The Golden Compass

Religious controversy: this seems to be the film's marketing scheme. It worked well for the Da Vinci Code so don't blame New Line Cinema for imploring the same stratagem.

The Golden Compass is a fantasy film based upon the first novel in Philip Pullman's trilogy His Dark Materials. At $180 million, it is one of New Line's biggest-budget projects ever.

The story involves Lyra, an orphan living in a fantastical parallel universe in which the dogmatic dictatorship of the Magisterium threatens to dominate the world. When Lyra's friend is kidnapped, she travels to the far North in an attempt to rescue him and rejoin her uncle.

Before The Golden Compass's release, it received criticism from secular organizations and fans of His Dark Materials for the dilution of the religious elements from the novels, as well as from religious organizations, particularly the U.S. Catholic League, for perceived anti-Catholic themes.

The plot (Wikipedia):

There are infinitely many parallel universes; eleven-year-old Lyra Belacqua, an orphan-ward of Jordan College, Oxford, lives in one in which a person's spirit resides outside the body in the form of a "dæmon," which is visible as an animal. The story begins when Lyra and her dæmon, Pantalaimon, save her uncle, Lord Asriel, from poisoning by a representative of the Magisterium. They learn that the motive for the attempted murder was to prevent Asriel from presenting evidence that elementary particles called Dust were flowing from a parallel universe into the far North. In spite of the Magisterium's official insistence that Dust does not exist, Asriel obtains funding from the university to mount an expedition to explore the phenomenon. It is later revealed that the Magisterium is aware of Dust, which it links to original sin, and that its scientists are working on a means of inoculating children against its effects.

Shortly after Lord Asriel goes north, Lyra's friends Billy Costa and Roger disappear, and she believes that the folkloric "Gobblers" have taken them away to the North. Lyra has vowed to rescue Roger, and finds her chance when a visiting woman of great importance, Mrs. Marisa Coulter, offers to take Lyra north as her assistant. Lyra assents, but before she leaves is entrusted with a priceless object by the Master of the College: an alethiometer. Resembling a golden compass, it is a device able to reveal the answer to any question asked by the user. Although initially unable to read or understand its complex meanings, Lyra takes it with her to Mrs Coulter's flat.

Mrs. Coulter arouses Lyra's suspicion when she delays in taking her north. Lyra explores a room of the flat she was forbidden to enter, and discovers that Mrs. Coulter is head of the General Oblation Board – the real "Gobblers" who have been kidnapping children. She then returns to her bedroom to find the alethiometer in the hands of Mrs. Coulter's dæmon, the Golden Monkey. She manages to to steal it back, and flees into the streets of the city.

The "Gobblers" pursue her, but she is saved by the gyptians, a nomadic boat-people. She learns that many gyptian children like Billy have disappeared, and that the gyptians will be taking her to the North on a rescue mission. A gyptian and Serafina Pekkala, the queen of a witch clan, help her understand how to use the alethiometer.

In a Norwegian port, Lyra befriends Lee Scoresby, an aeronaut, who advises her to hire him and Iorek Byrnison, an armoured bear. She visits Iorek, who is in fact an exiled prince of the armoured bears, and uses the alethiometer to learn where the townsfolk have hidden the armour they stole from him. In return, he pledges to serve her until she has a victory.

Later in the journey north, the alethiometer guides her to Billy Costa, who has escaped from the Magisterium. She finds him dazed, and without his dæmon. With the help of Iorek, she returns Billy to the gyptians. Soon after, the group is attacked, and Lyra is captured and taken to the king of the armoured bears. She manages to trick Ragnar Sturlusson, the usurping bear-king into allowing Prince Iorek to engage him in combat for the throne. Iorek wins and becomes king of the armoured bears. He accompanies Lyra to Bolvangar, where the abducted children are held, to rescue Roger. However, they are separated when an ice bridge collapses, and Lyra chooses to continue, ignoring Iorek's instruction to wait for him and Lee Scoresby to return with the airship.

Lyra is warmly welcomed into Bolvangar. She immediately locates Roger and builds up a plan of escape. Lyra eavesdrops on a group of scientists talking with Mrs. Coulter about the experiments they do on the children, and is caught after Mrs. Coulter leaves the room. The method of preventing Dust from entering a child is to sever his or her bond to the dæmon. To silence Lyra, the scientists begin the procedure on her and Pantalaimon, but Mrs. Coulter intervenes at the last moment.

Mrs. Coulter explains that she is Lyra's mother, and that Lord Asriel is her father. When Mrs. Coulter asks for the alethiometer, Lyra deviously incapacitates her mother. Then she destroys the severing apparatus, and leads the other children out of the facility. The military guard tries to block the escape of the children, but gyptians, Iorek the armoured bear, witches, and Lee Scoresby arrive to fight them. The guard loses the battle, and most of the children return home with the gyptians.

Lyra and Roger choose to travel onward with Lee Scoresby, Iorek Byrnison, and Serafina to find Lord Asriel. Serafina foretells a great war.

The reviews point to no similar direction for The Golden Compass. At review aggregate website, Rotten Tomatoes, which divides the number of positive reviews a film has received by the total number, it has a 43% rating based on 143 reviews, with a 54% rating from selected "notable" critics. James Christopher of The Times was disappointed, praising the "marvelous" special effects and casting, but saying that the "books weave a magic the film simply cannot match" and citing a "lack of genuine drama." Chicago Sun-Times critic Roger Ebert awarded the film four out of four stars and called it "a darker, deeper fantasy epic than the Rings trilogy, The Chronicles of Narnia or the Potter films. Morover, Kirk Honeycutt of The Hollywood Reporter predicted a "substantial" box office for the film, praising the special effects and stunts, strong storyline, viable characters and the acting.