Ian McShane: 5 Awesome Performances And 5 That Sucked

... And 5 That Sucked

5. Ragnar Sturlusson - The Golden Compass (2007)

In 2002 New Line Cinema were looking for a new fantasy franchise, hoping to replicate the enormous acclaim and public enthusiasm for the first Lord of the Rings film. Philip Pullman's His Dark Materials trilogy certainly ticked a lot of boxes, being a highly popular series of novels set in multiple fantasy worlds full of strange creatures, creepy authorities and humanity dabbling with powers beyond its reckoning. But while Peter Jackson's trilogy flourished, The Golden Compass killed the franchise at instalment one, and McShane was not absolved from blame on that front. Based on the trilogy's first book Northern Lights, The Golden Compass follows Lyra Belacqua (Dakota Blue Richards), an orphaned girl living in a parallel universe similar to ours. In this world every human being has a daemon, an animal being which contains their soul. Orphan children are disappearing all over the world, and Lyra must travel north to avert the plans of her uncle Lord Asriel (Daniel Craig) and evade the clutches of Mrs. Coulter (Nicole Kidman). The film was directed by Chris Weitz, who went on to helm the second Twilight film. The Golden Compass was subject to huge production problems, during which time its pro-secular subject matter was severely watered down. All of that compromise is evident on screen, particularly in the rendering of the CG characters and their vocal performances. If McShane's performance in Coraline (which just missed out on this list) was the epitome of showmanship and confidence, this is altogether more confused. Even if we mitigate the dodgy CGI, he doesn't succeed in making Ragnar a threatening character, coming across as more grumpy than anything else.