The day of reckoning, postponed.
Ok, regarding this Narnia LW&W business, many have commented on the significance and quality of the recent big budget film adaptation. I of course must comment on this phenomenon. So rather than be branded a nay-sayer Ill start with, yes, its good its great its wonderful. Whew, glad thats out of the way. Im also a great lover of universal justice, and Im not a big fan of people getting undeserved credit. So the thing is this, the movie is good, great and wonderful. However, while I was watching, I realized that it was not the grand triumph that I had thought it symbolized. And its the same reason why Red Dragon was beautifully executed, but yet not an independently brilliant achievement. The secret is revealed in the Red Dragon DVD director commentary. The director mentions that he was undaunted at the prospect of making the movie because, three movies had already been made using the same characters. In fact, the same movie had been made once already. He could see what he wanted to do and learned from the mistakes of others.
I suddenly realized while watching the LW&W film that it was an update. Blueprints had been laid out for this 3rd coming of Jesus, err, I mean Aslan. Sure the BBC version was valuable for the prupose of learning what to edit, what one might avoid doing. But the most valuable lessons were drawn from another versoin, the animated version of LW&W made all the way back in 1979. While I was watching the new version in the theater, I was struck by the amount of diologue, set design, and even camera angles (?!), that were basically lifted from the animated film. Seriously, buy the DVD and see for yourself.
Ok, Im not going to lie. I was hoping this would be the next Lord of the Rings one that would last for 7 movies and 12 years. Well it wasnt, and maybe it was silly of me to think it would. It was clearly a Disney film geared toward a much younger audience. The pacing in the first 1.5 hours was so rushed, and it was only so we could fit in a 20-minute battle scene where all the points-of-contact are off-camera. This was not the stunning accomplishment that I had anticipated. It was a very good adaptation of the material to live-action, though. The character design and set design were all great, aside from a few really fake-looking backgrounds. The faun, the centaurs, the minotuars, the griffons, everything looked f*cking awesome. Tilda Swinton was perfect except for that lumpy dress.
But it was not the independent accomplishment of a newly arrived genius. The moment of reckoning is still to come.
Ok, regarding this Narnia LW&W business, many have commented on the significance and quality of the recent big budget film adaptation. I of course must comment on this phenomenon. So rather than be branded a nay-sayer Ill start with, yes, its good its great its wonderful. Whew, glad thats out of the way. Im also a great lover of universal justice, and Im not a big fan of people getting undeserved credit. So the thing is this, the movie is good, great and wonderful. However, while I was watching, I realized that it was not the grand triumph that I had thought it symbolized. And its the same reason why Red Dragon was beautifully executed, but yet not an independently brilliant achievement. The secret is revealed in the Red Dragon DVD director commentary. The director mentions that he was undaunted at the prospect of making the movie because, three movies had already been made using the same characters. In fact, the same movie had been made once already. He could see what he wanted to do and learned from the mistakes of others.
I suddenly realized while watching the LW&W film that it was an update. Blueprints had been laid out for this 3rd coming of Jesus, err, I mean Aslan. Sure the BBC version was valuable for the prupose of learning what to edit, what one might avoid doing. But the most valuable lessons were drawn from another versoin, the animated version of LW&W made all the way back in 1979. While I was watching the new version in the theater, I was struck by the amount of diologue, set design, and even camera angles (?!), that were basically lifted from the animated film. Seriously, buy the DVD and see for yourself.
Ok, Im not going to lie. I was hoping this would be the next Lord of the Rings one that would last for 7 movies and 12 years. Well it wasnt, and maybe it was silly of me to think it would. It was clearly a Disney film geared toward a much younger audience. The pacing in the first 1.5 hours was so rushed, and it was only so we could fit in a 20-minute battle scene where all the points-of-contact are off-camera. This was not the stunning accomplishment that I had anticipated. It was a very good adaptation of the material to live-action, though. The character design and set design were all great, aside from a few really fake-looking backgrounds. The faun, the centaurs, the minotuars, the griffons, everything looked f*cking awesome. Tilda Swinton was perfect except for that lumpy dress.
But it was not the independent accomplishment of a newly arrived genius. The moment of reckoning is still to come.