Should have been entitled Golden Compass 1, because without much preamble it just kind of ended. How about the golden rule of film making? Tag a remotely satisfying ending on the story. How many flicks are they going to make out of this ? God knows given the first, they could put out a series of half-hour clips so we could be looking at Compass #9 by 2010. ... Still, it's a stunning movie to take in visually, and it has a cast of actors that are known--if not decent, if not great---However, part of me can hear their agents pitching the idea to them--- 'So you missed out on Harry Potter, this is your chance to get back on the kiddy's good side.' ---Hmmm? Maybe. Or maybe the actors had the benefit of reading the entire frigg'n script and said oh, this is pretty good. ... The rest of will have to wait.