The Golden Compass movie recently premiered on U.S. television, much to the chagrin of the religious zealots who ruined it with their bitching from the sidelines while the film was still in production.

However, this review of the His Dark Materials book trilogy that the movie was based on is rather sensible and unbiased, despite being made by a Catholic priest.

The Golden Compass movie was ruined because New Line Cinema changed the ending and other elements of the book to appease to vocal religious right in America. Because the story can be seen as anti-religious.

This means there likely won’t be a sequel, and that’s particularly galling seeing as The Golden Compass ended on a cliffhanger: a cliffhanger that wasn’t present in the book.

It’s rather telling that some religious people feel threatened in this way. I thought their faith would mean they’d be above all that?