Video: Watch The First 5 Minutes of The Golden Compass

Posted on Tuesday, December 4th, 2007 at 3:00 am by: Peter Sciretta

The Golden Compass

New Line has released the first five minutes of The Golden Compass online for your viewing pleasure.

I was able to see the first film adaptation from Philip Pullman’s controversial “His Dark Materials” trilogy on Saturday, and we hope to have a FightCast review up on Tuesday.Â But I will say this: my feelings are very mixed. It wasn’t a complete failure, nor was it a home run. And this video clip gives you a good indication of the feel of the movie.

Watch the first five minutes after the jump.

You can also watch the first five minutes in High Definition on Yahoo! Movies.

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Wine and Werewolves Says:

December 4th, 2007 at 7:22 am

I caught an advanced screening of this last weekend. The Golden Compass is one of my favorite books, so I was really looking forward to it. I ended up liking it quite a bit, but it definitely has it faults (mainly the ending and editing).

The ending is absolutely terrible, cutting out the last few chapters of the book. If this flops, it’ll be because audiences are going to leave angry or underwhelmed because of the horse sh*t ending. If it used the original, audiences would at least be talking about the film, as it ends on a highly emotional note. Nice way to shoot yourself in the foot New Line.

Also, the editing and pacing can be pretty horrendous at times. Where the book has you slowly discovering things and figuring things out, the film instead feels incredibly rushed, feeding the audience info through exposition or convenient character realizations. This happens to a ton of adaptations, so I half expected it. If you haven’t read the book, maybe you won’t even notice it.

Everything else is pretty much pitch perfect though. There is a ton to like about the film. I know it sounds like I’m mostly complaining, but like I said, it’s one of my favorite books so I can’t help it. All in all, I’d probably give the film 3 1/2 out of 4 stars. I’ll write up a whole review later today on the blog. Click my name link for it.

Mark Says:

December 4th, 2007 at 7:31 am

WHAT A COMPLETE RIPOFF Beginning from Lord of the Rings. Am I the only one that thought the tone was blatant? Ugh..how unoriginal.

goldfarb Says:

December 4th, 2007 at 12:22 pm

well to be fair….
EVERYTHING that can be called ‘fantasy’ is derived from Tolkien - there is no getting around it, his work has formed the visual and liguistic foundation of the entire genere…
I liked the books, and am secretly in love with Eva Green so I’ll be checking this out asap…I am disappointed that the religious aspects of the film have been toned down (as has been reported) and that the ending has been ’saved’ for the opening of the next film - which has yet to be greenlit…
and what the hell is with the yahoo links now…does anyone have a direct link to the quicktime?

Thatfella Says:

December 4th, 2007 at 12:40 pm

Nobody cares. We all want the dark knight footage.

Elsie Says:

December 5th, 2007 at 7:58 am

I got to know The Golden Compass will soon be coming to a movie theater at http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0385752/ , I think this is a good way for the audiences to spend less time in enjoying Pullman’s novel. In my opinion, the novel—The Golden Compass is indeed an enjoyable fantasy. It creates such a beautiful imagination. It is suitable for those young adult readers as well as adult readers, who can maitain an openess to bright new imagination and literature. But it seems that this video has a bad ending. Here is the book I found: http://dealstudio.com/searchdeals.php?deal_id=70047, I think it is a better choice to read the novel.

Kaleb Says:

December 5th, 2007 at 8:14 am

Looks surprisingly similar to the Lord Of The Rings movie beginning- almost rip-offishly so: from the voice at the beginning down to the hobbit-like children running through the grass.

jean Says:

December 7th, 2007 at 9:14 am

i was disappointed. extremely. i loved the series but the film managed to be draggy and yet underdeveloped. i didn’t entirely hate it but i wish i felt something more when watching it.

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Video: Watch The First 5 Minutes of The Golden Compass