Sci-Fi Steampunk Fantasy Adventure Failed To Start The Next Big Franchise Streaming For Free

By Jonathan Klotz
| Published 20 seconds ago

Sci-fi is often a hard sell at the box office. The only genre that’s harder is fantasy, and steampunk fantasy adventure never seems to work. That didn’t stop New Line Cinema from adapting The Golden Compass by Sir Philip Pullman into a big-budget blockbuster adventure stacked with an A-list cast and a marketing campaign to match. It was, as you can imagine, a financial disaster despite earning over $350 million. The movie also pulled off the rare feat of pushing away both fans of the source material and critics of the books at the same time. 

Buckle Up, The Golden Compass Gets Complex

The Golden Compass takes place on an Earth where everyone’s soul exists outside of their body as a Daemon. Taking the form of animals, Daemons have to be in close proximity to the person. This world is also under the control of the Magisterium, an authoritative church that actively suppresses any and all dissent. Lyra (Dakota Blue Richards) is bequeathed a magical device called the alethiometer, or symbol-reader, or the titular Golden Compass, that can detect the truth. Needless to say, the Magisterium wants it. 

There’s also the problem of the Dust, strange cosmic particle that links to different worlds, and by its very existence, proves the Magisterium is wrong about everything. Lyra’s adventure staying one step ahead of the Magisterium while trying to learn the truth of the world around her includes a never-ending parade of characters, including Ian McKellen voicing Iorek, the armored bear all over the marketing, Ian McShane as King Ragnar of the Panserbjorne (the ice bears), Daniel Craig as Lyra’s uncle, Nicole Kidman as the evil Marisa Coultier, and a pair of castings that are so on the noise its parody: Sam Elliot as a Texan cowboy aeronaut and Eva Green as a witch. 

There’s a lot that The Golden Compass crams into an hour and 53 minutes, and it still managed to butcher the original novel. 

Angered Both Fans And Critics Of The Novels

Sir Philip Pullman’s trilogy, His Dark Materials, carries a heavy anti-religious message that was dramatically toned down for the film. That angered long-time fans of his fantasy world, and still didn’t appease the Catholic Church, which publicly went after the film months before it was released, not because of the watered-down film, but because it would encourage reading of the original novels. 

The Golden Compass was supposed to be the start of a trilogy adapting all of the novels, but after it crashed and burned in the U.S., plans changed. Chris Weitz, the director of Twilight: New Moon and a co-writer of Rogue One, did his best with everything handed to him and internationally, the film was a hit, earning over $300 million. The issue is that the $70 million stateside destroyed New Line Cinema’s investment. Due to the complex web of Hollywood negotiation rights, the studio didn’t get a cent of the international box office haul. 

Fantasy Is Always A Tough Sell

Blockbuster fantasy has since been confined to streaming with the rise and fall and rise of Game of Thrones and House of the Dragon. The same turned out to be true for His Dark Materials, a BBC adaptation of the novels that managed to get out all three series and remained significantly closer to the novels than the Hollywood film.. Sir Philip Pullman recently concluded a companion trilogy to His Dark Materials, The Book of Dust, that runs both before, and after Lyra’s journey. 

The Golden Compass is available to stream for free on Tubi, Plex, and Sling TV.