Watching Narnia
Well we went to see The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe opening night and give it two thumbs up. After thoroughly enjoying the film I went back home and read the reviews on Rotten Tomatoes. After my previous post and reading the movie reviews, it just reiterated the fact to me that no matter what you do, you will never satisfy everyone.
Some people thought the movie was well paced while others thought it was slow and boring. Some thought it was too safe while others thought it contained too much violence. Some were impressed with how much it was like the book and others thought that the movie emphasized the things the book paid no attention to. Some thought that there were too many Christian references in it while others see it as compromising the Gospel. Some people love the character of Aslan as he represents the character of Christ to them while someone else — I can’t believe this — thinks that Aslan makes a poor representative of Christ because Jesus would never pounce on and kill Jadis, the White Witch.
All I can say is, “whatever, we loved it.” Camryn enjoyed it and proved that she was listening as I read her the book because she would ask if something was going to happen a few minutes before it did. It was a great way for her to see what Christ has done for us without going into the detail of The Passion of the Christ. And being at the age of asking us questions about everything, I’ve had plenty of opportunities to discuss it with her all day today.
Related Post: Reading Narnia
December 12th, 2005 at 5:28 pm
I read some more reviews today at lunch ‚Äî I’m going to see it again tonight. I don’t think the people that write these reviews really know what they are talking about. While there are some valid critiques, most are just crazy.
One reviewer criticized the film because they thought the scene with Father Christmas was goofy ‚Äî as if it was thrown in as some kind of holiday/marketing scheme. Hello?! That scene has been in the book since the 1950s, it’s a critical part to the plot.
Everyone seems to be comparing it to Lord of the Rings. Hello?! It’s not LOTR, it wasn’t meant to be and will never be. It’s a different story, with different characters and different parameters. It’s not a dark, gothic world that is the epidomy of fantasy/dungeons and dragons fanatics. It’s a kid’s story with different elements of European culture, greek mythology and some Christian themes all mixed up into one! Go with it! (BTW: Many LOTR fans boycotted the trilogy because it was too different than the books.)
One reviewer went as far as to say that it was a poor choice to feature “Otters” as some of the main characters. They’re BEAVERS and that’s the way it was written, for crying out loud. Sheesh, if you are going to review such a highly anticipated film then you should at least know a little about where the story came from.
December 13th, 2005 at 8:46 am
After viewing it last night I thought the pace in the beginning was a little slow, but then again I had just eaten a big dinner I was sufferring the extra blood flow from my head to my stomach.
I read the summary of the book on wikipedia before hand at the urging of a friend. The movie was faithful to the summary, not that it means all that much.
I thought the film was rich with Biblical inspired imagery and huge elements of the Gospel. I almost felt there was plagarism, but then again, how can the created steal from the creator.
December 13th, 2005 at 10:22 am
What I saw was well done, though a bit safe and predictable, but otherwise refreshing and good story. But all that is based on the parts I saw. I spent almost half of the movie suffering in my own little wardrobe with the tiled floor. (Must have been all that Turkish Delight).
December 13th, 2005 at 10:47 am
I admit when it comes to pacing, it’s no James Bond film. But I think a lot of it has to do with the screenwriters paying attention to the detail of the book. When Lucy goes into Narnia for the first time there are three shots of her looking back at the wardrobe door that she left cracked open. One might ask why waste time on those shots but in the book you know that “Lucy knew it wasn’t wise to shut oneself into a wardrobe.” They also detail Edmond closing the door behind him when he goes into the wardrobe.
The whole first section of the film (the process of them all getting into Narnia) is quite accurate. I guess they could have thought of something that moved the kids into Narnia faster but then everyone would be screaming, “The book was much better.”
December 13th, 2005 at 3:29 pm
Having read the book several times, I found the movie to be very true to the book. Which is likely why most AMERICAN’s in 2005 would find it slow paced. It is, after all, a story written by a very British author.
I found it to be very deliberate in pace, but that is exactly what I expected. Overall, I would give it two thumbs up. But I didn’t come home pumped up because the movie and the story just don’t do that for me. Very entertaining, very well done - two thumbs up.
I was a little creeped every time I saw that hair on Tumnus’ back. Ick.
December 13th, 2005 at 5:12 pm
In my comment about the pace, I well understood this was not an action film. I liked not being bombarded with images. Also, I believe this is more proof of what MTV did to my attention span in the 80’s and 90’s. Wait, just the 80’s. In the 90’s there weren’t any music videos.