By KEN TARR is a student at Santa Monica College, an actor and writer and is also taller than 99 percent of the population. He telepathically or at
Part “Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow” (the bad) and part “Chronicles of Narnia” (the good), this fantasy film utterly fails in most ways. The minor successes it pulls off makes it worthwhile intermittently, however Daniel Craig is particularly joyless and looks like he stopped over from the set of “Casino Royale.” Interestingly, the story is the best part of this film. It is the poor execution by director Chris Weitz (“About A Boy,” “In Good Company”). He is completely overmatched in this attempt to make a modern children’s fantasy with dark under-tones. This would be a challenge for any director, although the story starts simply and innocent enough. A young girl can read a special golden compass and is coming around to the fact that ethereal “dust” controls the universe, a fact the establishment hides unsuccessfully. The connotations of the story impugn the highly moralistic and doctrinal worlds of science and religion and any endorsement the film receives from these groups must be by way of bribery by New Line execs. This film lampoons highfalutin religion and politics and actually has some funny sight gags and subversive humor, before going pretty much according to Hoyle. Sam Elliott stinks up this film as himself, he is always playing himself and in this film the characters sucks and he brings the whole film down. Dakota Blue Richards leads the film strongly as the little girl. Nicole Kidman plays her part like a sultry blonde Barbara Stanwyck. Kidman exudes a high level of energy in her intro scene but it tapers off severely by the third act, her character relegated to one-note Tilda Swinton’s Ice Queen in “Narnia.” Still, “The Never Ending Story” this is not, but an interesting story and some clever side characters save this film slightly.
Originally published in the Santa Monica Daily Press print edition on December 15, 2007. Read the original PDF.