Lions, Witches, etc.
I've just seen The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe. Before I start dissecting, let me say that I rather enjoyed the film. But dissecting is what I do, so here goes.
If I had to sum up my criticism of the film in a word, it'd be `bloodless'. Literally: there's an impressively big battle scene towards the end, and there's no blood!; Peter sticks his sword in a gribble and it comes out shiny clean. Figuratively: there's just not very much happening underneath.
Tilda Swinton makes an uninspiring White Witch. When I saw the trailer, I mistook her for Ailce Krige, who'd have done a much better job of it. She ought to be imposing, beguiling - seductive, even - and thoroughly evil. As it is, she's just a bit bland: a Turkish Delight waitress with bad hair.
There's a line in the original story, about Aslan: `Of course he's not safe!' Alas, this one seemed safe enough.
And pretty please, keep the Americans away. In a production so generally full of `proper' English (well, British, at least) actors, the occasional American voice jars horribly. I want to pick out particularly the voice of Maugrim, the chief wolf, as sounding almost entirely unthreatening.
I don't know which of the stories they're going to release next, but they really ought to film The Magician's Nephew soon: otherwise Tilda stands a good chance of aging too much to pull off the part of Jadis in a prequel.
If I had to sum up my criticism of the film in a word, it'd be `bloodless'. Literally: there's an impressively big battle scene towards the end, and there's no blood!; Peter sticks his sword in a gribble and it comes out shiny clean. Figuratively: there's just not very much happening underneath.
Tilda Swinton makes an uninspiring White Witch. When I saw the trailer, I mistook her for Ailce Krige, who'd have done a much better job of it. She ought to be imposing, beguiling - seductive, even - and thoroughly evil. As it is, she's just a bit bland: a Turkish Delight waitress with bad hair.
There's a line in the original story, about Aslan: `Of course he's not safe!' Alas, this one seemed safe enough.
And pretty please, keep the Americans away. In a production so generally full of `proper' English (well, British, at least) actors, the occasional American voice jars horribly. I want to pick out particularly the voice of Maugrim, the chief wolf, as sounding almost entirely unthreatening.
I don't know which of the stories they're going to release next, but they really ought to film The Magician's Nephew soon: otherwise Tilda stands a good chance of aging too much to pull off the part of Jadis in a prequel.