Saw the movie last night. I thought it was excellent. Very true to the book and lots of fun. The actress playing Lucy got a little on my nerves at times but I know they were going for the innocence thing.

Liam Neeson was excellent as Aslan, I enjoyed his parts quite a bit.

There were quite a few people in my age group there rather than children and families but it was a 10:45 pm showing.

All mentions that could be considered overtly Christian weren't in the movie, I noticed. Which is ok, if you wanna see the allegory angle you can, but if you're just going for a fun movie with good action, this is it too.

I'd go see it again in the theatre.

YaY!

Im very interested in this one ...glad its good...

I didnt hardly see subtext in Xena & hopefully will not be bugged by religion in this....

One movie house has special on tuesday!
Which will be Bitter Cold here..

Geexe Im sicka winter already & it hasnt started yet.

Bugger... It doesn't open untill 22 of December here...

It's not a religious story. C.S. Lewis said it wasn't.

The marketers are trying to MAKE it religious, because they want to attract the same audience that went to see the Passion of the Christ.

i haven't read the books so have no comparison
i thought it was good tho.. if a bit long

quote:

Originally posted by Argeaux:
It's not a religious story. C.S. Lewis said it wasn't.

The marketers are trying to MAKE it religious, because they want to attract the same audience that went to see the Passion of the Christ.

The allegory is there if you want to see it. That's more how C. S. Lewis said, I believe. I know in one of his books about the letters he received from children, he said as much. For most kids/young adults/adults though, it's simply a fantasy.

Although I see nothing wrong with pointing out all the moral aspects of the story. I think that's a good thing in any film, story, song, etc.

Just my $.02 tho.

I don't have a problem with morals in stories, either. There are many different morals brought out in the Lord of the Rings.

"Yes Yes Precious this is true...

My daughter has a little red Kitten she has named ...Smeagol....

I saw the movie ..I LOVE it.....the X-tian religiousity is noticeable but not obtrusive...

On another track - do the animals and other beasts look life like?

My biggest fear is that Aslan will look kinda tacky.

I was dragged to this movie on Monday night.

I didn't enjoy children's movies as a kid, so as an adult I definitely have little desire to see them.

That being said... the movie was enjoyable enough, and I'd recommend it to anyone.

During the credits I noticed in the New Zealand crew listings "Meighan Desmond." I assume this was our Discord. She worked as a set runner or something like that.

Quite frankly I don't get the Christian undertones discussion. I didn't think of it at all during the movie. Almost all fairy tales have a moral, but I thought the ideals represented were classic and universal. The themes would apply to most religions or belief systems.

quote:

Originally posted by Argeaux:
On another track - do the animals and other beasts look life like?

My biggest fear is that Aslan will look kinda tacky.

Actually no, they do look quite life like. I thought Mr. Tumnus might look kinda stupid but he looked quite life like. And I have a crush on James McAvoy from his Children of Dune days.

Aslan, to me, was everything I hoped for. I had a picture in my mind of him from the books and I thought it was quite true to it in the movie. He was large, larger than life and had this...presence that I expected Aslan to have. All the baddies were lifelike too, dwarves, witches, giants, bad satyrs, minotaurs, etc.

But yes, to me, it didn't seem campy at all. "After all, he's not a tame lion."

I have NEVER seen talking animals seem so real....
the animals were very well done..

If you liked LotR Argy I think you will like this....

Best movie Ive seen in a long while....


Val & I watch Aeon Flux immediately after which was dopey,pale & almost boring by comparison.
They Should have kept Aeon a cartoon I think...It doesnt work with real people.

the old Fusspot,
Brucy

OK, thanks for the recommendations, folks.

I was a big fan of the Narnia books when I was a kid.

I will definitely see this one during the holidays.

For those who have seen the new and the BBC version, how do they compare?

quote:

Originally posted by Brian:

During the credits I noticed in the New Zealand crew listings "Meighan Desmond." I assume this was our Discord. She worked as a set runner or something like that.

Yep, She was part of the special effects crew. Glad she is part of this.

I saw this today and was very impressed - particularly with Mr Tumnus, the Snow Witch and all the animals.

The kids they cast were exactly as I had imagined them, when reading the book.

Excellent!

Saw this last night in an otherwise empty theatre (everyone else seeing Kong, i guess). Never read the book(s), didn't know anything bout the story going in except there were kids who went to some hidden side universe or something.

Up until all four kids are in Narnia, it was pretty good. The entrance to Narnia via the wardrode chest was good. The encounter between the young girl, Lucy, and the elf/faun guy was pretty nice. Edmond meeting the Ice Queen Witch was set up nice.

But then things fizzled for me. There was no explanation or background stories on the Witch or the Lion king person. Who made the prophecy about the two sons and daughters of Adam & Eve? Who was the professor who owned the castle with the wardrode chest and what was his connection here? Why did Narnia need four rulers? The oldest daughter, Susan, has the best screen presence, but is so judgemental yet she's named the "Gentle" queen- say what? When the Lion resurrected and told how he was resurrected, it sounded like he was making it up on the scene. Why didn't the kids go home after the war? Why did they forget the lamp-post entrance to the wardrobe? What did they do in the years between being kids and adults- did they fall in love, work, what? The ending was a major disappointment- when they transformed to kids again, they seemed to shake it off like it was no big deal. Wha? And were those LOTR extras during the war scenes? Where'd the Lion go to? Yeah, i can use imagination to fill in some voids but there are still a lot of character info they should have included.

Most of the questions you have, XC, is not even answered in the book. There is, however, 7 books in the series. And they are not to long either, I highly recommend reading them. Most of the questions you have is answered in the book The Magician's Nephew, that was published second to last, but the events are first, if you wanna read the books in chronological order. And how the kids acted as grownups is answered in the book The Horse and His Boy.

Here are all the books, in published order, if you wanna read them, XC. Most libraries have them.

The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe
Prince Caspian
The Voyage of the Dawn Treader
The Silver Chair
The Horse and His Boy
The Magician's Nephew
The Last Battle

Right. Now I have been a good librarian again, giving info about books.

quote:

Originally posted by KSena (previously known as Moonshade):
Here are all the books, in published order, if you wanna read them, XC. Most libraries have them.

now Moonie, ya know how i fall asleep in libraries!

Wonder if they're planning on Narnia sequels? i would have sat an extra 40 minutes at the movie had they explained more and had more character info. Maybe i'll invest in the book series, after all, Harry Potter is soon to end. *sighs*.

Well, if you fall asleep that easily, XC, maybe you should send someone to pick them up...

I hope they plan on making movies on the rest of the books to. I'll keep my fingers crossed that they will. These are good stories, as well as Tolkien's books. And deserve the attention. After all, C.S. Lewis and J.R.R. Tolkien were buddies.

I do recommend you buying them. They aren't that long, and not to expensive either, at least not in Sweden.

Happy reading!

well, i wasn't a fan of the movie.

it was the lord of the rings, if gandalf was a giant lion. and i didn't like the lord of the rings.

i didn't like the opening with all the war and stuff. to me, the story was never about a war, it was about making choices and excepting that there was some higher power (i guess there's that christian thing you were all talking about, not that i've ever taken any notice of it like that before); the deep magic...which got a throw away line or two, somewhere between germany bombing london and peter becoming a man by killing things.

the other thing this movie seemed to scream (like lord of the rings) was "look what we can do!!" SO many computer graphics that it wasn't funny. all the animated creatures (and i mean fully animated, like the wolves and the cheetahs) were just distracting. i'm like, they couldn't find a tame cheetah to wander about a crowd?? it pisses me off that people use CGI when they don't have to. at one point they had an animated horse just standing around doing nothing! a horse for christ's sake!!

aslan was great though. everything about him was right. he looked about 20 times better than any other creature (which i suppose he'd want to) and he did have a presense. sadly, at the beginning of the stone table scene, i was still too aware that he wasn't real for his untimely death to have much impact...

and what was up with the queen's clothes? WHY was her dress stretched over some some kind of box around her neck and shoulders?? was that in the book ? 'cause if it was meant to look foreboding or powerful, i'm afraid it just came off as rediculous and awkward.

the kids annoyed me. they were annoying kids. peter looked okay, but his wet-cardboard personality deterred me from showing much interest. i didn't care what happened to any of them. when lucy got lost in the river... "okay." when susan was being attacked by wolves... "uh huh." when edmond was impaled on the white-witches sword..."*yawn*...how long does this thing go for again?"

i found it all very boring and disappointing. the beavers were of some entertainment value, and i liked the fox (okay, if the animals are going to have to talk and cower and be attacked and things, GCI's probably acceptable), but still...

the professor was the most interesting and well-acted character besides aslan, and we saw him for all of two minutes. again, the movie misses the point. it's not about escaping one bloodbath to wind up in another, it's about seemingly insignificant people affecting the course of major events by the choices they make, and having the faith in themselves to make those choices well; having faith in other people enough to want to help them and accept their help in return, and people having faith in things they don't necessarily understand, but nevertheless know to be right and true.

anyway...

i'll give it three stars for effort, and the fact that everyone but me seems to like it *shrug.*

Heehee you dont HAVE to like it

I HATED titanic with a vengance.

Its the top grossing movie of all time .. so I guess more than a few somebodies musta liked it.

Sorry you were dissappointed.

I dont go to movies for realisim. I find most of 'real life'aggravating irritaing pompously stupid & a total dissappointment. I live among the dregs around here...peopel seem to enjoy annoying one another & will harm thtemselves to get at each other.

So I go to the movies as pure escapism.

I dont WANT no stinkin reality to interfere with that.
I even prefer nearly empty movie houses.

As my mom used to say:
"I LOVE humanity ..its people I cant stand."

quote:

Originally posted by Madogis:
it pisses me off that people use CGI when they don't have to.

Word. WORD!

quote:

Originally posted by Brucy Braless:
I HATED titanic with a vengance.

Its the top grossing movie of all time .. so I guess more than a few somebodies musta liked it.

If it makes you feel better, if you adjust for inflation it's only sixth

This message has been edited. Last edited by: Fahrenheit,

quote:

Originally posted by Brucy Braless:
I go to the movies as pure escapism.

I dont WANT no stinkin reality to interfere with that.

i like the fantasy to feel real to me. i like to be able to invest in everything that's happening. but when elements don't mesh, it's jarring and it wrecks the experience.

Okay, so I finally saw the movie and I, for one really enjoyed it. There were some things they could have done better. (Like, say some of the blue screen effects...anyone else notice how fake some of those were.) And why does everyone in Narnia have the same kind of ears.

Speaking of the ears though, I thought they were SEXY!! I want Narnian ears!!! I also thought the CGI, was exceptional. I'm usually utterly disgusted by CGI, but this one wasn't so bad.


Everyone talks about the BBC production, but does anyone remember the Animated version. I loved that as a kid, probably wore my tape out.

Well, just wanted to add my two cents.

Tiggs