Movie Review: The Golden Compass

I finally saw the movie The Golden Compass the other day. I blogged about it when it first came out and said I wanted to see it. Well, life does not always allow jaunts to the movie theater these days, so I waited until it came out on video. Thank God. I would have cried over each of the ten bucks had I bought a ticket. The movie is just plain bad. It is so chaotic and adds so many characters throughout the two hours that I lost attention at least a few times. The graphic art is impressive and well done, but even this seemed empty.

There should not have been any hoopla over it's anti-religious themes. Yes, the books might propound atheism and freedom from religion/the church. However, the movie trips over itself trying in avoiding blatant, unflattering remarks about religion (though one immediately discovers that the oppressive "Magesterium" represents the Roman Catholic Church). And as is the case with so many (post)modern movies, the overarching topic is freedom. Freedom from what? The church, or religion, or perhaps something else? I guess the other movies will fill out the bizarre story more.

Though the anti-religious themes were subtle, one got the feeling that the movie did not exist to esteem goodness. You did not feel any love or grace emanating from the characters (the prime actor, a young girl, played the part quite apathetically and even a bit rudely). And it is not because the film is dark (which it is). Even in the darkest scenes of the Lord of the Rings trilogy, one always felt as though redemption was around the corner. And even in the midst of the tragedy, all the virtuous characters acted, well, virtuously. Not so with The Golden Compass.

I can't really recommend the movie. It is quite violent and unsuitable for kids. But beyond that, it really doesn't offer anything edifying. Good CGI and clever fantasy can't cover up simple insolence.

CT's Review of The Golden Compass

Christianity Today's Peter Chattaway just posted his review and it is a good one. The important section for us, at least as we try and understand this movie from a Christian world view, is pretty interesting:

"And so we come to the film's treatment of religion. Serafina says the coming war—which, in the second and third books, is revealed to be a war against the Judeo-Christian God—will bring an end to "destiny" and establish a new era of "free will." What that means exactly is not spelled out, not in this movie, but we can get a sense of it from the fact that nearly all of this film's villains work for the church-like Magisterium, which spends much of its time "telling people what to do."

He Continues:

"The filmmakers have been at pains lately to say that they toned down the book's anti-religious content, and that may be true to the extent that the movie never uses words like "church" or "God." But the word "magisterium" does refer, in the real world, to the teaching authority of the Roman Catholic Church, and the film is still peppered with religiously significant words like "oblation" and "heresy," as well as a cryptic reference to "our ancestors" who "disobeyed the Authority"—that is, to Adam and Eve and their disobedience against God in the Garden of Eden."

As you know, I am comfortable watching some movies that others are not as long as I do so actively and not passively. This is one of them. (Make sure to read "The Family Corner" at the end of the article or check out Kids-in-Mind. As far as I can tell, this is not a movie for kids.) Much of the Christian community has serious reservations about this movie. I understand why and have those same reservations. The film's atheistic bent is obviously not a message we should esteem. But my reservations do not go so deep that I would avoid seeing it. In fact, this is a perfect film for Christians to engage and use to talk about Jesus. Your Christian friends may avoid this film, but those who do not believe surely won't.

Check out Jeffery Overstreet's great article on why we should not fear The Golden Compass.