The Golden Compass

This was a very abstract themed movie with lots of special effects. It might take a few watches before the story is captured.
Lyra lives a parallel universe where the souls of humans live in their accompanying animals called the demons. She plays a lot with the street children and is lives at free will. There are Gobblers at loose, who are responsible for the disappearance of many children.
Lord Asriel, her uncle comes by to the college, she lives by. She saves him from a killing attempt by the Magesterium - which is the local organization controlling everyone to impose their ideas on the people. Asriel is about to propose the existence of Dust and parallel universe, which is a theory the Magesterium wants to discourage. But Asriel manages to get the funds and leaves.
After his departure, Marisa comes to the college and takes Lyra as her assistant for a trip to the north. Before leaving, Lyra is given an alethiometer (which is the last ever, since Magesterium doesn't want anyone to use it) by a member of the college. Although she is unable to use it, she takes it with her. When Marisa delays their trip, Lyra finds out that Marisa is part of the Gobblers and begins defiance. She runs away from them and just before getting caught, she is caught by the Gyptians who are on the lookout for their lost children. She travels with them over sea and meets the Serafina, queen of the witch clan.
When they stop by at a port, Lyra befriends an aeronaut Lee, who tells her to get the help of a polar bear in exile, Iorek. The bear has strong armour, which was trickingly taken away from him. Lyra finds the armour using her alethiometer and Iorek agrees to help her. Now she heads to Billy, with the instrument's help and finds him disoriented. During the stay, the tribe gets attacked by Samoyeds, Lyra is captured and taken to Ragnar, king of the polar armoured bears. Lyra tricks Ragnar into fighting with Iorek. Iorek wins the fight. Iorek carries Lyra to the research centre, but gets separated from her. Pretending she is lost, she walks into the centre and alerts Roger to prepare everyone to escape. She gets caught eavesdropping on the scientists' conversation to separate the demon from the child to stop dust from affecting the children. Just as the scientists are about to separate her demon, Marisa walks in and stops the whole thing. Marisa confesses that Lyra is her daughter and Lord Asriel, her father. Lyra also finds out that her father is further north and people have been sent to kill him. Lyra injures Marisa temporarily and escapes. She destroys the machinery leading to explosions and brings the children out of the centre. A battle follows, where the children are saved and the good side wins. Lyra then continues journey to the north to save her father.
An interesting movie with lots of special effects. The best was probably Dakota Richards' (Lyra's) defiance. Although in the beginning the acting was to be appreciated, after a while, she just seemed like a brat, but that's what the character needed to do good. I found the story pretty abstract, but apparently it was a good film for those who had read the book and thus, knew what the story was going to be about.