Chronicles of Narnia : The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe

[orangerful]

Went to the movies with blu_harvest, zaubervz, verdatum, destertale, toothlesshag and romandave today and saw Narnia.



I have to say, I was underwhelmed. Actually, maybe not even underwhelmed, I just didn't feel anything during that movie and it made me kind of sad. I have very fond memories of watching the british miniseries on Wonderworks back when I was little and really enjoying it. Like LotR, I've never read the books, though I feel like I might have attempted to flip thru at least the first one at some point. Anyway, I was hoping this film would fill me with that same happiness that the Lord of the Rings did, or at least rekindle my childhood memories. It really didn't though. LotR has spoiled me when it comes to these kinds of tales. I want characters I can love and cheer for, and I don't feel like this film version of Narnia gave me that. Lucy was the only one I was really concerned about the whole film (cutest little girl!!!), and she stopped living dangerously once her siblings joined in Narnia.

It wasn't the actor's faults either, I think all the kids did a great job. Especially since I'm sure 95% of the time, they were acting all alone. It's just that it felt like I didn't really know any of them. Edmund is still a little jerk, and when he ran off, I could have cared less what would happen to him (that's how I felt during the BBC miniseries too). The lady who played the White Witch was fantastic - creepy and strange and alluring. Peter was cute...though kind of a jerk too...he was just so bloody british, him and Susan! Aslan...well, Aslan was beautiful and amazing as CGI lions with Liam Neeson's voice go...but he was just sorta there. Then not. Then there again. And I didn't really care. I remember bawling everytime I watched the BBC miniseries, but when the sacrifice scene came, I just didn't really understand what was so great about this lion. Sure, everyone says he's great, but he hasn't shown us much of anything.

The opening theme, sung by iMogean Heap, was beautiful, and as the kids went thru the english countryside on the train, I got really excited about what was to come...then nothing really came. And it makes me kinda sad.

I did crack up though. Right at the end. Somehow, the dissappointment, the wanting to like the movie, it all piled up...and when they crowned Peter "The Magnificent!" I just broke down laughing, so hard that my sides hurt and I had tears streaming down my face. I mean, the magnificent? When did that happen? Far as I can tell, Edmund put the dent in the white witches plan and Aslan bit her head off...exactly when was Peter "magnificent"? Hm.....

Also, the Monty Python fan in us all had a giggle fit when the White Witch told Peter that "just because some man in a red jacket gives you a sword doesn't make you king!".

Everyone else seemed to enjoy it though. blu_harvest and toothlesshag are a bit more familiar with the books than me, so I think they got more out of it. (though toothlesshag said she felt it had been disneyfied too much and the "christian" had been taken out of it?) I wanted another epic tale like Peter Jackson's LotR - with sweeping landscapes and well developed characters and an evil side that you sorta understood the attraction too. I wanted something that captured my imagination like Harry Potter. But Narnia fell flat for me.

I didn't not like it, but I didn't really love it. I just sorta...well, I saw it.

Comments

Whaaa??

[destertale.livejournal.com]

Wow. I was WAY more into it. I was amazed that they changed so little from the book. It felt to me like they took great pains to be true to it. The soundtrack was fantastic (I want it!) and... well, thank goodness you passed me that wad of napkins at the beginning of the movie, 'cause I went through all of them crying when Susan and Lucy were walking with Aslan to the stone table. And when they bound him, and shaved his mane... And for goodness sakes! I knew it was coming, and that he'd come back anyway, I've read the book so many times! lol And I loved Tumnus, he was so cute! And the moment of impact when the two armies hit... ouch. o_O;

Okay, I guess I really liked it. ^_^

Re: Whaaa??

[orangerful.livejournal.com]

yeah, I wasn't feeling it.

Tumnus was good though. Honestly, I could have just watched a whole movie about him and Lucy. They were a lot of fun together.

[dstntp1lgr1m.livejournal.com]

"I remember bawling everytime I watched the BBC miniseries, but when the sacrifice scene came, I just didn't really understand what was so great about this lion. Sure, everyone says he's great, but he hasn't shown us much of anything."

You have to read the story that comes before this one to understand why he's so great. It goes over the creation of Narnia and how the Witch came to be there (hint: That old man professor is a main character in that story and you'll also find out hwo the wardrobe and lamp post came to be).

As for Peter being named the Magnificent, hmmm, sound more like maybe you question the story itself rather than the movie b/c to be honest that's pretty much straight out of the book. I'm very pleased with the movie adaptation. They really didn't stray at all from the book. It's a simple story, but then again, it's written for younger readers. It's not written for people our age who will question everything AND add religion to it (not that you have, and not that others can't, it's just NOT what I believe Narnia was written for and people are taking something that happens in many stories -matrix, Star Wars, etc- and are merely exploiting it in this film b/c Lewis outright has the children refered to as sons and daughters of Adam).

[dstntp1lgr1m.livejournal.com]

"(though [info]toothlesshag said she felt it had been disneyfied too much and the "christian" had been taken out of it?)"

I have to strongly disagree with this. It's just as evident in there as it is in the book. You have to remember..... reading books kinda lends itself to much more open and free adaptation than a film. Seriously, when I read the book, I did not pick up on this HUGE ABUNDANCE of Christian stuff. It seems like there's light mentions of it here and there throughout (mostly just the references to sons of adam and daughters of eve) and people are again EXPLOITING a notion.

I say this also b/c I just finished reading the book a week before seeing the movie. Everything in it was still very fresh in my mind. Disney didn't really dumb down anything. In fact, they made everything much more over-the-top than anything else. Also, if you study most Disney films, they have more commonly been guilty of sneaking Christian imagery into stories that originally have NOTHINg to do with Christianity than they are guilty of taking Christian imagery out, but that's a WHOLE other discussion I could get into.

Sorry Carolyn, Baby :) I beg to differ in this case. :) But I did love the film.

[blu-harvest.livejournal.com]

I have to MILDLY disagree with you about religion not really being meant to be in the story. I love the Narnia books but espeacilly as you get to the last one it becomes apparent that they are meant to make christianity fresh and interesting for young people. Aslan is Jesus, not just like him. In later books, he apears as a lamb and says, I have another name in your world in your world, find me there. And of course, "The Last Battle" is pure the revelations of St. John the divine. There's even an Anti-christ. The one part that I thought they kind of took out of the movie is that in the book Aslan, is frequently referred to as the son of the great emperor across the sea.

But anyway, I'm glad you got to see the movie! Was Raven with you?

[blu-harvest.livejournal.com]

I'm sorry you didn't like it. :( I hatw when things meant to rekindle child hood memeries fall flat. You know what this means though don't you?

BBC Narnia party!!!!

But about, this movie. I personally enjoyed it. Loved Tilda Swinton and I didn't think I would. She was so evil without being hammy. My favorite line , " he sold you out... for sweeties!" Also, a chariot pulled by Polar Bears is awesome. The speacils effects were crazy good. Now I know why Taurens are scary! And the actor playing Peter was cute , wasn't he? This bothers me as he may well be 13 or something. I will give him five full years before I show up at his door, wearing a smoking jacket. That should cover it.

Oh, and one last thing. Beaver, wearing a mail shirt and wielding a bow kicks ass! Is that from the book?!

[dstntp1lgr1m.livejournal.com]

You have to remember, I have only read the first two books of the Chronicles, so I cannot speak in reference to the other books.... and still, in my opinion, in those first two books there is not a large amount of christian symbolism other than Aslan sacrificing himself/creating the world.

Yeah Raven watched it with me.

[(Anonymous)]

Though the movie looked great, I could still tell it had a fairly modest budget compaired to say Lord of the Rings.

And as for beaver wearing a mail shirt..... mmmm, remember in the book we mostly stuck with Aslan after his ressurection. The battle we didn't actually get to until ASlan himself arrived with Susan, Lucy, and the other animals. I pretty much knew Hollywood would make a big thing of the battle scenes... At the end of the day they have to sell this movie to everyone. They did the same thing with LOTR "The Two Towers". That battle at Helms Deep went by fast for me in the book. In the movie they made it the climax BIG MOMENT of the whole film, and I guess it just didn't happen for me that way when I read it.

[blu-harvest.livejournal.com]

AH. I see. Sorry, I idn't know. Fortunately I didn't spoil anything and I shan't in the future.e " his dark materials" series gets made into movies. It's actually kind of the inversion of the Narnia books. You read the first book. Oh, this is a very interesting and gripping story. Cool, talking polor bears wearing armor! Then, you read the second and third books. Still a very interesting story, but... the author is an athiest who thinks religion is harmfull in the extreme and has written a disguised tract on the subject. Oh, dear. Btw, when I was in the theatre I was quite a bad boy. In the scene where Peter leads the good army he is riding a unicorn. When he is grown up he is riding a horse. At that point I leaned over to Laurell and said " somebody has been getting some!" or something to that effect. I'm terrible. Desecration of children's movies is low even for me.

[orangerful.livejournal.com]

I have to say that, unlike Star Wars, where Lucas merely ripped off myths to create his own story, the Narnia series was written to mimic the bible and help younger readers understand it. That's what Lewis does. He was very interested in Christianity so it's not as though it's been tacked on my fanatics in later years, it is a retelling of the stories in the bible and emphasizing the values taught there.

And this is where I feel the movie and the books stumble. I was having a great time up until we enter Aslan's camp/army. They were just there. The story sorta comes to a hault because suddenly it's about following the jesus story more than telling a different story. That, or it's just bad storytelling because we get no reason or explaination for why Aslan would sacrifice himself to Edmund. It's all too sudden for my tastes.

Also, I wish they could have done something to "update" it a bit. Not changing the time period, but at least Peter Jackson created/altered a few strong female characters for LotR to make them real people. Susan just annoyed me, she was obviously meant to be too logical and scientific, too "smart" and that bothered me. But I have to say that LotR has spoiled me. I've enjoyed many a children's movie before and since too!

And I shouldn't have to read the book to understand the films, especially the prequel book that was written much later, IMHO. I'm judging the film here, and if it can't stand on it's own then it loses points. But I think it might just be me, as everyone else seems to have enjoyed it, friends and reviewers alike.

[orangerful.livejournal.com]

yeah, I can't quite put my finger on it really. It's like The Village for me, in the sense that I left the theater knowing there really wasn't anything wrong with the movie, but at the same time, it hadn't done to me what I wanted it to do...emotionally. DOes that make senese?

The special effects were amazing, the acting was great. I just didn't feel it. But I've never read the books or anything, so I don't have the knowledge/connection that the rest of you seem to have. It was obviously made for you guys :) I'll just snuggle with my LotR extended edition DVDs a bit more.

[orangerful.livejournal.com]

hello, who's this?

[dstntp1lgr1m.livejournal.com]

well.... again, it still seems your really having problems with teh actual story itself. Because the htings you describe not liking aboutteh film..... I felt like it happened pretty muc hthat way in the books too. OH, except they did stress too much with Susan being stupid in the movie. I do have to agree with that.

Aha! (she says)

[destertale.livejournal.com]

"But I've never read the books or anything,"

You should! I can loan you my copy of the series if you like. You could finish at least the one book (tL,tW&tW) in no time. I think it's only 100-some pages long. I had truly been wondering how they were going to stretch it into a 2 1/2 hour long movie, initially. The answer of course being: they put, pretty much, every detail from the book in there.

Re: Aha! (she says)

[orangerful.livejournal.com]

I have a feeling the time has probably passed on those for me. I never read the LotR books and I love love LOVE the movies. And I tried to pick them up again afterwards and I still couldn't get thru them. I doubt I'll be able to get into the narnia series now.

but who knows! I know the library has them, I might end up reading them later on. :) I have enough checked out at the moment though (like 'Son of a Witch' - talk about subtext! yeesh!)

[bittertwee.livejournal.com]

"just because some man in a red jacket gives you a sword doesn't make you king!"-- that is too funny.. Does anyone know if this line is in the book, or is it an intentional nod to Monty Python?

I haven't seen the movie yet, but I've been reading a lot about it and the Christian symbolism. First off, the books are really good- they were my favoritest books as a kid and I read them over and over- so you should read them. They were definitely meant to be allegories, though, but much of the symbolism isn't as blatant as the Aslan death scene, and you can get away with reading them while being blissfully unaware of the intent behind them, or can even adding your own interpretations. Plus, I think Lewis belonged to a tradition which is different from, say, the the belief system of the mob of angry people I saw this morning in front of the Planned Parenthood down the street from my coffee shop, but it would take too long to elaborate on that. Suffice to say that the books are a good read.

That being said, I was immersed (to put it mildly) in the Christian world as a kid, and I got the Aslan=Jesus thing immediately. But even as a kid the Aslan death scene bothered me, and as an adult it bothers me enough that I don't really want to see the movie. (I'll end up seeing it, though, because my mom wants us all to see it over Xmas). I'm not sure why it bothers me so much- the best I can come up with is that the humanist in me thinks that Edmund should have been able to get his act together on his own without someone having to die for him. But of course, that would defeat the point of the whole thing if Edmund were able to save himself.

Interesting that Susan is portrayed as being too "smart" in the movie?? I don't remember that from the books, but it's been a while. I do remember that in the last book she doesn't make it into heaven because she is more interested in lipstick and boys, or something like that (and yeah, even as a kid this bugged me a bit too). J.K.Rowling had some choice things to say about that in a recent interview. (hmm.. I'm not really making these books sound appealing, am I? Really, they're good! I just happen to have listed the 2 parts that bugged me, the rest of it is fine, really)

Oh, I think the actor who plays Peter is around 18. So blu_harvest should break out that smoking jacket!

[orangerful.livejournal.com]

I remember in the BBC version, the creatures pounce and Aslan and you just see the hair from his main flying everywhere, and the two girls have tears streaming down their faces and they seemed a bit more upset because Aslan had really befriended them on the walk to the stone table. Doesn't he chat with them a bit or something? And you get this weird feeling that perhaps he feels old...so that his rebirth is something even more grand because he looks healthier too? Perhaps that's just my brain making up story on it's own.

The Susan thing bugged me, but then again, I think someone had told me or I had read somewhere about the lameness of the women in Narnia...what was the JK Rowling interview? now i'll have to google that!

I'm really interested to hear what you think of the movie after you see it. You'll probably like it, as it sounds like it gives the fans what they've always wanted.

[orangerful.livejournal.com]

nevermind, I found the article - Time magazine july 25 "JK Rowling Hogwarts and all"

"She hasn't even read all of C.S. Lewis' Narnia novels, which her books get compared to a lot. There's something about Lewis' sentimentality about children that gets on her nerves. "There comes a point where Susan, who was the older girl, is lost to Narnia because she becomes interested in lipstick. She's become irreligious basically because she found sex," Rowling says. "I have a big problem with that."

and something in my brain just went *click*

[bittertwee.livejournal.com]

The Susan thing bugged me, but then again, I think someone had told me or I had read somewhere about the lameness of the women in Narnia...what was the JK Rowling interview? now i'll have to google that!

It's here:
http://www.time.com/time/archive/preview/0,10987,1083935,00.html
It's the Time magazine interview that pissed off one of the Terrys (Pratchett? Gilliam?)

I'm really interested to hear what you think of the movie after you see it. You'll probably like it, as it sounds like it gives the fans what they've always wanted.

Honestly, I'm not a fan of all these kids' books becoming movies. I think at some point for each HP movie I've declared that I'm not going to go see it. But then I always end up going opening night. The actors are so spot on- a line up of the greatest British adult talent plus likeable kids that are a hoot to watch grow up- I can't resist! Plus the event itself is always too much fun. But I wish some of my childhood favorites would stay in my head and off the big screen. I guess they haven't done the "Dark is Rising" books yet, but I'm sure it's only a matter of time..

[bittertwee.livejournal.com]

whoops, I shoulda known you'd find the interview on your own. Good old google..

[bittertwee.livejournal.com]

"She hasn't even read all of C.S. Lewis' Narnia novels, which her books get compared to a lot. There's something about Lewis' sentimentality about children that gets on her nerves. "There comes a point where Susan, who was the older girl, is lost to Narnia because she becomes interested in lipstick. She's become irreligious basically because she found sex," Rowling says. "I have a big problem with that."

Of course, this doesn't happen until the very end of the last book, so for not having read the books she made it pretty far. Maybe she skipped some of the middle ones?

[orangerful.livejournal.com]

well, I have to say, the HP books work as movies, to me, because they take place now and have our sensibilities, while I think Narnia suffers from being so very "then". I think children's books are a lot like comedies, they get dated much faster than adult literature/drama.

they are making the 'dark materials' series (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0385752/) into movies, I believe. Another series I meant to read (after I saw it on your bookshelf). blu_harvest says it's the reverse of the Narnia series, since the author is an atheist (see one of the above comments, I think he mentions it there).

Pratchett was the one who publicly attacked Rowling...honestly, I've tried to read his stuff but never got into it. I didn't know Gilliam had said anything, though I wouldn't be surprised. In the paragraph before that one she talks about how she never really thought of HP has fantasy, it was just a story that happened to have fantastical elements to it. I think I'm the same way. I'm not very good at reading "hard core" sci-fi/fantasy, but the HP books work for me.

I actually had to go thru the library to get the full article as TIME has dubbed it part of it's "Premium Account". :P to them I say!

[dstntp1lgr1m.livejournal.com]

lol, yes, you're bad,...... then again I am too.... I realized that the movie Legend is actually this BIG symbolic film about losing your virginity.

quote from Darkness in LEgend: "Even now the EVIL SEED of what you've done GERMINATES within you."

And everyone's upset b/c lilly touched a unicorn..... a horned beast.