My Chronicles of the Movie

December 12, 2005

My wife and I got the chance to see the first rendition of the much anticipated Chronicles of Narnia, The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe. I was excited to see it because I’m just geeked that it was made into a movie. We’re in a time where all these great, solid stories are being beautifully transformed into the language of today’s most popular medium—film.

As a kid, I dreamed of movies like this. I remember watching the old, animated version of the Lord of the Rings as a pre-teen and thinking it was below average. Couldn’t they make a really good version of this story? The story is so good!

That is my context for seeing movies like this and I was impressed. The actors were really chosen well. Lucy was perfect! My only complaints were the editing (seemed choppy and rushed at times) and the character development. I didn’t feel connected to the characters emotions at times like when Aslan died.

Overall rating: B+

Posted by pablohart on December 12, 2005 09:34 PM

Comments

There seems to be a lot of griping about the soundtrack. did you notice anything about it?

Posted by Nathan Hart at December 13, 2005 8:53 AM

Nah. It was fine. I think there's too much griping about a lot of stupid little things in general these days--about anything.

Posted by pablohart at December 16, 2005 10:56 AM

Shawn and I just went to see the movie Friday night. We were quite impressed with the talking animals and the fairly strict adherence to the book, which I re-read recently. It is interesting that the preferred medium of the emergent culture seems to capture very well the allegory.

We had two disappointments.
1) The missed the line at the beginning where the professor talks with the kids about Lucy's story. He says "There are only three possibilities. Either your sister is telling lies, or she is mad, or she is telling the truth." I really like this use of the Mere Christianity logic about Christ's messianic claims.

2) They only alluded once to the fact that Aslan is not a tame lion. It the book this came out several times, including the time with the beavers where Mr. Beaver explains Aslan:
"I tell you he is king of the wood and the son of the Emperor-Beyond-the-sea, don't you know who is the King of Beasts? Aslan is a Lion-the Lion, the great Lion."
"Oh" said Susan, "I'd thought he was a man. Is he-quite safe? I shall feel rather nervous about meeting a lion."
"That you will, dearie, and no mistake," said Mrs. Beaver, "if there's anyone who can appear before Aslan without their knees knocking, they're either braver than most or else just silly."
"Then he isn't save?" said Lucy.
"Safe?" said Mr. Beaver. "Don't you hear what Mrs. Beaver tells you? Who said anything about safe? 'Course he isn't safe. But he's good. He's the King, I tell you."

I really like the ideal of not being tame. Not fitting in a box. Not obeying rules. There is a wildness to God's mercy...

Posted by Robert Wade at January 14, 2006 3:54 PM

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