Review of The Golden Compass

I was very excited to see The Golden Compass for a variety of reasons, including Nicole Kidman and current James Bond star, Daniel Craig, as well as its main plotline dealing with religion and spirituality versus the tyranny of religion (in this case, the Catholic Church), as well as the much-promoted battle between armored polar bears.  On the whole, I would recommend the film and enjoyed it for its production values, interesting and unique ideas, and good acting, particularly Kidman's (though she was definitely underutilized).  The idea of each of us having an animal spirit which accompanies us wherever we go and that animal dynamically changing until we have experienced puberty deserved more expansion.  Nevertheless, it seemed like a longer movie than it was.  Not having read the book, my only conclusion is that there was far too much information to condense into a feature film, especially one with so many potentially deep characters and subplots.  As it is part of a trilogy, time will only tell if the two sequels are see the Silver Screen.