Caspian at sea
May. 17th, 2008 09:37 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
calimacI don't have the protective feeling for Narnia that I do for Tolkien's work, but all the same I thought I should find out as soon as possible what was done to it in the new film. So I signed up for the C.S. Lewis Society of California's private screening. This was before I saw the reviews, which were all slams. My heart sank. What tedium had I let myself in for?
Actually, I didn't think it was quite that bad. At least the first half, which had some gorgeous and even magical scenery, and which raised up to being genuinely interesting whenever the Telmarines - the swarthy villains, all played by mature actors well-seasoned in Italian or Spanish-language films - were on screen. Next to the raw kids playing the heroes, it was no contest in the acting department. My sympathy was with the Telmarine queen, a feisty lady who valiantly defends herself when the so-called good guys attack her and her husband while they're asleep in bed.
But the last third of The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe was taken over by a huge set-piece battle which Lewis (a genuine World War I combat veteran, don't forget) had disposed of in a couple vague sentences in the novel. After that, what on earth would the filmmakers do with Prince Caspian, which has three battles and otherwise mostly consists of the heroes wandering around lost in the woods?
Well, half the film was war, and the bad kind of war. Single-combat warriors who take their helmets off to fight (cue Arac from Princess Ida: "It's very hot / and weighs a lot / So off that helmet goes"). The magical stretching battlefield (armies that keep running at each other for thrice as long as it ought to take them to cross that distance). Actors staring blankly at the CGI critters that weren't there yet for live-action filming. Heroic music throbbing on the soundtrack as the bad guys get slaughtered; yay!
I had to amuse myself by thinking, whenever Peter calls "Retreat!", which he seems to have to do a lot, how much he sounds like King Arthur crying "Run away!" in Monty Python and the Holy Grail, or how Reepicheep keeps behaving like a dead ringer for Puss-in-Boots from Shrek 2. Though there are some jokes from the book, the film is missing the light and fey sides: no Bacchus, no Narnian schoolchildren. By the time it was over, I could have excused Peter and Susan thanking Aslan for not making them come back here again.
Our admission included a post-film "lunch" in a nearby restaurant, which proved to be reception-type snacks: bite-sized quiches and cheese-and-crackers plates. Various friendly folk I chatted with proved undismayed by my Narnian puns, but proved to know far less about Lewis than I did, which I found a bit disconcerting because most of my conversations about Lewis are with world-class experts on the subject. They hung on my words, so I recommended a few books to read and went on my way.
Actually, I didn't think it was quite that bad. At least the first half, which had some gorgeous and even magical scenery, and which raised up to being genuinely interesting whenever the Telmarines - the swarthy villains, all played by mature actors well-seasoned in Italian or Spanish-language films - were on screen. Next to the raw kids playing the heroes, it was no contest in the acting department. My sympathy was with the Telmarine queen, a feisty lady who valiantly defends herself when the so-called good guys attack her and her husband while they're asleep in bed.
But the last third of The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe was taken over by a huge set-piece battle which Lewis (a genuine World War I combat veteran, don't forget) had disposed of in a couple vague sentences in the novel. After that, what on earth would the filmmakers do with Prince Caspian, which has three battles and otherwise mostly consists of the heroes wandering around lost in the woods?
Well, half the film was war, and the bad kind of war. Single-combat warriors who take their helmets off to fight (cue Arac from Princess Ida: "It's very hot / and weighs a lot / So off that helmet goes"). The magical stretching battlefield (armies that keep running at each other for thrice as long as it ought to take them to cross that distance). Actors staring blankly at the CGI critters that weren't there yet for live-action filming. Heroic music throbbing on the soundtrack as the bad guys get slaughtered; yay!
I had to amuse myself by thinking, whenever Peter calls "Retreat!", which he seems to have to do a lot, how much he sounds like King Arthur crying "Run away!" in Monty Python and the Holy Grail, or how Reepicheep keeps behaving like a dead ringer for Puss-in-Boots from Shrek 2. Though there are some jokes from the book, the film is missing the light and fey sides: no Bacchus, no Narnian schoolchildren. By the time it was over, I could have excused Peter and Susan thanking Aslan for not making them come back here again.
Our admission included a post-film "lunch" in a nearby restaurant, which proved to be reception-type snacks: bite-sized quiches and cheese-and-crackers plates. Various friendly folk I chatted with proved undismayed by my Narnian puns, but proved to know far less about Lewis than I did, which I found a bit disconcerting because most of my conversations about Lewis are with world-class experts on the subject. They hung on my words, so I recommended a few books to read and went on my way.
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no subject
Date: 2008-05-18 04:53 pm (UTC)Well... I won't set the expectation meter too high, and just let it roll.
no subject
Date: 2008-05-19 12:05 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2008-05-19 12:26 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2008-05-20 01:13 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2008-06-04 08:30 pm (UTC)