The Golden Compass premiered last night, in advance of its release on December 5th, so we’ll finally discover if the film version of the His Dark Materials trilogy is likely to be more Lord of the Rings than Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy.

[UPDATE: There are reviews here (a “spectacular shambles”), here (”can’t be faulted for excitement”) and here (”looks wonderful, with epic dash”).]

While we wait for the full thing, you can find a daemon-themed featurette here, a short scene here and the trailer here.

Its arrival has been preceded by a predictable debate flury of debate over its anti-religious overtones and “calls” for a boycott from elements within the Catholic church. This despite the watering down of those very themes. Chris Weitz, the film’s director, has already said that:

New Line is a company that makes films for economic concerns. You would hardly expect them to be anything else. They have expressed worry about the possibility of HDMs’ [His Dark Materials’] perceived antireligiosity making it an unviable project financially… All my best efforts will be directed towards keeping HDM as liberating and iconoclastic an experience as I can. But there may be some modification of terms. You will probably not hear of the ‘Church’, but you will hear of the Magisterium.

They’ve already given it the American title (the book’s European title is Northern Lights), which gives fans an early shudder, but we can only wait and see what else emerges. Although, of they haven’t got the talking polar bear right, nothing else will feel right…