Christ, The Devil and The Closet
Posted on | December 28, 2005 at 6:04 pm | Comments Off
The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe is the longest movie title of the year. I’m pretty sure. I went into the movie not having read the books and only knowing that it was about a group of kids who end up in a magical otherworld in the throes of a Good vs Evil struggle, where there exists a lion who is supposed to be an allegory for Christ. Aside from all the “Daughters of Eve and Sons of Adam” talk (why not “Daughters of Adam and Sons of Eve” or “Sons and Daughters of Adam and Eve”?), the movie did not go overboard with the religious overtones. Sure, there was a Christ figure and a sacrifice and resurrection and all, but I must’ve missed the part where they talked about an actual Christian God (Aslan’s father?). But if that’s what people want to take from it, fine. I just know it was a fun little adventure story with some touching moments and some decent effects. The CGI animals, especially the beavers, were great. It had some good things to say about sticking by your family, no matter how retarded they act. Georgie Henley, the little girl who plays young Lucy, was exceedingly cute and precocious, yet a believable actor who sold the emotional scenes without overselling them. I wait for the inevitable buddy flick with her and Dakota Fanning. Really, I don’t see how anyone can not like this movie, though it doesn’t have the fantasy heft of something like Lord of the Rings. I give it an Entertaining on my scale.
How about the moviegoing experience? No technical problems. The theater was a big screen one and the showing looked sold out, but people more or less behaved. Someone shined a laser pointer at the screen a couple of times, but I suspect the perpetrator was killed by nearby patrons before he could do it some more. The smell of fresh blood mingled with the greasy scent of buttery popcorn.
Latre.
P.S. If you haven’t done so yet, check out The Chronic-WHAT-cles of Narnia Rap (aka “Lazy Sunday”) video from Saturday Night Live. It’s really funny. Note: Video starts playing right away from link.