Two years later, in fact, director Chris Weitz would steer the first Twilight sequel, New Moon, to more than $700 million at the box office. The Golden Compass arrived at the end of 2007, just a few months before the one-two punch of Iron Man and The Dark Knight would kickstart the golden age of superhero movies and further center Hollywood filmmaking around pop-culture franchises. Maybe the timing was just off in general. Despite New LineвЂ™s attempts to dial down the religious critique, the movie was still protested by organizations like the Catholic League years later, best picture winner Spotlight renewed a global conversation about abusive priests and was met with near-universal praise. But since The Golden Compass doesnвЂ™t even say вЂњthe churchвЂќ once, the storyвЂ™s central metaphor becomes almost incomprehensible. Since the daemons stand in not just for charactersвЂ™ personality but also their sexuality, this is a pretty subtle metaphor for priest child abuse. The main plot of The Golden Compass focuses on agents of the church systematically kidnapping children and forcibly tearing them from these daemons. His fantasy world imagined everyone having вЂњdaemonsвЂќ that embodied their inner essence in the form of animal companions. So the author addressed the issue (which is at the center of his novelsвЂ™ critique of corrupt religious orthodoxy) from a sideways angle. Though the massive Catholic sex-abuse scandal is now something that can be openly discussed on shows like NetflixвЂ™s The Keepers and Oscar-winning movies like Spotlight, it wasnвЂ™t like that when Pullman was writing his books. The main plot of The Golden Compass involves church officials committing monstrous abuses against children. LyraвЂ™s world is dominated by a powerful theocracy, known in the movie solely as вЂњthe MagisteriumвЂќ but referred to as вЂњthe ChurchвЂќ quite often in PullmanвЂ™s books. Though Pullman has claimed (especially around the movieвЂ™s release) that His Dark Materials is not a specific critique of the Catholic Church, itвЂ™s hard to think otherwise.

There were other indications that New Line wanted the movie to be something it wasnвЂ™t. Christopher Lee is also in the movie for some reason, playing a vaguely Saruman-like church bureaucrat, for all of like five minutes. But itвЂ™s hard to take McKellen seriously as a noble warrior when everyone already associates his voice with the wise wizard Gandalf. McKellen was actually recast in the role by New Line against Chris WeitzвЂ™s wishes (the director had originally cast British theater actor Nonso Anozie), and you see the studio straining for The Golden Compass to be another The Lord of the Rings. Worse than that, Ian McKellen is a strange fit for the armored polar bear Iorek Byrnison. Casting Sam Elliott as Lee Scoresby is a little too on-the-nose, taking the Texan aeronaut so far into the banalest Texas stereotypes that he never feels like a real character. But after that, things start to fall off. Dakota Blue Richards made her debut in the film as protagonist (and daughter of Asriel and Coulter) Lyra Belacqua, and capably captures LyraвЂ™s imaginative wit. Coulter, and the witch queen Serafina Pekkala. Daniel Craig, Nicole Kidman, and Eva Green seem like the literal living embodiments of the Arctic explorer Lord Asriel, the enigmatic manipulator Mrs. On paper, the cast seems almost perfectly suited to their roles.

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