That is, you won't regret it if you enjoy a good fantasy film. If you don't enjoy unlocking the symbolism behind a fable, then you won't appreciate this movie. And I don't have the foggiest notion as to whether the film adaptation lives up to the book upon which it is based (Northern Lights, by Philip Pullman), because I haven't read the book. For me, The Golden Compass is just a darn good fantasy film, and a perceptive socio-historical critique as well.
I don't intend to review the movie here, but just throw out some random thoughts, and recommend it to those who may be on the verge of deciding to go see it or not.
At the simplest level, the film may be viewed as an eco-fable about the fragile and beneficial connections that all humans have with the animals that coinhabit this wonderful planet with us. Within the first five minutes, the film introduces us to the idea of a daemon, which is an animal familiar that accompanies every human inhabiting the planet. Humans are very dependent upon their daemons, and require them to live a full and fruitful life. Whether one's daemon is a weasel, or a crow, or a wolf, every human has one, and communicates with it constantly. The relationship is symbiotic in the extreme -- if the daemon is harmed, the human is harmed, and if the human is suffers, the daemon suffers. A simple analogy, really -- we all live in an incredible biosphere upon which we must depend, and if the myriad of life forms inhabiting this biosphere are harmed, then we are harmed as well. But in the film, there is a sinister quasi-religious elite named the Magisterium that is intent upon destroying this natural relationship between human and their familiars.
I suppose that some of the objections that various Christians have raised in regard to this movie have to do with this idea that humans might have animal familiars, which is an idea prominent in some forms of Wiccan and Pagan theology. Ironically, many (if not most) Christians believe that they too are accompanied by familiars, only Christians call their familiars guardian angels, which are usually depicted as half human and half avian creatures -- a concept probably derived from Egyptian mythology and grafted onto Christianity. No matter -- many Christians still consider the idea of an purely animal familiar to be idolatry.
In The Golden Compass, the Magisterium considers the daemons to be the driving force behind heretical thought, even though every member of the Magisterium has a daemon. Perhaps they are ready to be rid of their daemons, or perhaps not. Nevertheless, they spend a great deal of time and effort in the film plotting ways to separate everyone else from their daemons. In order to accomplish this, the Magisterium has set up a sophisticated biolab in the remote Arctic where they can conduct mass experiments on human subjects so that they can devise a way to medically sever the connection between the daemons and their associated humans. Many of these subjects are the kidnapped children of Gyptians, an outcast ethnic group eeirly similar to the Gypsies of fascist era Europe. Dr. Mengele would be proud! This biolab is something directly out of the Third Reich, as is the mindset of the Magisterium. They seem intent upon effecting some type of techno-spirtual eugenics against the Gyptians, who as you may suppose, are not too keen on the idea. The Gyptians revolt, and go to war against the Magisterium. So another theme emerges here, an exploration of the struggles waged by subject ethnic groups undergoing genocide at the hands of technologically superior social and economic elites. And it is all handled symbolically, within the context of a children's story, without detracting from the fable-like quality of the tale. Nice!
During the conduct to their war against the Magisterium, the Gyptians ally themselves with a heroic 11 year old prophetess named Lyra Belacqua, a talking polar bear, and a cowboy aviator played by Sam Elliot. Indeed! Visual references to Wiemar and Nazi era Germany abound, all the way from the depiction of first class zeppelin travel, to the Fritz Lang Metropolis inspired cityscapes, to Nicole Kidman's 1930's haute couture. The filmmakers leave no doubt that on one level they are warning against the fascist alignment between church and state that resulted in the destruction of much of modern Europe in WWII. The special effects are great, the acting is superb, and my head is spinning. Go see it. You won't be sorry.