The latest film trilogy launches on the big screen
Movie trilogies seem to have been popular in the last decade.
We’ve had one based on an angry green Ogre and one based on a
Disneyland ride. In both those cases the series started out strong
and just ended up being plain weird by the end. Hollywood goes to
the trilogy because they can use the same cast of characters to
draw in viewers not once, not twice, but three times. And
oftentimes, like me, people are willing to watch the last film even
if they don’t really think it is going to be any good just because
they want to see how it all ends.
The latest film trilogy launches on the big screen
Movie trilogies seem to have been popular in the last decade. We’ve had one based on an angry green Ogre and one based on a Disneyland ride. In both those cases the series started out strong and just ended up being plain weird by the end. Hollywood goes to the trilogy because they can use the same cast of characters to draw in viewers not once, not twice, but three times. And oftentimes, like me, people are willing to watch the last film even if they don’t really think it is going to be any good just because they want to see how it all ends.
The stories that often lend themselves best to more than one movie are book trilogies or series. In the case of “The Lord of the Rings,” and the Harry Potter movies, they were based on material that had already been embraced by millions of readers. The Lord of the Rings series raked in record numbers on their opening weekends, and the last film “Return of the King” garnered 11 Oscars, including an Academy Award for best motion picture. “Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire” brought in $102.6 million in its opening weekend. Movies based on the last two books are already in production.
When “Lemony Snicket’s A Series of Unfornate Events,” was released in 2004, it opened to just $30 million compared to other family fantasy films. There are no other films from the series in production now.
The Golden Compass
The success of the latest movie based on children’s books could have more to do with its longevity or critical acclaim than its opening weekend. “The Golden Compass” opened to a measly $27 million in December.
The film creates a parallel universe where people have daemons, animal companions that serve as a kind of conscience, and the North is ruled by ice bears. The movie is based on the first book in a triology called “His Dark Materials,” by Philip Pullman, and it cost New Line Cinema $250 million to make.
The movie tells the story of Lyra Belacqua, (Dakota Blue Richards) a young girl who has been left at a college in Oxford while her professor uncle travels the North. Her daemon Pantalaimon (voiced by Freddie Highmore) still shifts shape as all children’s daemons do. When they grow into adulthood, their daemons settle and become a reflection of their personality. Lord Asriel (Daniel Craig), Lyra’s uncle, has a snow leopard-like daemon who seems calm, but strong willed.
Lyra herself is strong willed and often gets into trouble with her best friend, a servant boy from the kitchen and the Gyptian (families who travel around by sea) children. She and her best friend Roger (Ben Walker) discuss the poor children who have been disappearing from their community.
While Asriel heads off on an assignment, Lyra is invited to travel to the North with the beautiful Marisa Coulter (Nicole Kidman). It is unclear at first what Marisa’s connection to Lyra is.
Marisa’s daemon is a beautiful golden monkey with a dark heart. While Marisa shows off Lyra, the girl makes a discovery that her best friend is on the list of children to be kidnapped. Lyra runs away. Before she leaves, a profressor at the university gives her a golden compass and tells her that it belonged to Asriel. The Golden Compass is meant to tell the truth, but only a chosen one will be able to read it. The instrument soon becomes an integral part of Lyra’s search for her friends.
The acting in the movie is great, especially from Dakota Blue Richards. It seems the casting directors took a page from the “Harry Potter” series and searched out unknown actors for the main character while surrounding her by more established actors. Richards was found at an open casting call in England. She had never acted before making the film.
In addition to the actors, the scenery and the digital effects make the movie worth watching. The North is an icy world where polar bear-like creatures rule and visitors can hire an armored bear for protection.
The one downfall in the movie is that as often happens with films condensed from books there are moments in the film where viewers wonder how Lyra got to where she is. There is a large cast of characters, twice as many if you include the daemons each human has, so some of the characters feel underdeveloped on the screen. Without reading the books, its hard to say if that is a flaw of the books or the screenplay.
Also, though one plot has been resolved by the end of the film, it seems to end abruptly with another task still at hand for the young Lyra and her band of friends.
Still, it seems the producers are still willing to take a chance on the second installment. According to imdb.com, production for the “The Subtle Knife,” has been announced, though there is not a release date set yet.
