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Narnia; etc.
Dec. 23rd, 2005 10:29 pmWork closed early today (yay!), so we saw "The Lion, The Witch, and the Wardrobe".
I read the book as a kid and enjoyed it a great deal (though not as much as my first love, the L. Frank Baum Oz books) so I had moderately high hopes. It was... good. Not spectacular. It aspired to epic-ness, but didn't quite make it.
Pros: Tilda Swinton as the White Witch (really, could there be better casting?). The animals, particularly Aslan, were extremely well realized, with realistic movement, weight, and texture. Mr. Beaver (who reminds me of a particular character created by friends of mine for an RPG we share ;)). And the little girl who played Lucy was very good - charming child, believable :)
Cons: The costumes were pretty, but nothing to write home about except for the White Witch's felt/wool/something textury dresses (and she had basically the same dress in different colors throughout - except for the battle dress, which was rather nice too). The other child actors annoyed me (Edmund is supposed to be annoying, but Peter came off as the pushy older brother I'm glad I never had, and Susan just wouldn't believe what was in front of her - which in light of the later books makes sense, but even so...). And some of the fighting irked me - find, take, kill, already!
Ahem. Seriously, I think it suffered some of the "it wasn't LOTR" syndrome, but I imagine any fantasy novel-to-film is going to be pressed to reach that standard for the next 10 years or so (sort of the way the Matrix sequels were just never, never as cool or groundbreaking as the first time we saw Trinity bounce off the wall).
And yes, I'm aware of the Christian allegory it presents (discussed here and here [day pass/reg. req.] far more ably than I could have done), or tries to present. Honestly, when I read it in 6th grade the imagery went right over my head; as an adult, not so much, but Christianity hardly has the monopoly on resurrecting gods.
In other news: cold has moved from my throat to my nose, so I plan to spend at least part of the holiday weekend in a Nyquil-induced rest, because otherwise I might likely try and Do Stuff. Or not. Oddly, even though I'm sniffly and headachey, I don't feel the need to constantly distract myself with movies, reading and/or sewing late into the night the way I did in the past, to stave off the holiday malaise I just knew was going to hunt me down if I didn't keep my mind occupied. This year the holiday blues don't seem to be chasing me [crosses fingers]. I think this might actually be what people call "contentment".
And yes, the pot of cinnamon-water on the stove (courtesy D. who does read [waves]) doesn't hurt :)
I read the book as a kid and enjoyed it a great deal (though not as much as my first love, the L. Frank Baum Oz books) so I had moderately high hopes. It was... good. Not spectacular. It aspired to epic-ness, but didn't quite make it.
Pros: Tilda Swinton as the White Witch (really, could there be better casting?). The animals, particularly Aslan, were extremely well realized, with realistic movement, weight, and texture. Mr. Beaver (who reminds me of a particular character created by friends of mine for an RPG we share ;)). And the little girl who played Lucy was very good - charming child, believable :)
Cons: The costumes were pretty, but nothing to write home about except for the White Witch's felt/wool/something textury dresses (and she had basically the same dress in different colors throughout - except for the battle dress, which was rather nice too). The other child actors annoyed me (Edmund is supposed to be annoying, but Peter came off as the pushy older brother I'm glad I never had, and Susan just wouldn't believe what was in front of her - which in light of the later books makes sense, but even so...). And some of the fighting irked me - find, take, kill, already!
Ahem. Seriously, I think it suffered some of the "it wasn't LOTR" syndrome, but I imagine any fantasy novel-to-film is going to be pressed to reach that standard for the next 10 years or so (sort of the way the Matrix sequels were just never, never as cool or groundbreaking as the first time we saw Trinity bounce off the wall).
And yes, I'm aware of the Christian allegory it presents (discussed here and here [day pass/reg. req.] far more ably than I could have done), or tries to present. Honestly, when I read it in 6th grade the imagery went right over my head; as an adult, not so much, but Christianity hardly has the monopoly on resurrecting gods.
In other news: cold has moved from my throat to my nose, so I plan to spend at least part of the holiday weekend in a Nyquil-induced rest, because otherwise I might likely try and Do Stuff. Or not. Oddly, even though I'm sniffly and headachey, I don't feel the need to constantly distract myself with movies, reading and/or sewing late into the night the way I did in the past, to stave off the holiday malaise I just knew was going to hunt me down if I didn't keep my mind occupied. This year the holiday blues don't seem to be chasing me [crosses fingers]. I think this might actually be what people call "contentment".
And yes, the pot of cinnamon-water on the stove (courtesy D. who does read [waves]) doesn't hurt :)
