First things first. The Golden Compass is not anti-God. It's anti-dictatorship but definitely not anti-God. This is a story about independence - though it has been reported that books two and three take a far more atheistic stance. Where the movies go remains to be seen, but the first installment is no more atheistic than Chronicles of Narnia was pro-Christian. Storytellers always project a little bit of themselves into a project and even if Philip Pullman was an atheist, that's not what these stories are about. The Golden Compass is a sumptuous visual feast. A fantasy film brimming with breathtaking cinematography, stunning CGI effects, top notch art direction, and solid performances. The question remains, is the movie any good?

As it turns out, it's pretty boring overall - despite some winning moments (the Coca Cola polar bear stand off is a wonderfully adrenalin pumping homage to Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome – two bear enter, one bear leave). Based on his Dark Materials series, The Golden Compass encompasses just about every fantasy piece you can shake a stick at (i.e. Harry Potter, Lord of the Rings, The Chronicles of Narnia, Wizard of Oz, etc.) It also owes quite a debt to Jules Verne. Sadly though, this fantastical tale of Lyra, a precocious young girl who's plucked from her parallel Oxford surroundings and plunged into an dimension-crossing adventure involving a magical compass, has no real magic. What's more, I never really felt in awe of the proceedings even though I'm first to admit, it is a good looking movie filled with interesting ideas. Ideas that, unfortunately, never develop.

The spunky Dakota Blue Richards is wonderful in the lead. Her self confidence makes the adventure more tolerable than it might have been otherwise. Her co-stars (Daniel Craig, Nicole Kidman, and Sam Elliot) are also strong, but in decidedly underwritten roles. The Golden Compass was directed by Chris Weitz. When I think big, epic fantasy film, the creator of American Pie doesn't exactly spring to mind, but then when I heard Weitz was making the wonderful About a Boy, that sounded like a strange choice as well. As it turns out, Weitz does appear to be up to the challenge here. The problem is the source material. I know that this is only the opening chapter in a series, but as a stand alone film, it doesn't quite work. Looking back at the Star Wars series and the Lord of the Rings films, it's clear that each chapter made the promise of something bigger, but each installment also worked as a satisfying story in and of itself. Not so with the choppy and convoluted Golden Compass.

Clearly, there are chunks of the text absent (even though I haven't read the books, I could still sense something amiss). The Golden Compass does earn bonus points for not shying away from going into some fairly dark areas. In the end though, this is one of those movies that really should be better than it is. It has a distinct look about it, but there's no sense of urgency driving it. When it was all over, I didn't really feel any sort of connection to anything going on. Visual wizardry only gets you so far, and The Golden Compass is a perfect example of this.