MediaMaster wrote on Dec 11
th, 2005 at 9:08pm:
How was the movie? I'm looking for someone that loves the books as much as I do to respond.
I'm not just being a fanboy when I say it was absolutely amazing. I spearheaded a canned food drive at church, and I rewarded the students in my class with Narnia tickets. Despite the nasty weather, we still had seven people show up. The theatre was sold out, which is no small feat in dinky little Three Rivers.
The movie itself was freakin' awesome. It remained
very true to the books, which was a pleasant surprise. I expected the producers to throw in a bunch of random senseless battle scenes just to get better ratings, but they didn't. The final battle was beautifully done, though, and was done in such a way that I wanted to run around and stab people along with the characters.
The casting was some of the best I've ever seen. Susan and Peter were top-notch actors and really pulled off their characters. The white witch was borderline
perfect, and could turn from forced benevolence to pure dag nasty evil in an instant. Amazingly good stuff.
The CGI creatures were among the best I've seen. I think the beavers easily win for being the most believable computer-animated creatures I've come across. There were a few moments where the wolves or the witches sleigh looked a bit fake (mostly due to poor lighting/coloring), but those are few and far between.
The only real complaint I had about the story isn't really much of a complaint at all. Due to cramming an entire (albeit short) book into a 140 minute movie, some of the background story had to be cut. One of the biggest cuts was the relationship that developed between Aslan and the kids before Aslan died. In the movie, they meet Aslan just a couple days before he dies, yet Susan and Lucy still sob like crazy when he kicks the proverbial bucket. That seemed a bit odd to me, but I honestly don't know how I'd do it any differently if I were directing the movie.
Overall, it was an excellent movie and well worth the price of admission. You know how harsh a critic I can be, so that's really saying something. If you want to see it next weekend (i.e. Thursday or Friday) let me know and we'll make a night of it. I wouldn't mind seeing it again.
-b0b
(...wants some Turkish Delight.)