Northern
Lights was written by Phillip Pullman and was released in 1995, being an adventure
story aimed at Young Adults, of course it was part of a trilogy, named ‘His
Darkest Materials.’ The US name for the book was the Golden Compass, hence that
being the name of the film adaptation.
Handling the
adaption to screen, in both screenplay and directing is Chris Weitz, at this
point in his career he’d written Antz, Nutty Professor II and About a Boy and
this is his first project as a director without his brother, Paul helping him
along. They also tended to work together on the screenplay side too.
The book had
its share of controversies and they were carried over into the adaptation
process, with criticism from both sides leading to the studio demanding massive
changes in post-production. This is rarely ever a good sign.
The film had
a $180m budget and made $372m at the box office, a strong international
performance saving it from a dismal $70m performance in the US. The reviews
were mixed, the film has a 42% Rotten Tomatoes rating with an average 5.61/10
score, and audiences gave it a 51% rating with a 3.22/5 average score.
Before we
start, my thoughts on the book:
