The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe (movie review) - 3 1/2 stars
Well, I suck at writing reviews, but I'll give this a shot. I took Maya to see Narnia right after lunch today. I'd heard lots of good things about it from many of y'all, and also from reviewers like Ebert & Roeper, but I hadn't really seen any spoilers. I must also admit that I've never read any of the Narnia books *looks sheepish* They weren't popular when I was a kid of the right age. I actually read C.S. Lewis' space trilogy (Out of the Silent Planet, Perelandra, and That Hideous Strength) and possibly the Screwtape Letters too in high school, but I never got around to Narnia.
I don't feel that my enjoyment of The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe was decreased by the fact that I've never read the book. Unlike for the HP movies, I don't know any of the specifics of the Narnia books so I have no idea what was included, deleted etc. for the sake of a 2 hr. 12 minute screenplay. Nevertheless, I'd say that The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe probably stands on its own a lot better than Goblet of Fire does. I had NO trouble whatsoever following the story (whereas I think anyone who wandered into GOF off the street would probably be scratching their head at the end). I was familiar enough with Lewis's work (via the space trilogy, which is really fantasy more than science fiction) to be able to suspend disbelief when Lucy backed out of the wardrobe and into Narnia and met Mr. Tumnes. IMO the "beasts" of Narnia, both good and bad, were wonderfully realized. I even enjoyed the somewhat cliched Beavers. Yes, everything is very black and white in Narnia, and the movie (as was the book, I assume) is full of religious symbolism. Aslan is obviously Jesus, and the White Witch is obviously the devil (made more obvious by the fact that (a) she wore black when she "killed" Aslan, and (b) except for the wolves, all of her followers/army were hideous-looking, like the Minotaur (?), Cyclooses and the trolls. I adored some of the magical beings in this movie, especially the Griffins and the phoenix that dropped a line of fire (literally) on the Witch's army.
What I loved most about this movie, though, was the performances of the "child" actors and the real emotion I felt throughout. The kids were wonderfully British (Duhh) and all of them are good actors. William Moseley was terrific and very natural (IMO) as the reluctant hero, Peter. The girl who played Susan (I missed her name) had a good mix of big-sisterliness and skepticism, at first, then as the story progressed she accepted the situation and dealt with it as well as she could. The real standouts, though, were the younger kids, Skander Keynes as Edmund, "the traitor" (or "the tempted", as I told Maya), and especially Georgie Henley, who was positively luminous as Lucy. Her reactions were spot-on, from her sense of betrayal when Tumnes "turned her in" to the White Witch, to her grief while she and Susan held the "dead" Aslan on the stone table. I think all of these kids have great futures as actors, especially Georgie Henley.
A word about Tilda Swinton as the White Witch: her performance was literally chilling (and frankly, I was more scared of her than I was of Ralph Fiennes' Voldemort). The last time a woman scared me that much in a movie was Alice Krige as the Borg Queen in Star Trek: First Contact.
Well, no more movies for us this week. We paid our property taxes today (no thanks to the freakin' mortgage company, which STILL hasn't send our escrow check, so we had to take out a ginormous loan on our standing home equity loan:( So, no more $4 matinees for us. I should probably go to bed now. *yawns*
I don't feel that my enjoyment of The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe was decreased by the fact that I've never read the book. Unlike for the HP movies, I don't know any of the specifics of the Narnia books so I have no idea what was included, deleted etc. for the sake of a 2 hr. 12 minute screenplay. Nevertheless, I'd say that The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe probably stands on its own a lot better than Goblet of Fire does. I had NO trouble whatsoever following the story (whereas I think anyone who wandered into GOF off the street would probably be scratching their head at the end). I was familiar enough with Lewis's work (via the space trilogy, which is really fantasy more than science fiction) to be able to suspend disbelief when Lucy backed out of the wardrobe and into Narnia and met Mr. Tumnes. IMO the "beasts" of Narnia, both good and bad, were wonderfully realized. I even enjoyed the somewhat cliched Beavers. Yes, everything is very black and white in Narnia, and the movie (as was the book, I assume) is full of religious symbolism. Aslan is obviously Jesus, and the White Witch is obviously the devil (made more obvious by the fact that (a) she wore black when she "killed" Aslan, and (b) except for the wolves, all of her followers/army were hideous-looking, like the Minotaur (?), Cyclooses and the trolls. I adored some of the magical beings in this movie, especially the Griffins and the phoenix that dropped a line of fire (literally) on the Witch's army.
What I loved most about this movie, though, was the performances of the "child" actors and the real emotion I felt throughout. The kids were wonderfully British (Duhh) and all of them are good actors. William Moseley was terrific and very natural (IMO) as the reluctant hero, Peter. The girl who played Susan (I missed her name) had a good mix of big-sisterliness and skepticism, at first, then as the story progressed she accepted the situation and dealt with it as well as she could. The real standouts, though, were the younger kids, Skander Keynes as Edmund, "the traitor" (or "the tempted", as I told Maya), and especially Georgie Henley, who was positively luminous as Lucy. Her reactions were spot-on, from her sense of betrayal when Tumnes "turned her in" to the White Witch, to her grief while she and Susan held the "dead" Aslan on the stone table. I think all of these kids have great futures as actors, especially Georgie Henley.
A word about Tilda Swinton as the White Witch: her performance was literally chilling (and frankly, I was more scared of her than I was of Ralph Fiennes' Voldemort). The last time a woman scared me that much in a movie was Alice Krige as the Borg Queen in Star Trek: First Contact.
Well, no more movies for us this week. We paid our property taxes today (no thanks to the freakin' mortgage company, which STILL hasn't send our escrow check, so we had to take out a ginormous loan on our standing home equity loan:( So, no more $4 matinees for us. I should probably go to bed now. *yawns*