THE first chapter of Chris Weitz's cinematic adaptation of Philip Pullman's trilogy His Dark Materials is a film that is dividing the critics.
Some praise its spectacular beauty but others attack The Golden Compass for lacking a soul and making little sense.
The truth is somewhere in between but this movie is still fantastic fun that will disappoint only the meanest Scrooge this Christmas.
Nicole Kidman plays a role that was almost tailor made for her blend of beauty and sang-froid as the stunning villainess Mrs Coulter.
Her evil plan is to kidnap young heroine Lyra (British newcomer Dakota Blue Richards) and get her hands on the teenager's Alethiometer or Golden Compass, a watch-type mechanism which doesn't tell the time but truth itself.
The film is set in a world ruled over by the Magisterium who are a powerful mind control cult.
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Standing up to them is the brave Lord Asriel (Daniel Craig), an action man Oxford don, who, from his travels in the frozen north, has found evidence of other worlds.
Watch the trailer here
A Galileo-type hero, he is suspected of heresy by the Magisterium.
Attacks on the Catholic Church in the film are thinly veiled and one can look into the film's many messages and meanings as much as one wants as well as its perceived incoherent structure.
But if you just want to sit back and be entertained for an hour or two, you could do a lot worse than The Golden Compass.
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