, her honey-blonde locks permed into place, the men on screen fall silent - and my mouth fell open and an involuntary 'wow!' fell out," confesses Baz Bamigboye in the Daily Mail. "Now, that's what I call a movie star entrance, and I haven't seen it done with such aplomb in years."

Updated through 12/4.

For James Christopher of the London Times, "The books weave a magic that the film simply cannot match.... The power of Pullman's novels is that he invents an imaginary world just an inch out of kilter with our own.... The problem with the film... is the haystack of derivative film twists and the fatal lack of genuine drama."

Ray Bennett finds it "lacks dramatic structure, wit and charm."

"[T]here is one formidable obstacle in the path of the film, which opens to the public on 5 December: the intense antipathy of the American Catholic Church, which has turned its wrath on the production for promoting what it deems a viciously sacrilegious message that boils down to nothing less than 'atheism for kids.'" Ciar Byrne maps the battle lines for the Independent.

Peter Chattaway's POV: "Why the 'it's not anti-religious, it's only anti-abusive forms of religion' meme doesn't fly."

Earlier: Donna Freitas in the Boston Globe.

Update: "By casting [Christopher Lee and Ian McKellen], and in all sorts of other ways, Chris Weitz's movie bends over backwards to refit Pullman's saga as an effects fantasy for a Rings audience, and in this, it just about succeeds, conjuring a last hour of mounting excitements and leaving us hungry for more," writes the Telegraph's Tim Robey, who's got his problems with the movie, but: "You can't fault the film for its pacing, which is fleet and often breathless - the way Weitz gets the characters tumbling into battle at the end is a nice, brisk rejoinder to all Peter Jackson's portentous martial foreplay, not to mention the galumphing finale of The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe.... Whether The Subtle Knife gets made is conditional on this film's success, and I think it'll be touch-and-go - there's a little too much compromise here, and only an embryonic feeling of soul." Via Lou Luminick.

Update, 11/29: Peter Chattaway has a longish email interview with Pullman.

Updates, 11/30: "Weitz (About a Boy), who has never directed a film with anything like these logistics before, is saddled with conveying loads of exposition but handles the big scenes competently," writes Variety's Todd McCarthy. "Still, the prevailing tone is cold, which has nothing to do with the frigid settings of the second half, and the pic doesn't invite the viewer to enthusiastically enter into this new dramatic realm."

"Several grand fights, one key revelation, a rescue of Lyra's playmate plus an old-fashioned 'To Be Continued' ending make for a rousing finish," counters the Hollywood Reporter's Kirk Honeycutt. "Witches sweep out of the night sky, bad guys when shot vanish in balls of flame and the glories of free will get celebrated by championing a child who never does what she is told. What kid won't go for all this?"

In the Guardian, Harriet Lane meets Dakota Blue Richards. The Telegraph's Will Lawrence talks with her, too.

"A more well-tooled and expertly crafted beginning to a late-year franchise is hard to imagine, yet it's this very gleaming perfection that may leave The Golden Compass open to accusations of soullessness and artifice," writes Roger Clarke in Screen Daily. Even so, he argues, "it's a terrific adventure ride."

Updates, 12/1: For another version of the movie's making, see Charles McGrath's piece in the New York Times. And actually, if you haven't read any of the others and you're looking for a quick run-down of the need-to-knows, this will more than do.

"If there is indeed a 'deceitful stealth campaign' afoot to lure children to Pullman's books - as William Donohue, spokesman for the Catholic League, insists - it's remarkably short on stealth," writes Laura Miller in the Los Angeles Times. "What's really astonishing, and telling, is how long it's taken America's religious fear-mongers to notice Pullman."

Update, 12/2: "[W]hile New Line people play down the connection between The Golden Compass and The Lord of the Rings in conversation, they're quietly planting seeds all over the place, hoping for another bumper crop," writes Newsweek's Devin Gordon. "It's fortunate that the story of The Golden Compass is so singular, and that Weitz's film is an honest, admirable adaptation."

Updates, 12/4: "I want my children to understand that human beings and institutions are fallible," writes Salon's Mary Elizabeth Williams, a Catholic:

That sometimes those who claim moral authority can traffic in corruption and abuse. I want them to be angry at every wrong perpetuated in the name of God. To question authority. To be feisty troublemakers for positive change. I've told my daughters that no one knows for certain that there's a God or a heaven. I always thought that was the beauty of faith - that it rests on our willingness to believe in the things we can't prove, to consider, when we look up at the stars or contemplate the elegance of a DNA sequence, the possibility of a higher architecture. I hope that my daughters will find contentment and community in their religion. But I would rather they grow up to be kind, generous unbelievers than sanctimonious, blindly dogmatic Christians.

Jerry Lentz sends along an online viewing tip. Pullman reads at Barnes and Noble. If you get Tom Brokaw first, just look down to the first box on the left in the second row and click.

More online viewing. The first five minutes.

Posted by dwhudson at November 28, 2007 1:13 AM