Skype+97 year old great aunt = win

Also, waving. Mostly waving and shouting.
Curiously, the presence of great aunt seems to make my dad less technophobic.

Golden compass was full of exposition-face technique. Sometimes the characters did it. Sometimes a narrator does it very pointlessly.
There was an endless assumption of off-screen communication that occasionally made no sense whatsoever. It was worst when Soulless Billy Costa didn't freak his mum out at all.
Every now and then there'd be a scene when the current Lyra-actress (The girl billed as Lyra had a stand in and two doubles so I can't say who it was) was really flat, but she was mostly passable.
This is because of inept

There was no blood. Not when people were shot. Not when the bear had a collection of grappling hooks in him. Not when the bear ripped the other bear's jaw off and throat out. You didn't get to see the severed jaw either.
Also ended happily and in a way that means that while the first 5 minutes of a sequel might intersect with the book plot, it must then spiral off in a different direction.
Dust wasn't Sin. The magestirium wasn't the Church bureaucracy; the anti-Christian message was muted.
This is because of counter-progressive elements within Hollywood.

I enjoyed Evil Cadfael and Christopher Lee being sinister together for no particular reason.
EDIT: I enjoyed Lyra having all the ranks in bluff.