'Golden Compass' on the ropes

MAYBE THE producers of the "Golden Compass" should say a prayer or two for a better box office; doesn't look like the Nicole Kidman-starring flick is doing too well too despite a budget of $180 million. The reviews are mediocre and the audience turn-up is about the same. I have received email from people upset with the author's anti-god message. Rightly so, but the real problem is that when you set out to write propaganda as atheist Phillip Pullman did, art always suffers. While I found his message irritating, it was the form that was repugnant--constantly returning to torture, so much so that one began to suspect that it held an unwholesome attraction for Mr. Pullman.
"Golden Compass" is the least offensive of the three books, the baby-step into his creepy world. It's hard to imagine New Line cinema making the final two books and staying even partially on-message. U.S. audiences do not want to see their friends or children portrayed as monsters in "Redacted," and most don't want sit through a trilogy in which the payoff is the murder of God.