DVD : The Golden Compass (2 disc Special edition) [2007]

Rating: - Such a sad travesty of the book, sorta looks OK
With the sound off, it looks pretty good. With the vision off it sounds like Noddy goes North. Dialogue is seriously wooden and big lumps of wood have been glued in - presumably to patch up other holes in the script.
Yes, it is hard to get a massive book into a movie - but Hollywood has totally missed the point of the books, and failed bigtime. So sad.
Good luck to those few who have enjoyed it - but please do not assume that kids will not notice the creaking script and holes in the plot left by Hollywood butchery. Kids are often smarter and more critical than adults. Especially kids who read.

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Rating: - This is not an extended edition of the movie
Just to reiterate J.J. Hall's review, I saw this title in a store alongside the original and thought that like with LOTR they'd reinstated lots of scenes that would would enhance the film but were deemed cuttable to get the running time down to an acceptable cinema length. A quick perusal of both boxes showed that both had main features that ran for 108 mins. What you get with this 2-disc edition is just lots of extra features (making ofs, interviews, etc). From the same company that did the excellent LOTR extended editions, this is a real disappointment. This isn't a review of the film (which I still haven't seen to be honest, heard mixed reviews but utterly love the books), just didn't want to see anyone caught out by the "extended" on the cover.

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Rating: - How can they get away with having 'extended edition' on the cover?
I thought this to be a fairly flat and forgettable experience at the cinema with huge chunks of the book missing or re-arranged... a 2 star experience at best.

Then I heard nearly an hour of material had been cut by New Line and that gave me hope that at some point a 'Director's Cut' might perhaps emerge; with the correct ending and all the other missing footage restored, but it is not on this DVD as the running time reveals!

I have not bought this as I am awaiting the inevitable re-release when this sells well... my review here is only to warn people that the 'Extended Edition' slapped on the front is false advertising in my opinion and I cannot fathom how they can get away with it... if you thought the theatrical release of this film was flat and tame then don't buy this as it is exactly the same film!!

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Rating: - excellent!
I thought this was going to be a bad film because of the negative reviews and the fact it was being sold cheaply, but I was pleasantly surprised. I found the film very moving and Dakota Blue was very convincing as lyra. It is a long time since I read the book but I did not notice many alterations. The animals were all wonderful and I thought Nicole Kidman (and her daemon) came over as very evil. I was near to tears a number of times. The whole film was very beautiful and how one reviewer could compare it to Harry Potter in a negative way, I do not understand. Yes, the religious aspect was played down, but that is America for you, narrow-minded and blinkered. Aat least it was not so cut about like the last Harry Potter, as to be unrecognisable. Film makers have got to realise that viewers DO have the attention span to watch 3 and 4 hour films. Lord of the Rings got away with it (and look how they changed that story, very disappointing, but I do understand)
Ignore the other reviews and give it a try.

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Rating: - Who are the critics writing for?
This film has been not just panned, but viciously berated. No wonder it attracted such luke-warm success. I went dreading it, as His Dark Materials was one of those life-changing books in my life. Imagine my pleasure when I found the film incredibly well done. I just do not know what the critics were carping about. As with the Harry Potter films, there had to be HUGE compromises made to the two-hour limitation of a film, but The Golden Compass FAR OUTDID any of the Harry Potters in condensing a complex and hefty book into a comprehendible 2 hour film. I thought the short cuts and abridgments they did with the Golden Compass were entirely in keeping with and reverential to the book---it was brilliantly done. Sure, there are always differences in interpretations of individual characters on the screen (Craige is far too warm, Kidman should be dark, not blonde...) but the rest of the characters/actors were positively spot on, and Daniel Craig and Kidman did such excellent jobs otherwise capturing the essence of the characters in the minute periods of time they had, that you quickly lent them the benefit of the doubt for starting from a slightly different place than the book. Sure, thousands of details, and side stories were sacrificed to the film's abridgment, and sure, some stories were merged to help condense the story, but even these were masterfully done and retained the spirit of the story.
Hey! A two hour film can NEVER compete with a 600 page book. But it CAN capture some of the magic of a story and portray it with integrity. This film is a first rate film of a remarkable book. I, for one, cannot WAIT for the next two installments. Bravo.