Dear media:
In the future, please be more specific than "A tornado has hit in Central Texas!" Because CenTex is a big place, a very big place, and if you're not more specific it causes me to get a multitude of phone calls that go something like this:
"Oh my God are you okay??"
"Um....yes? Is there a reason I shouldn't be?"
"The news said a tornado hit!"
"Oh, that. That was a hundred miles away, all I've got is rain."
Until I finally start answering the phone wiht "The tornado was in another county!", which invariably causes the person on the other end ot be someone who wasn't calling about the tornado, who freaks out because then what, what tornado what? And some day, media, some day, the tornado WILL actually hit in Waco, and no one's actually going to call because the "Central Texas tornado" has never been where I am before, why would it start now?
In sum: Texas is big. Tornados are not. Be more specific.
(It is highly possible that none of the media besides local stations knows the difference between the different parts of CenTex, or even that there are different parts, but I am choosing to ignore that.)
I realized last night that three weeks from Today should be my first night in the new apartment. Two weeks from Monday I pick up the key, and then I'll be moving a couple boxes at a time in the evening and then do the big furniture move on Saturday, so I shouldn't have to take any time off. Wahoo?
I forgot to mention this in my last post, but while Sarah was here I netflixed Prince Caspian, not without some trepidation. I was in a screaming, incoherent frothing rage after Lion, Witch and the Wardrobe, and I had heard that Prince Caspian was even worse in terms of following the book. And again, I've read all the books so many time I know when the wording of the dialogue is wrong, or when they attribute it to the wrong person, so I am a dangerous person to allow to see those movies.
However, HORRIFIC AND SENSELESS DEPARTURES FROM THE BOOK ASIDE, I thought the movie was not terrible.
First of all, casting. There is no question in anyone's mind that Ben Barnes is fun to look at. But the fact remains that Peter should only be about 13/14 at this point, and Caspian is slightly younger, so 12/13. Ergo, having a 26 (I think?) year old play Caspian and a 20 year old play Peter is SO, SO NOT RIGHT. I realize this is caused by the problem of working with pubescent and pre-pubescenter actors, especially when dealing with multiple films over several years, and I also realize that Daniel Radcliffe sure didn't look 15 in the OOTP movie. However, there's artistic license (Peter could have been mid teens), and then there is spitting in your eye. Also, Susan is supposed to be like 12, so OMG OMG EW EW EW EW STAT RAPE STAT RAPE STAT RAPE.
Yes, I went there. If I'm going to have to think that from now on, you are too. Don't even get me started on my theory on Most Disney Princes Are Sex Offenders.
Anyway, parts of the emotional parts that weren't strictly in the book I didn't freak out about, because they did make sense in the logical flow of the story, but they hadn't been Lewis' focus so he hadn't gone into them. I do buy that Peter going from adult and High King to adolescent boy that everyone pushes around would have some attitude problems. And I do believe that, if we're going with older!Peter and older!Caspian, and if now older!Caspian is also older than Peter, that we'd have some friction and some pissing contests. So yes, I do see where that came from, but I think it should have been sorted out much sooner in the movie than it was. Peter's storm the castle plan wasn't actually a bad one, but when it became obvious that it had gone wrong, he should have pulled back rather than get everybody slaughtered, and then trying to blame it on Caspian was NOT HIGH KING BEHAVIOR, PETER. If you're going to be the high king be the high king, and that means knowing where the buck stops.
I really didn't like that they moved the blowing of Queen Susan's horn (and...in context of the stat rape remarks that sounds....really wrong) so early in the movie. That really fudged up the timeline. The scene they did with calling the White Witch fixed most of the problem, and made sense in the context of the storyline, although again, WTF PETER YOU KNOW BETTER YOU WERE THERE FOR GOD'S SAKE.
Plot issues aside, I really liked the calling of the White Witch, and although speaking to Jadis is not strictly canon, I thought they did a good job with it.
I think part of the reason that they moved the calling of the Pevensies so far up in the movies was just to give them more screen time. Really we should have spent a lot more time just with Caspian, and Susan and Lucy were not with Caspian that long; they only met him at the very end of the story. I also was not happy with how hard they were trying to make Susan a more sympathetic character and give her story time. She stole some of Edmund's best lines (giving her the quickest repentence after Lucy seeing Aslan REALLY chafed my hide), which relegated Edmund to the background most of the time. I'm sorry, you can't make Susan not a useless whiny bitch, because that's all she is for most of that movie. There's a reason Susan doesn't get to come back, and it's not because she started liking boys--it's because she gave up the faith in Narnia while she was still in Narnia. So why waste this much time on Susan when we're never going to see her again? We'll see Edmund and Lucy at least once more, and if they make The Last Battle we'll see Peter again, but unless they make Horse and His Boy we'll never, ever see Susan again, and good riddance to bad rubbish. I suppose even if they do make Horse and His Boy they might not even be able to use the same actress, because of the age difference...? So anyway, I really don't get it, because it's not like the actress is such a big name that they'll sacrifice the plot to give her screen time, aka Halle Berry in X3. (YOU COST ME GAMBIT, WOMAN. I WILL NEVER FORGET THIS.)
Also, Reepicheep was awesome. Thumbs up for that.
I wish they'd given Aslan his proper role in the movie; he isn't in this book directly as much as he is in some of the others, but they still cut out most of his triumphal return. THe scenes with him, Lucy and Susan returning Narnia to the Narnians are some of my favorites in the book, but they cut them in favor of having Susan spend more time firing shots that miss and making calf eyes at Caspian. Oh, wait, is that why they changed Susan? They were afraid of the feminists if Susan was the whiny piece of baggage she's supposed to be? She has to Fight With The Men to be important? I will be so mad if that's it. Susan doesn't typically fight not because she's a girl, but because she's useless. Lucy is the one who's always as close to the front lines as she can be, and she's the one who goes to war in Horse and His Boy, not Susan. She's the one who's "as good as a man, or at any rate as good as a boy."
Anyway, I reallyreallyreally don't like Susan (orly?), so giving her extra screentime and more sympathy, especially at the expense of Edmund, is so not okay with me.
I think there was something else I didn't like about it, although I now can't remember what. Interestingly, with all of these nits I still didn't hate it, the way I hated the first one. I think it was true...ish to the spirt of the book, and the battle sequences were fun, even when they weren't correct. So I have rescinded my frothing hatred for the producers at Walden, and will look forward to Dawn Treader with trepidation of how badly they're going to mess it up, but not with fear and loathing. And maybe, just MAYBE, I will pay money to see it in the $ theater.
"Oh my God are you okay??"
"Um....yes? Is there a reason I shouldn't be?"
"The news said a tornado hit!"
"Oh, that. That was a hundred miles away, all I've got is rain."
Until I finally start answering the phone wiht "The tornado was in another county!", which invariably causes the person on the other end ot be someone who wasn't calling about the tornado, who freaks out because then what, what tornado what? And some day, media, some day, the tornado WILL actually hit in Waco, and no one's actually going to call because the "Central Texas tornado" has never been where I am before, why would it start now?
In sum: Texas is big. Tornados are not. Be more specific.
(It is highly possible that none of the media besides local stations knows the difference between the different parts of CenTex, or even that there are different parts, but I am choosing to ignore that.)
I realized last night that three weeks from Today should be my first night in the new apartment. Two weeks from Monday I pick up the key, and then I'll be moving a couple boxes at a time in the evening and then do the big furniture move on Saturday, so I shouldn't have to take any time off. Wahoo?
I forgot to mention this in my last post, but while Sarah was here I netflixed Prince Caspian, not without some trepidation. I was in a screaming, incoherent frothing rage after Lion, Witch and the Wardrobe, and I had heard that Prince Caspian was even worse in terms of following the book. And again, I've read all the books so many time I know when the wording of the dialogue is wrong, or when they attribute it to the wrong person, so I am a dangerous person to allow to see those movies.
However, HORRIFIC AND SENSELESS DEPARTURES FROM THE BOOK ASIDE, I thought the movie was not terrible.
First of all, casting. There is no question in anyone's mind that Ben Barnes is fun to look at. But the fact remains that Peter should only be about 13/14 at this point, and Caspian is slightly younger, so 12/13. Ergo, having a 26 (I think?) year old play Caspian and a 20 year old play Peter is SO, SO NOT RIGHT. I realize this is caused by the problem of working with pubescent and pre-pubescenter actors, especially when dealing with multiple films over several years, and I also realize that Daniel Radcliffe sure didn't look 15 in the OOTP movie. However, there's artistic license (Peter could have been mid teens), and then there is spitting in your eye. Also, Susan is supposed to be like 12, so OMG OMG EW EW EW EW STAT RAPE STAT RAPE STAT RAPE.
Yes, I went there. If I'm going to have to think that from now on, you are too. Don't even get me started on my theory on Most Disney Princes Are Sex Offenders.
Anyway, parts of the emotional parts that weren't strictly in the book I didn't freak out about, because they did make sense in the logical flow of the story, but they hadn't been Lewis' focus so he hadn't gone into them. I do buy that Peter going from adult and High King to adolescent boy that everyone pushes around would have some attitude problems. And I do believe that, if we're going with older!Peter and older!Caspian, and if now older!Caspian is also older than Peter, that we'd have some friction and some pissing contests. So yes, I do see where that came from, but I think it should have been sorted out much sooner in the movie than it was. Peter's storm the castle plan wasn't actually a bad one, but when it became obvious that it had gone wrong, he should have pulled back rather than get everybody slaughtered, and then trying to blame it on Caspian was NOT HIGH KING BEHAVIOR, PETER. If you're going to be the high king be the high king, and that means knowing where the buck stops.
I really didn't like that they moved the blowing of Queen Susan's horn (and...in context of the stat rape remarks that sounds....really wrong) so early in the movie. That really fudged up the timeline. The scene they did with calling the White Witch fixed most of the problem, and made sense in the context of the storyline, although again, WTF PETER YOU KNOW BETTER YOU WERE THERE FOR GOD'S SAKE.
Plot issues aside, I really liked the calling of the White Witch, and although speaking to Jadis is not strictly canon, I thought they did a good job with it.
I think part of the reason that they moved the calling of the Pevensies so far up in the movies was just to give them more screen time. Really we should have spent a lot more time just with Caspian, and Susan and Lucy were not with Caspian that long; they only met him at the very end of the story. I also was not happy with how hard they were trying to make Susan a more sympathetic character and give her story time. She stole some of Edmund's best lines (giving her the quickest repentence after Lucy seeing Aslan REALLY chafed my hide), which relegated Edmund to the background most of the time. I'm sorry, you can't make Susan not a useless whiny bitch, because that's all she is for most of that movie. There's a reason Susan doesn't get to come back, and it's not because she started liking boys--it's because she gave up the faith in Narnia while she was still in Narnia. So why waste this much time on Susan when we're never going to see her again? We'll see Edmund and Lucy at least once more, and if they make The Last Battle we'll see Peter again, but unless they make Horse and His Boy we'll never, ever see Susan again, and good riddance to bad rubbish. I suppose even if they do make Horse and His Boy they might not even be able to use the same actress, because of the age difference...? So anyway, I really don't get it, because it's not like the actress is such a big name that they'll sacrifice the plot to give her screen time, aka Halle Berry in X3. (YOU COST ME GAMBIT, WOMAN. I WILL NEVER FORGET THIS.)
Also, Reepicheep was awesome. Thumbs up for that.
I wish they'd given Aslan his proper role in the movie; he isn't in this book directly as much as he is in some of the others, but they still cut out most of his triumphal return. THe scenes with him, Lucy and Susan returning Narnia to the Narnians are some of my favorites in the book, but they cut them in favor of having Susan spend more time firing shots that miss and making calf eyes at Caspian. Oh, wait, is that why they changed Susan? They were afraid of the feminists if Susan was the whiny piece of baggage she's supposed to be? She has to Fight With The Men to be important? I will be so mad if that's it. Susan doesn't typically fight not because she's a girl, but because she's useless. Lucy is the one who's always as close to the front lines as she can be, and she's the one who goes to war in Horse and His Boy, not Susan. She's the one who's "as good as a man, or at any rate as good as a boy."
Anyway, I reallyreallyreally don't like Susan (orly?), so giving her extra screentime and more sympathy, especially at the expense of Edmund, is so not okay with me.
I think there was something else I didn't like about it, although I now can't remember what. Interestingly, with all of these nits I still didn't hate it, the way I hated the first one. I think it was true...ish to the spirt of the book, and the battle sequences were fun, even when they weren't correct. So I have rescinded my frothing hatred for the producers at Walden, and will look forward to Dawn Treader with trepidation of how badly they're going to mess it up, but not with fear and loathing. And maybe, just MAYBE, I will pay money to see it in the $ theater.