New Line Cinema’s “The Golden Compass” found its way to the top spot at the box office this weekend.

Based upon Northern Lights, the first novel in Philip Pullman’s trilogy His Dark Materials, the film earned $26.1 million over the last three days.

In one of many parallel universes, 11-year-old Lyra Belacqua (Dakota Blue Richards) is an orphan-ward of Jordan College in Oxford. She, along with others, have their soul reside outside of their bodies in the form of a daemon, usually in the form of an animal.

She and her daemon Pan (voice of Freddie Highmore) save her uncle, Lord Asriel (Daniel Craig) from being poisoned by a representative of the Magisterium. The attempted murder was to keep Asriel from presenting evidence that elementary particles called Dust were flowing from another parallel universe into the far North.

However, the Magisterium insists that Dust doesn’t exist, but are working on how to inoculate the children against its effects.

So while Asriel is heading North to investigate, Lyra’s friends Roger (Ben Walker) and Billy (Charlie Rowe) are taken by Gobblers to the North. Lyra always promised Roger that she’d be there for him, and to look for him if anything ever happened to him.

When Marisa Coulter (Nicole Kidman) visits the college and offers Lyra a trip to the North, Lyra jumps at the opportunity. Before she leaves, the Master of the college gives her a Golden Compass, a device able to reveal the answer to any question asked it.

Lyra soon discovers that Coulter is the head of the General Oblation Board (Gobblers), she flees and is rescued by the Gyptians, a group of nomadic boat people. One of the Gyptians happens to be Billy’s mother.

While flying over the boat, Serafina Pekkala (Eva Green), the queen of the witches, befriends Lyra and helps her understand how to use the Golden Compass.

Lyra meets Lee Scoresby (Sam Elliott), an aeronaut who advises her to hire him and Iorek Byrnison (voice of Sir Ian McKellen), an armored polar bear.

During her visit with Iorek, she discovers he is an exiled prince of the bears. He pledges to serve her after she helps him find his armor.

Lyra uses the Golden Compass to find Billy, without his daemon, and returns him to the Gyptians. She also uses some treachery to assist Iorek.

Iorek goes with Lyra to Bolvangar, where she discovers the building where the abducted children are held.

Lyra is met by the staff of the building, and is confronted by Coulter, who reveals a major secret concerning her and Lyra’s uncle.

“The Golden Compass” has been compared to being half-Harry Potter and half-Lord of the Rings. That left me feeling trepidatious going in to see this film. While I’ve become more comfortable watching the Harry Potter films, I wasn’t a big fan of the Lord of the Rings movies.

There are more Harry Potter-like qualities to this film, with the magic and youthful exuburience. The special effects are spectacular, with all of the talking animals and panoramic views.

The acting goes from great to fair, with young Richards stealing every scene she’s in. Displaying a lot of spunk, she doesn’t back down from anyone.

It’s always cool to see Sam Elliott in any role, and he doesn’t disappoint here. Kidman is effective as she goes from interesting female to treacherous predator. Craig is here in brief appearances, and doesn’t do much, in my opinion.

While there has been some controversy attached to this film regarding religious connotations, I didn’t find this film offensive whatsoever. What I found was an interesting, enjoyable film that could’ve used five more minutes to dumb it down for those who haven’t read the books.

I don’t recommend this film for those under 13 because of two fight scenes, and although they aren’t overly graphic, the bear fight scene may be a bit too much for youngsters.

So in this parallel universe, I found “The Golden Compass” worth following at three and a half out of four stars.

“The Golden Compass” is rated PG-13 for sequences of fantasy violence. Running time is 1 hour, 53 minutes.

Last week’s No. 1, Buena Vista’s “Enchanted” fell from grace to No. 2 with $10.7 million — it’s three-week total closing in on $84 million.

Warner Bros. “Beowulf” remains in the top five, falling from No. 2 to No. 5, with $4.4 million. The English epic poem turned animated film has brought in $76 million over the past month.

The Weinstein Company’s “Awake” is barely conscious in the top ten, as it’s dozed from No. 5 to No. 9 with $3.3 million. The Jessica Alba thriller has earned close to $11 million in 10 days.

For more information and show times, contact Regal Cinemas Marketplace 24, 180 Mill Road, Oaks, at 610-666-6697.

Dennis J. Wright can be reached at dwright@phoenixvillenews.com