The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe

At last...a movie that both Christians and Pagans can watch together, and both groups walk away satisfied.

Anyone else see it yet?

I have, and all I can say is damn, just damn...

This was one of the first, if not the, first fantasy books that I ever read and what this film did was bring back that sense of awe and power that much of today's fantasy, and most of the rest of the books on the shelves, lack.

When a movie tightens your chest and stops your breathing it has something special.

I saw it on Friday, worrying if they would not be faithful to the book, but I need not have worried about it. The White Witch seemed to lack something to me, but I cannot put my finger on it. I enjoyed the movie, but something was missing to give me a "Wow I must own this when it comes out on DVD" kind of feeling.

My 13 year old daughter saw it, and she really liked it but said that it didn't follow the book.
The first things she said when she got home (in a disappointed/ whiny 13 year old voice) were "there was no tunnel in the book" and "there was no frozen waterfall in the book".

Guess I will have to go see for myself.

I took the kids on friday night to see it at The Strand in Old Forge. They loved it. It was very engrossing, and moved swiftly. There were a few scenes that looked obviously 'green screened', though. In particular, when they were up in the mountains, the background contrast level was much lighter than the foreground. Aslan was well done, and Mr Beaver was excellent. The Centaurs and Minotaurs were really cool, too. Ripley(5yr old) got scared when the wolves were chasing the kids, but overall, good for kids and parents. go see it on the big screen. it's worth it.

Yes I saw last week. Can you believe the movie is already for sale on eBay? Actually, I loved the movie and I might go and see it in theatres because watching a movie on your laptop isn't the same as the big screen experience.

An old lady sitting next to me asked if she was in the right theater during the bombing scene. I wasn't 100% sure myself, since I had arrived "late" (ie in time to see the last preview), and had hurried into the theater without seeing any signs. Later, she literally jumped half a foot when Edmund was stepping over Maugrim.

I did enjoy the film a lot. I'll echo lumberjim's effects comments, with respect to bluescreening as well as the creature effects. I'll also echo seakdivers' daughter's comments - the bits that made the least sense were the wolf chase through the tunnel and on the ice raft, and they were also the bits that were added by Hollywood.

One bit that I wish hadn't been omitted was the gifts to the Beavers. I mean, come on. They wait a hundred years (or whatever portion of which they've been alive), and Father Christmas all but ignores them? For the Pevinsies, it hasn't even been one year since they were last visited!

I'm looking forward to the other books, especially the Voyage of the Dawn Treader. I am interested, though, in how they'll handle the Muslim stuff in the later books.

megalicious wrote:

Yes I saw last week. Can you believe the movie is already for sale on eBay? Actually, I loved the movie and I might go and see it in theatres because watching a movie on your laptop isn't the same as the big screen experience.

I'm thinking that Ebay will probably quash such sales. Peer to peer is one thing, but selling is another thing entirely.

I'm a little late to the party. I just got a chance to see Narnia last night when my visiting mother-in-law offered to babysit.

Damn. Just damn. That movie was GOOD.

I read the book as a kid about 25 years ago, and didn't remember all the plot turns, so it was even suspensful for me. Bonus! I couldn't remember what happened to Edmund. I have no idea how faithful it was to the plot line, but I do know that it really captured the feeling of the book, and the few things I remembered from the book we in there.

What an awesome movie! If you haven't seen it, you should go. It is really good. My wife agreed. We were both really glad we saw it in the theater.

I'm really torn. I did enjoy the books when I first read them; I understand the movie is well-executed. However, as a nonbeliever, I have a lot of sympathy for this point of view:

Of all the elements of Christianity, the most repugnant is the notion of the Christ who took our sins upon himself and sacrificed his body in agony to save our souls. Did we ask him to? Poor child Edmund, to blame for everything, must bear the full weight of a guilt only Christians know how to inflict, with a twisted knife to the heart. Every one of those thorns, the nuns used to tell my mother, is hammered into Jesus's holy head every day that you don't eat your greens or say your prayers when you are told. So the resurrected Aslan gives Edmund a long, life-changing talking-to high up on the rocks out of our earshot. When the poor boy comes back down with the sacred lion's breath upon him he is transformed unrecognisably into a Stepford brother, well and truly purged.
...[Aslan] is an emblem for everything an atheist objects to in religion. His divine presence is a way to avoid humans taking responsibility for everything here and now on earth, where no one is watching, no one is guiding, no one is judging and there is no other place yet to come. Without an Aslan, there is no one here but ourselves to suffer for our sins, no one to redeem us but ourselves: we are obliged to settle our own disputes and do what we can. We need no holy guide books, only a very human moral compass.

This movie has as much religion in it as Star Wars does. Just watch the movie as an action adventure. It's a good one. You won't get the feeling that Christianty is being shoved down your throat unless you are going out of your way looking for it.

First, why would a Pagan want to see a movie in which the villain is a Witch? Would anyone tolerate a movie in which the movie was an evil Jew? Second, why would a Pagan want to see a movie that is an obvious Christian analogy? Why would straight people want to see Brokeback Mountain?

Jordon wrote:

First, why would a Pagan want to see a movie in which the villain is a Witch? Would anyone tolerate a movie in which the movie was an evil Jew? Second, why would a Pagan want to see a movie that is an obvious Christian analogy? Why would straight people want to see Brokeback Mountain?

A rather blinkered attitude, surely? How can you hope to make informed decisions and participate in meaningful discussions of topics if you simply ignore that which does not fit in with your view of the way things should be?

Perhaps this is best demonstrated if we extend that idea -why would any human want to see a movie where a human is a villain?

Why would straight people not want to see Brokeback mountain, incidentally? I'm off to see it next week with a group of straight friends with life views encompassing almost the entire political and religious spectrums.

Oh, and I agree with the majority about LWW -it was very true to the book but almost spoiled in places by the few "additions". My 6 year old was very scared by the first half, though. He doesn't like the silent suspence thing, where you are made to expect something to jump out at you. I thought the fact that he felt it as strongly as if he were in the movie demonstrated how well the movie was made in those parts.

glatt wrote:

You won't get the feeling that Christianty is being shoved down your throat unless you are going out of your way looking for it.

Which it what makes me curious how they'll handle the last couple films...

Jordon wrote:

First, why would a Pagan want to see a movie in which the villain is a Witch? Would anyone tolerate a movie in which the movie was an evil Jew? Second, why would a Pagan want to see a movie that is an obvious Christian analogy? Why would straight people want to see Brokeback Mountain?

Most pagans are able to understand the distinction between reality and fantasy. The White Witch is more of an archetypal figure of abused power and selfish intent than she is a Witch in the modern understanding of the word. (There is a fairly large bunch of militant pagans that think that The Wizard of Oz should be banned because of the inaccurate portrayal of witches. A fairly large bunch of militant pagans really need to get over themselves and their misplaced sense of self importance.)

As far as the "evil Jew" movies go ... there was a bit of a furor over The Passion of the Christ, as I recall. I don't remember as much of a fuss over the 2004 Merchant of Venice with Al Pacino as Shylock, but perhaps the indifference towards films of Shakespeare plays that aren't made by Mel Gibson or Kenneth Brannagh swept that under the carpet.

Plenty of straight people will see Brokeback Mountain. If they don't, it won't make a lot of money. The Birdcage was a gay movie that made megabucks because of the crossover appeal. La Cage a Folles remained a small, amusing foreign film because it had wide appeal for a gay audience, but not a lot of bang for the straight man's buck. Hell, who reads subtitles, after all? (I do, and have most of my favorite foreign films in the original languages. Dubbing offends me because the voice characterizations are NEVER right.) La Cage didn't really hit the mark with straight folks until the Broadway show came out.

A lot of straight Christian Right people will NOT see that movie, but will probably, somewhere along the line, sneak a peek at it when it finally makes it's way to HBO or Showtime. The ones that don't cancel their subscriptions by way of protesting it's airing, of course. HBO knows they'll be back just as soon as Inside the NFL starts up again.

Will and Grace is a top comedy because of it's crossover appeal as well. That's the key to a successful film ... attract the broadest audience possible.

wolf wrote:

... (I do, and have most of my favorite foreign films in the original languages. Dubbing offends me because the voice characterizations are NEVER right.) ...

Das Boot.

ja wohl, baby!

[/hijack]

My somewhat meager foreign film collection is primarily German. It's a lot more fun when you don't always need the subtitles, although these days my skills are rusty enough that I have to puzzle things out slowly sometimes.

Das Boot
M
Triumph of the Will (virtually no spoken words, so the subtitle thing really isn't relevant)
Der Untergang (Downfall)

(I dig WWII.)

I guess the silents don't really count ... Metropolis, Cabinet of Dr. Caligari ... both have the title cards in English. I don't have a multi-region DVD player, and I'm not so into it that I have to get the German versions.

I had a couple Werner Herzog films on Video, but I don't know where they got to. I used to go to the University of Pennsylvania International House with friends and there was sometimes a Wim Wenders film in the mix.

I'm not going to see Brokeback Mountain, but it's not because of any antigay bias. It's because it looks incredibly boring and full of itself. Whenever the chardonnay-and-brie crowd start dry humping a movie like that before it even comes out, you know it's going to be used as a bludgeon against all the pedestrian, whitebread morons who actually paid to see things like King Kong.

I read the spoilers. It's Bridges of Madison County with swordfighting. And as you would expect, the "victims" are the people who desert their families for so-called love. Why is that supposed to be so cool?

Jordon wrote:

First, why would a Pagan want to see a movie in which the villain is a Witch? Would anyone tolerate a movie in which the movie was an evil Jew? Second, why would a Pagan want to see a movie that is an obvious Christian analogy? Why would straight people want to see Brokeback Mountain?

And why would a non-American-Idol-contestant want to see "From Justin to Kelly"?

No, seriously. Why?

mrnoodle wrote:

I'm not going to see Brokeback Mountain, but it's not because of any antigay bias. It's because it looks incredibly boring and full of itself. Whenever the chardonnay-and-brie crowd start dry humping a movie like that before it even comes out, you know it's going to be used as a bludgeon against all the pedestrian, whitebread morons who actually paid to see things like King Kong.

I read the spoilers. It's Bridges of Madison County with swordfighting. And as you would expect, the "victims" are the people who desert their families for so-called love. Why is that supposed to be so cool?

You're probably right. But I'm still going to see it -I only ever get out once in a blue moon and my buddies and I pick the only film that none of us has seen already! :lol:

Still looking forward to it, though -we usually end up seeing whatever Brit movie is showing and I always end up feeling a little homesick. At least with this one I know I won't come out pining over anything! :lol:

Oh wow.

I saw it yesterday.

Free, thanks to my sister, incidentally, who bought me the video game for Christmas and it had movie passes in it.

So, as I was saying ... wow.

I don't think I have ever seen a better film adaptation of a book, particularly one that I love so very dearly.

Dialog was correct, casting was good, and the visuals ... well, it was like they were picked up out of my head and put right up there on the screen for everybody to see.

I hope the rest of them (assuming they get made) meet this standard.

Happy Monkey wrote:

I'm looking forward to the other books, especially the Voyage of the Dawn Treader. I am interested, though, in how they'll handle the Muslim stuff in the later books.

Tash is clearly not Allah, and he would eat you for saying so.

Perhaps, but if they dress the Calormenes like Arabian Nights I'm not sure the distinction will be appreciated.