Even though it was meant to start a trilogy, The Golden Compass failed on several levels in its attempt to do so. It released at an awkward time when fantasy epics such as The Lord of the Rings and Harry Potter were concluding, while smaller or more teen-oriented book adaptations such as Twilight and The Hunger Games would become the go-to tentpoles.
The failure of The Golden Compass wasn't merely one of timing, however, as it seemingly went out of its way to disappoint pretty much everyone who would've watched it. Needlessly changing scenes, removing the book's nuance, and ultimately just producing a sub par film doomed the movie from ever launching its intended series. Here's a look at how it disappointed fans, critics and even the man who wrote the original books.
Poor Critical Reception
The actual quality of the film led to its receiving a mixed reception, at best. This earned it a 51 on Metacritic and a 42% on Rotten Tomatoes. Part of the criticism was how thin the actual story was. This derived from how much of the book's material the movie tried to remove in order to skirt controversy. Others found that the movie tried to do too much all at once without giving individual elements their breathing room.
The film's intro explicitly spells out the storyline, giving info that slowly revealed itself in the books. This led to a movie full of twists and turns one after another. In the end, perhaps the only element of the movie that was well done, outside of the acting, was the admittedly very convincing (for the most part) special effects.
Controversy
The His Dark Materials book series, as mentioned, is incredibly controversial for its atheistic nature. Seen by many as an atheist answer to The Chronicles of Narnia, this reputation has garnered it a number of critics among adherents to Christianity, especially Catholicism. Much of this material was downplayed or removed from the film version, which nullified many of the book's blatant allusions to the Catholic Church.
For instance, the film makes constant references to the Magisterium, but this group is usually called the far less anonymous moniker of "the Church" in the book. With the gaudy, ostentatious buildings that it meets in, the comparisons to Catholicism are obvious, even with the film's attempt to neuter the content. Instead, the Magisterium is meant to be a stand in for dogmatic religions in general, but even this sugarcoating isn't enough.
Outright references to religion and God are never explicitly made in the film, despite being central themes in the books. This angered fans of the source material, but it wasn't enough for those whose religious sensibilities it supposedly offended. Groups such as the Catholic League held boycotts of the film, feeling successful in their pursuits when the film's box office results were less than satisfying. This was in spite of the belief that the controversy would propel the film's box office earnings. The fact that it did otherwise is attributed to it ultimately being a family movie.
Disappointing the Fans
As mentioned, some of the biggest critics with how the film turned out were none other than the fans of the original books. Fans despised how much the movie disposed of the book's morally grey nature in order to provide a sanitized, "Hollywood" movie. For instance, the tail end of the book involved Asriel killing Lyra's friend, proving to her that even the ones she thought to be allies were not necessarily so. This cemented how the book was not just another children's fantasy, and how its more topical, real world themes were matched with realistic morals.
The film instead ends with Lyra and her allies triumphantly riding a balloon off into the sky, hoping to heroically end the machinations of the relatively secular, but still evil Magisterium. These changes have also been seen as an attempt to emulate the more overtly heroic Lord of the Rings.
Though the polar bear fights were considered a huge selling point of the film, the book's gore, namely the heart-eating scene involving the bears, is removed. Even elements such as who gets poisoned and who received intercision are changed completely, all for pretty much no reason. The fact that Nicole Kidman wouldn't change her hair to match her character's iconic black hair spoke volumes to what little regard was given to the book's most notable features. Author Philip Pullman was ultimately disappointed with what was put on the big screen, and he definitely wasn't the only one. The far more accurate adaptation, His Dark Materials, has thus far garnered much better reception. It will also receive three full seasons, a number of entries which the movies never reached.