BlueSunCorp

The first film to be based on Phillip Pullman's "His Dark Materials" trilogy. This was produced by New Line Cinema, who also made the Lord Of The Rings films, and they are obviously hoping to repeat that success with these films.

Set in a parallel world, where humans have external souls or 'daemons', usually in the form of animals. A young girl, Lyra (Dakota Blue Richards - great name!), living in an alternative Oxford, embarks on series of adventures which take her to the island of Svalbard in the arctic ocean.

On the way she encounters a Texan airship captain, Sam Elliot, and hires the services of an alcoholic armoured fighting polar bear, voiced by Ian McKellen. Daniel Craig, the latest Bond, plays an Indiana Jones type adventurous scholar and his co-star from Casino Royale, Eva Green, plays the queen of the witches.

Derek Jacobi and Christopher Lee head up the sinister Magisterium, a thinly disguised take on the Catholic Church, assisted by Nicole Kidman as the morally ambiguous Mrs.Coulter. And can I put in a good word for the always excellent Jim Carter as the King of the Gyptians, a much underrated actor in my opinion.

The anti-clerical, pro-atheistic elements from the books, don't come over very strongly here. I suspect they have been deliberately down played. There are brief references to "The Authority", and the Magisterium's costumes bear a strong resemblance to those of a certain universal church, but that's about it. It will be interesting to see how it's handled in the next films.

I enjoyed this film greatly, but then I had read the books and was familiar with Pullman's worlds. I'm not so sure how well it works for anyone who hasn't read the book. There is a lot of hurried voiceover explanation at the start of the film, which indicates they haven't had time to let the often complex themes develop and come across through the natural flow of the plot. To me it sometimes felt like the film served more as an (extremely well done) illustration of the book, rather than a free standing work to be enjoyed in its own right.

Hopefully it will all make more sense to viewers, when the second and third films are released, which will depend on the success of this one.

Overall, I liked and would recommend this film. But do read the books too - they're well worth it!