The Golden Compass

Blu-ray Review

New Line Home Entertainment

Released: April 29, 2008

MSRP: $39.98

The Golden Compass has been released on the Blu-ray format from New Line Home Entertainment. The film follows a line films such as Harry Potter, The Chronicles of Narnia and others. It may not be the best of the bunch, but visually this is one absolutely jaw-dropping film on Blu-ray.

The Golden Compass works off of the first of Phillip Pullman’s His Dark Materials trilogy. The story follows the adventure of an orphan named Lyra Belacqua, played by Dakota Blue Richards. Lyra is in school while her uncle, Lord Asriel, played by Daniel Craig, heads to the North Pole to look into a magic Dust which has appeared from outer space.

The magic Dust holds the key to allowing them to travel between dimensions.

While this is all going on, Lyra becomes the apprentice of sorts to Mrs. Coulter, played by Nicole Kidman. Mrs. Coulter finds herself being connected to the Gobblers, who are doing their best to kidney children.

If this sounds completely whacked and out there, it really is. This is a fantasy film like no other, which erupts with a huge confrontation between a band of rebels known as the Gyptians and the Magesterium’s, which are a religious body.

You get to see the likes of flying witches, armored polar bear warriors, and more.

The film was under a lot of controversy from the start due to its religious connection. Personally, I thought the controversy was unwarranted as the film itself was rather enjoyable for the fantasy buffs out there.

Nicole Kidman plays a great role in the film, as does Daniel Craig, albeit it is a bit too short for my liking.

The Golden Compass is a fun film to watch, but stacking it up against the likes of Lord of the Rings or Harry Potter is simply not fair, as it is not even in their league.

The video quality of this Blu-ray release is absolutely tremendous. The film is presented in 1080p/VC-1 in 2.35:1 aspect ratio.

The video quality has absolutely no grain or video noise anywhere to be found. The colors are absolutely tremendous as the picture is bright and has a pop of pop to it. The only complaint with the video is that the texture detail could have been a bit more apparent. But to be quite honest, that is being very nit picky. This is not a reference quality Blu-ray for he reason that some of the black levels could have been improved as well, but it is certainly no slouch.

The audio is presented in a DTS-HD Master Audio 7.1 track which will impress any home theater fan.

Some of the sound effects in this film will fill up your surround sound as good as any other flick out there. The sound effects from the polar bears, battle scenes, etc. are tremendous. The music score is very impressive as well as encompasses you in the action nicely. The dialogue is the only complaint with the audio, as it is overshadowed by the musical score and soundtrack. The dialogue definitely needed to be a little more loud and clear.

The Golden Compass ships with a 2-disc Blu-ray set, arranged nicely with some great menus and special features.

The first feature is audio commentary by the writer and director, Chris Weitz. Weitz does a great job as to showing his intentions for the film, where he wanted to go with the story, etc.

There is also a 20-minute interview on the author Philip Pullman. The author talks a great deal about the origins of the story behind his novel and The Golden Compass film. My complaint here is that they did not get much into the religious controversies.

A 16-minute feature is done with Chris Weitz talking about how the movie came about and how they went from the novel to the film. It is amazing to see how much effort went into it.