Narnia movie: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe- Page 4

[Jim Colyer]

Posted: 12/11/05 at 11:59pm

Can't wait to see it!

[jrb_actor]

Posted: 12/12/05 at 12:13am

It was just ok for me. There were some nice moments, but there were some boring moments. And there were definitely some cheesy/cliched moments.

I definitely think kids will love it, and Tilda Swinton deserves greater glory, and hopefully this film will indeed deliver it for her. I just wish her scenes had been edited a little better--some moments came off badly for me--and I know it's not her acting ability.

[roquat]

Posted: 12/12/05 at 1:27am

It was very charming at the beginning, but too long and (eventually) too full of itself (just a little too much "Star Wars"-type pop mysticism). Loved Dawn French as Mrs. Beaver, though...

Frankly, I think I will always remember the animated cartoon version more fondly.

[sabrelady]

Posted: 12/12/05 at 2:01pm

On the whole I liked it very much. The girl who played Susan needs some acting lessons I don't remember Susan being SUCH a wet blanket. Peter was good and will improve as he grows up, Lucy was pretty much spot on and well Edward. They tried but they really didn't devlelop the character enough to show him going form "a poisonous little beast" to the clever warrior who is willing to sacrifice his safety for a military end. Tilda was remarkable as were her costumes! I was also pleased w Tumnus. It could have been a bit dodgy w a female child going off w a "friendly" faun but the actor made it work. I actually was excited almost to tears when Peter cried "For Narnia And Aslan" Very Henry IV. I also liked the bombing sequence @ the begining & its echo w the gryphons later. It could improve but now that they've established the characters in the Narnia universe, I think Prince Caspian will really develop.
(P.S. The Christian elements were very well intigrated nothing to overt- not unlike the books!)

[popcultureboy]

Posted: 12/12/05 at 2:11pm

One review of Tilda commented on her wearing "a succession of costumes seemingly upholstered rather than tailored".

[bwaysinger]

Posted: 12/12/05 at 2:20pm

I thought she was brilliant. And I wanted to eat the little girl playing Lucy. So adorable.

[BlueWizard]

Posted: 12/12/05 at 2:27pm

It's too bad the White Witch doesn't make an appearance in any of the other books.

The girl who played Susan needs some acting lessons I don't remember Susan being SUCH a wet blanket.

Susan always seemed like the party pooper to me. Isn't she the one who doesn't return in THE LAST BATTLE because she doesn't remember anything of Narnia and feels she's too old to indulge in children's play?

[popcultureboy]

Posted: 12/12/05 at 2:30pm

I did wonder when someone said on here that Swinton was signed for more of the franchise how that was going to work.......

[Plum]

Posted: 12/12/05 at 2:36pm

Ooh, careful, BlueWizard. Because the part I always remembered was that Susan couldn't go back because she got interested in lipstick and pantyhose. We're both right, but even when I was 10 my latent feminist got offended by that. I'm going to get my hands on Neil Gaiman's "The Problem of Susan" once I get back to the States.

[smartpenguin78]

Posted: 12/12/05 at 2:39pm

I hate Susan, but I had an ultra crush on the girl that played her when I was in the play in High School, so I tend to be nicer about her than I once was.

[BlueWizard]

Posted: 12/12/05 at 2:58pm

Ooh, careful, BlueWizard. Because the part I always remembered was that Susan couldn't go back because she got interested in lipstick and pantyhose.

Exactly -- she traded imagination for MAC cosmetics. My friend says jokes that Susan represents atheism, and she'll be rejected at the gates of New Narnia for it.

[Plum]

Posted: 12/12/05 at 3:01pm

I always saw it as a loss of innocence. You grow up, you get interested in sex, and you "fall". I get exactly why Philip Pullman wrote a whole trilogy to rail against that attitude.

[smartpenguin78]

Posted: 12/12/05 at 3:03pm

It was certainly about the stupid "fall"= "sex" nonsense.


It has always been strange to me that the "Narnia Theology" is actually MORE conservative than Lewis' purely theological work.

Updated On: 12/12/05 at 03:03 PM

[broadway86]

Posted: 12/12/05 at 3:20pm

I really liked this movie. The look of the movie was great, as were the visual effects. Many scenes were exactly as I had imagined them. The kids were all very good, and so was Liam Neeson as Aslan, but Tilda Swinton and James McAvoy stood out.

[Imchristine4real]

Posted: 12/12/05 at 4:47pm

It's funny, next spring at college, our musical will be "Narnia" and I can't wait. I would KILL to be the White Witch, but as we have a shortege of men auditioning, I'll more then likely be one of the boys (Peter or Edmund}. I would love to be Edmund, come to think of it. Yes, I would like to play the brat/traiter/then forgiven Edmund.

LOVE THE BOOKS!!!

[sabrelady]

Posted: 12/12/05 at 6:25pm

In the Christian allegory part of the book I saw Susan as one who has committed the sin of "gaining the whole world and lose(ing) his soul". trading the material world for the spiritual one.( "She's spent her whole life trying to get to this age and now she'll spend the rest of it trying to stay @ this age!") That being said- The Last Battle was a real mish mosh couldn't tell where he was going Lewis got so muddled w the idolators and such. Good luck adapting that!!

[Jilani]

Posted: 12/12/05 at 7:56pm

It's too bad the White Witch doesn't make an appearance in any of the other books.

Actually, the White Witch is a prominent character in The Magician's Nephew, which is chronologically a prequel to The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe. That book explains how she first got to Narnia from her own world, by way of London. So if a film adaptation of the book is made, we could see Tilda Swinton kick ass once again!

[popcultureboy]

Posted: 12/12/05 at 7:58pm

Phew. But that's only one more film, so did the person reporting she was signed up for 3 more films get it wrong?

[Plum]

Posted: 12/12/05 at 8:02pm

Unless she's playing the witch in The Silver Chair, too (and that's a different witch), I don't see how it can be true.

[popcultureboy]

Posted: 12/12/05 at 8:08pm

Maybe she is. Had I been Adamson, I would have had fun and had Tilda play Mrs Macready too.

[Rentaholic2]

Posted: 12/13/05 at 2:39pm

I got chills when Aslan killed the White Witch and said, "It is finished"--the last words Jesus spoke on the cross before giving up His spirit.

And as far as the "Christians don't embrace magic stuff like Harry Potter", I have to disagree. I actually can't think of a single Christian I know who is 'against' Harry Potter because of the magic.

[Michael Bennett]

Posted: 12/13/05 at 2:45pm

Loved it.

Couple of pacing issues (a few too many wide eyed wonder shots of the kids and a few of the early scenes were a hair too long) but this was pretty much everything I could have hoped for in a movie version of the book. Perfectly cast. Tilda Swinton was mesmerizing. Truly.

[munkustrap178]

Posted: 12/18/05 at 1:18am

I saw this tonight.

I didn't care for it at all.

I really enjoyed the first 45 minutes or so, but then it just all went downhill for me.

The visual effects are the worst in recent memory - there were scenes where they should have just left the green screen behind them instead of filling it in - it was still that obvious. There were entire "computer animated" parts that just looked stupid. It looked like NARNIA trying to be LORD OF THE RINGS on a budget.

The Ice Queen (or whatever's) animals looked like slightly better versions of the bad guys from the Mighty Morphin Power Rangers TV show. The kids were all terrible (except for Lucy.) They were all bland and couldn't act their way out of a bag. Where did they find those kids?

Swinton was fine. Nothing like I've been hearing. This material doesn't really lend itself to acting, though.

I was interested enough at some points, but at the end I was bored out of my mind just waiting for it to end.

I truly felt ripped off by the "Special effects" - it was also obvious that this was a Disney movie. This story would have more potential if it were told in a darker, more realistic setting. There were multitudes of cliche'd shots and images - especially during the battle sequence - and the experience wasn't really salvagable for me.

* 1/2 out of ****

[DG]

Posted: 12/18/05 at 1:27am

"I actually can't think of a single Christian I know who is 'against' Harry Potter because of the magic."

Just for a different perspective, we have neighbors that won't let their children play with other neighbor's children specifically because they read 'those Satanic Harry Potter novels'. And it has everything to do with the 'magic' - which they see as a sign of the devil.

[sabrelady]

Posted: 12/18/05 at 6:39am

I won't argue that the special effects are pretty bland( except the ice floe bit) but they got so many other things right I'll cut them some slack. Tilda was very restrained she coulda really chewed the scenery w some of her scenes but she went for the less is more and it worked. ( I do agree that the menace was turned down a bit for family consumption)