In the right compass direction, but the journey has barely begun

Movie review of "The Golden Compass".
Published on facebook.com, 8th December 2007.

Interesting and attention-keeping for adults though at times seems a mish-mash of Lord of the Rings and the Narnia Chronicles. Great acting from DB Richards who succeeds in giving her character the right level of annoying brattishness. Kidman looks nauseatingly thin apart from her lips but does a good enough job of balancing the conflicting objectives of baddie and mummy. Little else to say except that this is a whimsical enough kids' movie, but with little time to explore any character in great depth. All more akin to placing chess pieces on the board before the game really starts, as the first film of a trilogy franchise sometimes is.