The Lion, The Witch And The Wardrobe

[poliphilo]

The first movie in the Narnia cycle is a whole lot better than the second.

But there are still problems

1. The Bad guy is so much cooler than the Good guy. Tilda Swinton v a pompous CGI lion: no contest.

2. Child actors. The little girl playing Lucy is a delight. The others not so much.

3. Violence for its own sake. I'll bet Lewis dismisses the climactic battle in a page. Here it goes on and on and on. 

Back to Aslan. If fictional characters who embody virtue are almost always boring- and they are- then our conception of virtue must be wrong.  

Comments

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

I'll confess I haven't read the books.

Onscreen he's just this know-it-all character with a booming voice whom everybody seems to love and worship for no reason I can see.

Also you can tell he's computer generated and so not really there.

[steepholm.livejournal.com]

I'd be very interested to know what you think of the book, if you do get around to it. You could probably do it at a sitting: it's not long.

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

I may look out a copy next time we're at the library...

[ibid.livejournal.com]

The first 2 books which were written (that is Lion, witch and wardrobe and Prince Caspian) are quite plodding with rather dull plots. They really Dawntreader is my favourite, silver chair I don't like but it has some interesting elements and I think Magician's nephew is the best.

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

That's interesting.

The first two I sort of know from the movie versions.

I have only vague notions about the rest of the series.

[haikujaguar.livejournal.com]

I think the fact that movie-Aslan is boring tells you far more about Hollywood's conception of virtue than it does about society's or (certainly!) C.S. Lewis's. The book Aslan was magnetic, playful, generous, majestic and I wanted to meet him and ride on his back and bask in his utter goodness.

I think I saw the first movie. I think? That I can't remember should tell you all that needs to be said about it, for me. -_-

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

I'm pretty much convinced by this stage that I need to read the books....

[arielstarshadow.livejournal.com]

If you do, please read them in the original publication order, and not the order you find them in the bookstore today. Thus:

The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe
Prince Caspian
The Voyage of the Dawn Treader
The Silver Chair
The Horse and His Boy
The Magician's Nephew
The Last Battle

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

That makes sense.