The Golden Compass (PG)

2:23pm Tuesday 13th May 2008

BASED on the Phillip Pullman novel His Dark Materials, the start of the Northern Lights trilogy, the film is about 12-year-old Lyra (Dakota Blue Richards), who is in search of her kidnapped friend.

What follows is an adventure that sees Lyra, along with a host of friends from witches to polar bear kings, travel to the furthest parts of the planet.

And that's it put simply. Unfortunately the film doesn't try and be simple.

What it goes for is a mix somewhere between Harry Potter and Lord Of The Rings and fails spectacularly.

Its sheer ambition can be applauded but everything else is just terrible.

The film flicks between characters and storylines and is disjointed and rambling with no fluidity.

One moment Lyra, who has an infuriating mockney accent through bits of the film, is running through back streets, the next moment she's in a hot air balloon or in the North Pole.

Even on top of the strong effects and solid cast, featuring the likes of Daniel Craig and Nicole Kidman, it fails to be anything more than poor.

People tempted to see this should just buy the book instead.

BR

EDITORS CHOICE