NARNIA-- Who's going to see it this weekend?

[Rosebud]

I know I'm not the only one who can't wait to see "Narnia" this weekend. Who else has plans to see it?

I absolutely loved these books when I was a kid... I'm excited to see how the movie has turned out. The review in the L.A. Times this morning (which I only read a bit of because I'm trying to avoid any spoilers) said the film was good and very faithful to the book.

http://www.canmag.com/images/front/lap/narnia.jpg

[Anathea]

WE're going to head out on Saturday night and go to the late show, I'm hoping the lines up will have died down a bit by then. We're driving 1 1/2 hours to see this so I hope it's good!@ I'm soooo excited though.

[Sherb]

I think we are going to see it. We're going with another couple so some of the choice is up to them. But I hope to see it soon either way. I loved the books too. Do you really think that they will do the whole series? That's a lot of movies.

[akacharlotte]

I am very excited they finally made this book into a movie. I read the series over and over as a kid. I just hope the computer graphics are not way overdone in the movie. Of course, many of the creatures will have to be done that way. The previews look great however. I want to see it this weekend and I am hoping to talk my SO into going.

[bunnybeth]

I'm going to be seeing it this evening. I've heard from a few places that it's pretty faithful to the book, and I'm really hoping that's true. Still, I've decided not to reread the book until afterwards. The BBC versions were really good, but this'll be on the big screen which I'm sure will look great.

Does anyone know about further movies in the series? They are calling it "The Chonicles of Narnia" as the big title. I'm curious as to which book they'd be working with next.

[Rosebud]

Review of "Narnia" from Entertainment Weekly:

The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe
Reviewed by Owen Gleiberman

Alice, down the rabbit hole, tumbled into a Wonderland of vanity and vice — the real world etched in satirical acid — and her early-20th-century American counterpart, Dorothy, found Oz, with its surreal yokels and charlatans, to be just as crackpot a place. But when C.S. Lewis wrote his own variation on rabbit hole metaphysics, The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, in which he dispatched four very proper British children into the haunted and mystical winterland of Narnia, he wasn't fooling around, or even cracking a smile. You can read the seven volumes of The Chronicles of Narnia as a Christian allegory or as an ornate book of wonder (or both), but either way it's marked by the devout, almost pristine earnestness of Lewis' sincerity and gravitas. Narnia, a land of fauns, talking beavers, a dastardly White Witch, and a solemn savior of a lion, may sound like the stuff of filigreed fairy tales, but it's really a place of holy war, where the imagination darkens the more it expands.

In the lavish, spirited, at times naggingly literal-minded movie version of the hugely popular first Narnia tale, you're often aware that you're watching child actors romp through a land of concocted creatures and special effects. The snow is too studio-set frosty, and Mr. and Mrs. Beaver, voiced by Ray Winstone and Dawn French as an engaging pair of fussbudgets, come a little too close to the goofy polar bears in Coke commercials; you can see the digital seams. The centaurs, satyrs, and assorted other magic folk of the wood often look as if they'd just stepped out of a makeup trailer. Director Andrew Adamson, in his live-action debut (after Shrek and Shrek 2), stages The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe with a wide-eyed prosaic eagerness that reminds me a little of the Hollywood fantasy films of the late '60s. Even when Adamson brings off a lovely touch, such as the White Witch (Tilda Swinton) tempting young Edmund (Skandar Keynes) by creating ice sculptures that turn into fruit-filled Turkish Delight, we don't quite feel how the devilish dessert has corrupted the boy's heart.

Yet the movie, for all its half-baked visual marvels, remains remarkably faithful to Lewis' story, and the innocence of his passion begins to shine through. It's there, most spectacularly, in Aslan, the lion-king messiah. For once, a computerized beast looks like he's talking, and he's voiced, by Liam Neeson, in velvet seductive tones of lordly compassion. Swinton, as the White Witch, makes a worthy enemy, rearing up during the climactic battle like a rock star of cold self-love. The war itself, with its digital tumult, will look familiar to anyone who saw the Lord of the Rings films, but if Peter Jackson did it better, The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, by summoning C.S. Lewis' spirit, creates a different kind of spectacle — a starry-eyed crusade.

[Rosebud]

And some stills from "Narnia":

http://images.snapfish.com/3457383523232%7Ffp337%3Enu%3D323%3A%3E65%3A%3E567% 3EWSNRCG%3D32333846%3A%3B4%3B%3Cnu0mrj

http://images.snapfish.com/3457383523232%7Ffp337%3Enu%3D323%3A%3E65%3A%3E567% 3EWSNRCG%3D32333846%3A%3B524nu0mrj

http://images.snapfish.com/3457383523232%7Ffp336%3Enu%3D323%3A%3E65%3A%3E567% 3EWSNRCG%3D32333846%3A%3B525nu0mrj

http://images.snapfish.com/3457383523232%7Ffp336%3Enu%3D323%3A%3E65%3A%3E567% 3EWSNRCG%3D32333846%3A%3A445nu0mrj

http://images.snapfish.com/3457383523232%7Ffp336%3Enu%3D323%3A%3E65%3A%3E567% 3EWSNRCG%3D32333846%3A%3A447nu0mrj

http://images.snapfish.com/3457383523232%7Ffp335%3Enu%3D323%3A%3E65%3A%3E567% 3EWSNRCG%3D32333846%3A%3A446nu0mrj

[PrincessTommi]

I wanted to try to get through the book (it's been years and years since I've read it) before I saw it, but DH really wants to go this weekend so we'll probably go on Saturday. I'm looking forward to it.

[TX Sweetheart]

Saw it this morning... it was absolutely amazing!! It was very true to the book (what little I actually remember of the book, it's been about 15 years since I've read it) and was just beautiful... loved it! Gonna go see it again sometime this weekend I hope...

[kiddo]

I saw it this afternoon and thought it was wonderful. I think it will become a classic movie like the Wizard of Oz. From what I remember, it is seemed to be pretty true to the book (it's been a loooong time since I've read it. Now I want to read it again :D ).

[bellaprincess]

I saw it this evening. It was great!

[claribella]

OMG I SO want to see it but unfortunantly I can't get a baby sitter. So just like Harry Potter, I might have to wait for th DVD.

[Camdynlyn]

Has this been a movie before?? I swear I have seen it already.

[jeepgirl]

I'll be going sometime this week... when I'm done with finals! I'm looking forward to it!

[Sherb]

Has this been a movie before?? I swear I have seen it already.

BBC did a production of it before.

We have tickets to go see it tonight. I'll report back on my thoughts.

[Camdynlyn]

BBC did a production of it before.

We have tickets to go see it tonight. I'll report back on my thoughts.

Excuse my ignorance, who is BBC?

[MidwesternGal]

I've seen the BBC version as well and loved it. (BBC is a British television station with different programming, kind of like an NBC meets made for tv-movie channel meets CNN.)

My DH and I went tonight, and he LOVED it (but has never read the book or even heard of it until I told him we were going to the movie!) and all in all, I thought it was pretty good. My jumbled review is below!

My Review:(so don't read if you don't want to hear what I think it was like!):

I agree with the review that said you were very aware that you were watching actors doing the novel, instead of the "children" in Narnia. I was highly impressed with the two actors who played Lucy and Peter (hmm, anyone notice a strong resemblence to a certain prince named William? Coincidence, I think not!)--Lucy was just a doll and Peter is a cute teenager who really strikes me as becoming a great actor someday. Those who played Susan and Edmund were a bit ho-hum and were almost a bit annoying. I was also thinking the actors who played Susan and Peter would be a *tad bit* older (just a year or two)--in the book they seem a slightly more mature than the movie allows for.

The person who played the Faun was quite good--very well done and convincing! And Liam Nieson and the actress who played the White Witch did well also.

It follows the book very closely, which is nice, because I cannot stand when it's completely different--if you have to rewrite it, why bother? There are a lot of computer generated scenes, but you have to expect it with this kind of storyline.

The scenery was beautiful! I liked that it was perfect and somewhat over-the-top--it is a fantasy world! The witch's castle was perfect!

All in all, I think it definitely rates a good solid B+! We'll probably buy it when it comes out on DVD, and are recommending it to our friends and families!

[KarenS]

BBC = British Broadcasting Corporation.

We saw it last night. Overall I liked it a lot. The effects were good, the acting was good (not great, but good) and it stayed very true to the book. I was not, however, blown away like I wanted to be. I wanted to come out of the theater saying "that rocked" and i just couldn't. I think the emotional range of the movie was lacking - I didn't really care what happened to any of the characters overall. I didn't cry when I should have (spoiler in white - when Aslan was killed) and I just couldn't get involved with any of the characters. I couldn't even feel that the White Witch was evil. They were all just characters and fairly predictable.

Who knows ... maybe it's been long enough since I read the book that I didn't remember it was so simple. But I just expected a little more.

Like MidwesternGal, I'd give it a B+ for a good entertaining movie, but not something I would see again or need to own.

Karen

[Weddings by]

Camdynlyn--I know there is a cartoon version, also.

[Sherb]

My feelings- It seemed a little rushed. When it came to the part where the children were enthroned I said to myself "Wait, we're here already?!" I think if they had slowed it down a bit I would have cared more about the characters. Instead it was an acedemic exercise in mentally comparing the movie with the book. And Lucy was cute as a button (although I do see braces in her future).

[camberne]

My son is going to the 3:20 showing today with his church youth group. I will see it sometime in the next week, I'm sure. I never saw the BBC version, but have seen the animated version at least 10 times. When I was 7 or 8, we even made puppets and did a puppet show during one of our church retreats. I know this book like the back of my hand... never got into any of the other Narnia books, although we do have the series.

I'm excited that Liam Neeson is doing the voice of Aslan.

[katzmeow671]

To those of you who have seen it... do you think the battle scene is too intense for an 8 year old?? All the reviews I've read have mentioned the "extreme violence" and I've held back taking my daughter to see it until I hear more from people who aren't professional reviewers.

[nic]

katzmeow671, I went last night with my seven nieces and nephews that range in age from 13 to 5. My brother and SIL were concerned about taking my 5 year old nephew but he was fine. He did get frightened by the wolves but not by the battle scene.

[Rosebud]

To those of you who have seen it... do you think the battle scene is too intense for an 8 year old?? All the reviews I've read have mentioned the "extreme violence" and I've held back taking my daughter to see it until I hear more from people who aren't professional reviewers.


I would say no-- it's not too intense. It's definitely a battle, but they do a really good job of not showing blood or grisly deaths or anything like that. I think an 8 year old can definitely handle it.

[Sherb]

There's no blood or gore in the battle scenes. Yes, the people (and animals) get hurt and fall down but it is very simplistic. I think it would be fine for an 8 yo. When I saw the movie a little boy who was about 5 had to be taken out during the battle scene because he was scared of the witch (and voiced his opinion very loudly.) :)

[TracieB]

I hated it. I found myself rolling my eyes a number of times at some of the corny parts (which, IMO there were plenty of). I didn't read the book, so went into it not knowing anything about the story. I felt like the effects were ho-hum and looked fake at times. I really didn't enjoy it. Just my opinion....

[TX Sweetheart]

And Lucy was cute as a button (although I do see braces in her future).

LOL DH & I said the same thing, especially after the second time we saw it (because we could pay more attention to the little details)... she is absolutely adorable but her teeth bugged me...

[KarenS]

Well, yah, of course there were corny parts. It's based on a children's book written in 1950. I wouldn't expect otherwise. But the story, as far as a children's fantasy go, is still a classic, IMO.

Karen

[TracieB]

It's just wasn't my type of movie. If ya don't like true fantasy movies, I don't think you'd like this.

My husband really liked it though. He has read the books and said that the movie was very true to the book, which is encouraging.