I realize the movie has been out for several weeks, but in case you’re still sitting on the fence or just haven’t gotten around to seeing it, here’s my report:
Having survived the Lord of the Rings movies, I had decided fairly early that I would give the new Narnia movie a try, but have been in no hurry to do so. My wife and I finally saw it last night. It’s excellent. For fidelity to the book, I would rate it above The Lord of the Rings. I was very pleased with the lack of various objectionable things which I will lump into the term "Hollywoodization" and hope you understand me. It wasn’t totally absent, but it was far less intrusive. Karen and I both thought the four children were pretty much perfect.
If you don’t plan to see it because you don’t want your imagination taken over, or have a principled objection to going to the movies in general, I certainly won’t try to talk you out of your opposition. But if you don’t have any such objection, this one is worthwhile, and I don’t think it will spoil the book for you.
On the way home I said to Karen that the great battle seemed a bit anti-climactic. She agreed but added that she thought it was so in the book as well, which I think is true. The Lion etc. is in fact not my favorite of the Narnia books, although the opening is wonderful. The allegory always struck me as obtrusive. So I’m optimistic now about what we might expect from the rest of the Narnia films.
–Maclin Horton
i haven’t seen it yet, not because i don’t want to, but i can’t. my trip to narnia is happens in january. (hopefully.) looking forward to it!
I saw “The Lion the Witch and the Wardrobe” on Friday with my two eldest sons and my brother and his family and concur with Maclin’s critique.
Jackson’s LOTR film got certain things very right, nearly perfect: the Shire, Gandalf, Sam, Rohan. On the other hand there were many things that were eye-rollingly bad: the elves, Legolas surfing on his shield, dwarf-tossing jokes, and the battle of Gandalf Kenobi vs Darth Saruman.
The Narnia film only had a couple of groaners [the beaver pumping the air with his fist and saying "YES!" and the Witch's hair and wardrobe]. The rest was, so far as I can tell [it has been many years since I read the book] beautifully rendered.
Some have criticized the opening scenes, which fleshed out the reality of World War II England, but I thought it a fine adaptation for the screen, immediately engaging the audience and creating the sense of exile the children felt.
All in all, immensely satisfying, and the children were wonderful.
The special effects were on the whole unobtrusive, to the point that I found myself wondering “How did they train those polar bears to do that?” before realizing that of course it was all done with computers.
I left the theater exhilirated and looking forward to the sequels.