Solid entertainment, but of the repetitious kind - as if it was the sequel to something else, even though it is obviously the first of a potential series.

| Original Score: 7/10 | Nov 24, 2020

Dazzling. [Full review in Spanish]

| Original Score: 3/5 | Oct 14, 2020

This uneven and muddled affair is too compressed and compromised to please viewers of any persuasion.

| Original Score: 2/5 | Jul 17, 2020

Enchanting in its own way, The Golden Compass is a cold, dark fable.

| Mar 3, 2020

There is a good idea buried here somewhere - it's just indistinguishable from the dust of stale ones.

| Original Score: 2/4 | Jun 5, 2019

Weitzman hits all the book's plot points without ginning up any of its corresponding emotion.

| Oct 12, 2018

"The Golden Compass ultimately fails as a film in its broad strokes and inadequate scene development."

| Original Score: 2/5 | Nov 3, 2016

Director Chris Weitz... manages to bring out the best in his ensemble cast and never fails to lose the attention of the viewer throughout 114 minutes.

| Feb 29, 2016

Begets the less than ringing endorsement, 'Yeah, whatever. It was OK I suppose.'

| Original Score: 2/4 | Sep 5, 2015

| Original Score: B+ | Feb 18, 2012

| Original Score: 2/5 | Nov 17, 2011

| Original Score: 5/5 | Apr 4, 2011

The Golden Compass isn't bad, it's cast is too good and it's too well made, but something fundamental to good storytelling - heart - has been lost, leaving a final product as icy and impossible to care for as Mrs. Coulter herself.

| Original Score: 6/10 | Mar 22, 2011

Excruciating pap

| Aug 27, 2009

An engaging fantasy adventure that, albeit no masterpiece, is hardly the disaster one might have imagined.

| Original Score: C | Jul 14, 2008

I realize that when you make a book into a movie you cannot include every single detail, but it seems like Weitz purposely tried to take all of the magic out of the story.

| Original Score: 2/5 | May 20, 2008

This plot may sound somewhat ludicrous on paper, but Pullman has created a logical, well-thought-out world that Weitz has brilliantly translated to the big screen.

| Original Score: 5/5 | May 1, 2008

This kid film noir touching on magic dust substance abuse, cranky clerics, worrisome wizards, goth grownup child abusers and computer-generated homicidal polar bear throat slashers, is less likely to dazzle the senses than exhaust minds of all ages.

| Apr 30, 2008

...if I hadn't liked Pullman's books so much, I probably would have liked this movie version more than I did.

| Original Score: 6/10 | Apr 24, 2008

Will it be enough to satisfy fans of Philip Pullman's widely read 'His Dark Materials' trilogy? Hard to say. But for the uninitiated this is an engaging adventure, even when Chris Weitz's screenplay lacks the compelling clarity of Pullman's prose.

Full Review | Original Score: 3/4 | Apr 9, 2008