The Golden Compass

I'll preface by saying I haven't read these books yet. However, I liked the movie a lot. It's no Lord of the Rings, and they tried to jam a lot into two hours (and it seems like they cut quite a bit to make that running time too), but I loved the visuals and I liked most of the characterizations. Also, it's the first movie I've ever seen where one polar bear slapped the jaw off another - so, w00t for that!

(I'll note that's also about as gruesome as the movie got. Made for kids, The Golden Compass still had a pretty extensive body count by the end, but blood was replaced by sparkly death swirls when a dying person's animal "soul" familiar went POOF!)