Customer Reviews
The names were changed to protect the innocent - By: B. Chandler, 05 May 2008 
Come to think if it the whole story is about protecting the innocent.
Lyra (Dakota Blue Richards) was raised relatively unsupervised which lead to a wild child hood of mock-wars & mischievousness. An excellent liar who saves her from many situations, she may someday find her assets are liabilities. A chance visit by her uncle, Lord Asriel (Daniel Craig), will change her life for ever.
Well movies can not be the book & many times for brevity speeches are cut & locations are rearranged (from a 400 page book to a 110 page script.) But you have to draw the line some where. Unfortunately this is one of those times where they left the action in & changed the story form a multifaceted mystery to a black & white good guy vs. bad guy. We may as well have been watching Saturday afternoon cowboys with black & white hats. Some of the facets were skillfully woven into the non-verbal part of the film with the hope that you read the book & know what is happening. Still the focus switched from a coming of age story to free the slaves & what not. And what is with introducing a bad guy from the next installlment to an earlier scene at Jordan collage that masking the turmoil of conciseness at the college?
I do agree that the movie needed to stop short of the cliffhanger end of the book. Let us see what happens when Lyra brings her father what he needs.
On the plus side, the costumes & props were excellent. The CGI did not overwhelm the story. Daemons knew their place. The music matched the scenes & did not overwhelm the dialog. They did a great job of choosing the actors. We can hope they will be around for "The Subtle Knife" (2009)." Nicole Kidman made a perfect Mrs. Coulter & the added scene where she slaps her monkey give hope to becoming more complex character. The voice of Iorek Byrnison (name changed) is Ian McKellen of "The Da Vinci Code" fame.
Well with any luck things may straighten out by the next installlment.
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The Blu-ray comes with a bonus disk that has more footage on it than the movie its self. Watching this dark material & re-watching the film may give more insight to the story.
