Saw the new Chronicles of Narnia movie today. I wasn't really impressed. Oh, it seemed pretty faithful to the book, and it was technically very well done. The opening puts it in a context that I had not previously been aware of (though I imagine it's in the book), to wit: during WWII, and the children wind up at the professor's house because they've been evacuated from London and he's kindly put them up, not because he's family as I had thought for some reason he was.
Or maybe that's a change they put in. Either way.
The problem, for me, is it just didn't feel right. The whole thing seemed miscast from top to bottom (Tilda Swinton does make a good scary White Witch...but she doesn't pull off the friendly White Witch Edmund initially encounters very well.). The SFX are all very shiny, but they're curiously suspended between being stylized enough to be representative, and looking realistic enough to actually be believable as real, and as a result achieve neither. There's some little suspense-of-disbelief glitches as well, like a river that they cross as it's melting rather than a little ways up the river where it would have been perfectly safe. There's a big action sequence of the war between the good guys and the White Witch's forces that's pretty unconvincing and not particularly exciting or relevant..
And I just don't like the logo at all.
But then, it was really not that different from what I'd expect a Disney Narnia movie to be like, and better than I'd originally thought. I expect I'm just too attached to the old BBC movie.
Or maybe that's a change they put in. Either way.
The problem, for me, is it just didn't feel right. The whole thing seemed miscast from top to bottom (Tilda Swinton does make a good scary White Witch...but she doesn't pull off the friendly White Witch Edmund initially encounters very well.). The SFX are all very shiny, but they're curiously suspended between being stylized enough to be representative, and looking realistic enough to actually be believable as real, and as a result achieve neither. There's some little suspense-of-disbelief glitches as well, like a river that they cross as it's melting rather than a little ways up the river where it would have been perfectly safe. There's a big action sequence of the war between the good guys and the White Witch's forces that's pretty unconvincing and not particularly exciting or relevant..
And I just don't like the logo at all.
But then, it was really not that different from what I'd expect a Disney Narnia movie to be like, and better than I'd originally thought. I expect I'm just too attached to the old BBC movie.