The Golden Compass is my favorite young adult fantasy story. It’s all about growing up and rebelling – with a little physics theory thrown in.

The film version, released this weekend to a deservedly lukewarm $26 million in ticket sales, opened to controversy after the Catholic League decided to boycott it. In the series, God–aka “The Authority”– is the major villain. Here, the references to God have been changed to the more obscure “Magisterium” – a church that tells people how to think.

It’s up to the viewer to decide how much from Lyra’s fantastical world translates into our own.

The importance of free will is the film’s big conflict, and it means our hero is the perfect example of someone who chafes under the chain of authority – a 9-year-old girl. To the exasperation of her uncle and tutors, Lyra (Dakota Blue Richards) gets into mud wars, sneaks into forbidden rooms, and generally does what she likes, with the same joy for mischief we all remember commanding as kids.

During the course of her adventures, she meets up with an armored bear who has been enslaved by humans. Moved by his plight, she helps him to free himself and the two become fast friends.

Visually, the steampunk-Victorian world is very interesting, and the characters could not have been better cast. But what was a beautiful book did not make for a beautiful film. Chained to the book as the screenplay was, perhaps it could have taken its own advice about free will and broken through to a more true-to-film story.

Comparisons to the Book (mild spoilers below)

The screenplay fails to underline some good book conflicts, though improves upon others.

In the book, Lyra learns very quickly that you can’t trick a bear, because they don’t think as humans do. When she confronts the bear king, therefore, her trickery is clearly a huge feat, and earns her the name “Lyra Silvertongue.” The movie could have done with at least a small reference to her skill at lying, which – though we see it in the beginning as she declares war on the Gyptians – wasn’t underlined enough.

The movie also makes a great point that Lyra never wants to be a lady. Then Mrs. Coulter sweeps in and suddenly she’s becoming a lady. I felt this montage could have somehow been foreshadowing better the degree to which Lyra was changing herself for Mrs. Coulter. Instead, the situation changed rather abruptly from pleasant to nasty. One of the advantages of a book is that a lot of time can pass in only a few pages; movies have a harder time showing a gradual change in the way of things.

There were some things the movie did better than the book. Mrs. Coulter’s character arc, from dazzling charmer to villainess (and beyond) felt much more warm and alive portrayed on screen by Nicole Kidman than ever in the book. She feels real.

Oddly, we never hear Coulter’s golden monkey daemon speak, thus making its screeches seem much more animal than conscience.

Also better on screen than in book was Lee Scoresby (Sam Elliott), a Texan aeronaut with a loyal heart. Read by myself, the persona of Lee didn’t have the same cowboy charm that slides so easily off Sam Elliott’s tongue.

If you haven’t read the book yet, I recommend not reading it – or at least, skipping the last three chapters. The movie ends just about three chapters before the book does, and the cliffhanger plot twist ending Pullman crafted will likely be shoved into the beginning of the second movie.

If you’ve read the book, you’ll be delighted to know that visually, this movie is everything you could want. Lyra is especially enjoyable to watch as she romps through the mud fields and as she interacts with the creatures around her.

Perhaps screenplay writers Philip Pullman and Chris Weitz will learn to better portray their work as they continue the series – if they continue the series. I’d like to see their artistry set free onto the big screen without any hindrances.

Lacey Waymire can be reached at [email protected]