Movie Review: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe
I saw this movie about three weeks ago, but I’d like to hear what everyone else thought of it. Personally, I liked it a great deal; my mother called it “LotR-Lite” (literally called it that, with abbreviations and implied misspellings included) and I’m still not sure if this is a good or bad thing; my friend Marty raged at White Witch’s costumes; and my dad was all, “I really need to read these books. Can I borrow yours?” which is what he says every time we see a movie based a book.
And, wow, was this movie close to the book or what? I mean, sure, at 180-some-odd-pages, they can afford to put every little detail in, but I was pretty amazed at how close it stuck to canon. I think the only story things that were changed were the beginning, and the not meeting Aslan at the Stone Table and then leaving (which is fine as a book paragraph, but really stupid in a movie). And while I’m sure that somewhere out there, there is someone ranting about the minor line reassignments and such, but I thought it was very accurate.
What I liked the best were the characterizations of the children. I always thought they were a little flat in the book: Lucy was so damn good, Edmund was just a mean bastard (which could happen; children are natural bastards sometimes), Peter was the obvious hero and Susan was kind of sensible, but mostly just there. I liked giving Edmund a little more reason to be a jerk with his feelings about his father. There was less emphasis on his being swayed by magic Turkish Delight. I think it’s more understandable, and, ugh, Turkish Delight. You know it’s wartime when that sounds good. Giving Peter a little more responsibility for Edmund’s betrayal worked out too because it revealed a little more about the siblings’ relationships. I also liked how the movie portrayed their fighting styles at the end. Peter might have fought better, but Edmund fought smarter.
Georgie Henley did the amazing and actually made me like Lucy. Honestly, I always thought Lucy was a little too perfect until Voyage of the Dawn Treader, but Georgie was so cute and seeing Lucy on the screen made her a lot more likeable. Susan also got updated a bit, though if she was supposed to be the sensible one, why did they give her lines about taking the coats from the wardrobe to Peter? Though her emphasis on saving the family first and Narnia second was very appropriate to her character and how it would evolve through the books.
My previously mentioned friend Marty and I think that Susan got gypped in regards to the royal titles. I mean, everyone else got really cool names like Queen Lucy the Valiant, King Edmund the Just, and King Peter the Magnificent or Something Equally Royal But Vaguely Generic. Susan got Queen Susan the Gentle. Yeah, okay, that sounds like a queenly name, but it kind of sucks in comparison. They did just all come out of a war, after all. Marty and I have come up with alternate titles for Susan. Our favorites are Queen Susan the Gracious Hostess and Queen Susan the Well-Coordinated (we actually forgot until we saw the movie that Susan was not, in fact, Queen Susan the Gracious).
I thought that Liam Nesson was a good choice for Aslan’s voice, but way to play into the wise old mentor role. Liam Nesson is going to be suffering from a slightly less scary version of Ralph Fiennes Syndrome if this keeps up. I mean, he’s playing Abraham Lincoln soon! Abraham Lincoln for Steven Spielberg, no less! On the other side of the good/evil divide, I very much liked Tilda Swinton as the White Witch. She’s so pale, severe looking and cold sounding that I think she did a perfect job with the character. And I may be one of the few people who actually liked her hair. It took some getting used to, yes, but with her assortment of crowns, I thought it looked pretty good. Er, except for that one time when it was sticking out straight from behind her head. That was a bit of an “Eh?” moment.
I didn’t like the White Queen’s main costume however. The top part made her look like a Snow Queen Cone since it created that shelf all around her. Actually, from the front, it wasn’t all that bad, but the shelf in the back looked like she should be keeping knick-knacks there. A little Narnia snowglobe, or little stone kittens, or something. On the other hand, I definately liked her outfit for the battle scene. That crown, and wearing Aslan’s mane? Yeah, she looked appropriately terrifying and war-like.
And, awwwww, wasn’t Mr. Tumnus adorable? And the faun army? Oooh, who’s the cutest little fighting force in Narnia? You are! Yes, you are!
I don’t want to talk about theology at all (unless someone absolutely must), because I’m not really on board with C.S. Lewis. But I have to say, the people next to me totally didn’t get it. When the girls were fussing over dead Aslan, the woman next to me whispered to her husband, “What? Why doesn’t Lucy use her elixir or whatever?” And I thought, “Well, a) he’s already dead, and b) it’s not like he needs the help.” These people also wondered why the girls hung around with dead Aslan instead of heading back to fight. And even though I know the answer is, “Because it was written by C.S. Lewis, and girls aren’t supposed to fight,” I kind of get that. However, I also get that we need some of the children there so we can see what happens in the castle; they are the focus of the narration, after all.
I was also impressed with some of the special effects. I liked the centaurs (and they included female centaurs! I was so surprised) and the phoenix arrow especially. The arrow was an especially cool idea, but I knew it was sort of doomed because they were up against a woman pretty well associated with ice. But it’s the thought that counts.
In conclusion, I thought this was a good start to what will hopefully be a whole series of these movies. I’ll probably want to skip some of the future ones, but as long as they keep getting made, I’ll see all of them. That way everyone gets their favorite made! (Uh, but I’m still skipping The Final Battle, if that’s okay. It is the last one, after all.)
And, wow, was this movie close to the book or what? I mean, sure, at 180-some-odd-pages, they can afford to put every little detail in, but I was pretty amazed at how close it stuck to canon. I think the only story things that were changed were the beginning, and the not meeting Aslan at the Stone Table and then leaving (which is fine as a book paragraph, but really stupid in a movie). And while I’m sure that somewhere out there, there is someone ranting about the minor line reassignments and such, but I thought it was very accurate.
What I liked the best were the characterizations of the children. I always thought they were a little flat in the book: Lucy was so damn good, Edmund was just a mean bastard (which could happen; children are natural bastards sometimes), Peter was the obvious hero and Susan was kind of sensible, but mostly just there. I liked giving Edmund a little more reason to be a jerk with his feelings about his father. There was less emphasis on his being swayed by magic Turkish Delight. I think it’s more understandable, and, ugh, Turkish Delight. You know it’s wartime when that sounds good. Giving Peter a little more responsibility for Edmund’s betrayal worked out too because it revealed a little more about the siblings’ relationships. I also liked how the movie portrayed their fighting styles at the end. Peter might have fought better, but Edmund fought smarter.
Georgie Henley did the amazing and actually made me like Lucy. Honestly, I always thought Lucy was a little too perfect until Voyage of the Dawn Treader, but Georgie was so cute and seeing Lucy on the screen made her a lot more likeable. Susan also got updated a bit, though if she was supposed to be the sensible one, why did they give her lines about taking the coats from the wardrobe to Peter? Though her emphasis on saving the family first and Narnia second was very appropriate to her character and how it would evolve through the books.
My previously mentioned friend Marty and I think that Susan got gypped in regards to the royal titles. I mean, everyone else got really cool names like Queen Lucy the Valiant, King Edmund the Just, and King Peter the Magnificent or Something Equally Royal But Vaguely Generic. Susan got Queen Susan the Gentle. Yeah, okay, that sounds like a queenly name, but it kind of sucks in comparison. They did just all come out of a war, after all. Marty and I have come up with alternate titles for Susan. Our favorites are Queen Susan the Gracious Hostess and Queen Susan the Well-Coordinated (we actually forgot until we saw the movie that Susan was not, in fact, Queen Susan the Gracious).
I thought that Liam Nesson was a good choice for Aslan’s voice, but way to play into the wise old mentor role. Liam Nesson is going to be suffering from a slightly less scary version of Ralph Fiennes Syndrome if this keeps up. I mean, he’s playing Abraham Lincoln soon! Abraham Lincoln for Steven Spielberg, no less! On the other side of the good/evil divide, I very much liked Tilda Swinton as the White Witch. She’s so pale, severe looking and cold sounding that I think she did a perfect job with the character. And I may be one of the few people who actually liked her hair. It took some getting used to, yes, but with her assortment of crowns, I thought it looked pretty good. Er, except for that one time when it was sticking out straight from behind her head. That was a bit of an “Eh?” moment.
I didn’t like the White Queen’s main costume however. The top part made her look like a Snow Queen Cone since it created that shelf all around her. Actually, from the front, it wasn’t all that bad, but the shelf in the back looked like she should be keeping knick-knacks there. A little Narnia snowglobe, or little stone kittens, or something. On the other hand, I definately liked her outfit for the battle scene. That crown, and wearing Aslan’s mane? Yeah, she looked appropriately terrifying and war-like.
And, awwwww, wasn’t Mr. Tumnus adorable? And the faun army? Oooh, who’s the cutest little fighting force in Narnia? You are! Yes, you are!
I don’t want to talk about theology at all (unless someone absolutely must), because I’m not really on board with C.S. Lewis. But I have to say, the people next to me totally didn’t get it. When the girls were fussing over dead Aslan, the woman next to me whispered to her husband, “What? Why doesn’t Lucy use her elixir or whatever?” And I thought, “Well, a) he’s already dead, and b) it’s not like he needs the help.” These people also wondered why the girls hung around with dead Aslan instead of heading back to fight. And even though I know the answer is, “Because it was written by C.S. Lewis, and girls aren’t supposed to fight,” I kind of get that. However, I also get that we need some of the children there so we can see what happens in the castle; they are the focus of the narration, after all.
I was also impressed with some of the special effects. I liked the centaurs (and they included female centaurs! I was so surprised) and the phoenix arrow especially. The arrow was an especially cool idea, but I knew it was sort of doomed because they were up against a woman pretty well associated with ice. But it’s the thought that counts.
In conclusion, I thought this was a good start to what will hopefully be a whole series of these movies. I’ll probably want to skip some of the future ones, but as long as they keep getting made, I’ll see all of them. That way everyone gets their favorite made! (Uh, but I’m still skipping The Final Battle, if that’s okay. It is the last one, after all.)