I AM A Lazy Blogger

Hey.

Sorry for not doing anything for about a month but I have a dial -up connection at home and it was too much of a hassle to post...

anyway...

So for the report on Narnia...

I don't really want to say too much in case you haven't seen it (if you haven't drop what you are doing and go see it right now) but here goes...

First off, the movie rocked in regards to following the book. If there were a race between the LOTR trilogy and this movie in following their respective books, Narnia wins every time. There were only a few instances in which the movie added things in dramatic license such as the whole wolves catching up to the children at one point thing and Peter acting like a pansy and not killing the wolf. That is one thing that I disliked about the film. Much like how the biblical Peter is the rock of Christ's new Church, Peter is the foundation of Aslan's new kingdom of a broken table. The movie portays Peter as very frightened and shaky of his huge responsibility. And, much of the time he takes this weight out on Edmund, another exaggeration the movie made. Alot of Edmund's trechery seemed to be placed on Peter's shoulders in the film and that is absurd and completely unsupported by the book.So far I've made more negative comments than positive but I just want those who haven't read the book to understand some the discrepancies. One last negative. When Aslan returns in the book the first thing he does is tell the children to cover their ears and then delivers a deafening roar. Which he did in the movie. But then, he tells the children to "try and catch" him. This didn't happen at all in the movie. I found this very unfortunate becuase this is one of my most favorite depictions that Lewis gives us of Christ. Aslan, knowing that a battle is being fought in his name by a mere boy first plays with Lucy and Susan. Think about the necessity of this. Christ's purpose in coming to earth was to make man, an impure and fallen creature, tangible to God, a Holy and completely pure being, so that man could share an intimate relationship with God through Christ our bridegroom. Since the fall this intimacy was not possible becuase God will not defile himself with anything unholy. But God loves this creature, this Man so much that he decides to come to earth and WALK AMONG US. And not only that, but endure the most humiliating death...

just so He could hold us.

Now, in the story, up to this point there was no playfullness in Aslan and the childrens' relationship. It was kept to a very serious tone about a very serious business. But here after Aslan's resurrection, he says, "Catch me if you can." Wow. Lewis describes thier playing for nearly two pages. It's sheerly beautiful and the movie leaves it out.

Now for the cool parts. I loved the way that Adamson drew a few parallels. First, the parallel between ancient and modern warfare. In the very beginning of the movie we see bomber planes attacking London. Then in the battle scene we see the Eagles bombing the Witch's army with large boulders. Brilliant. Also another thing I saw was the way Peter held his sword. I overheard a few cracks about this by some people after the movie the first time I saw it but they were obviously stupid so oh well. I thought it was awesome the way he held his sword. Listen, the boy is growing up in London during a war. What weapon was used by ground troops in the World Wars? DUH. GUNS. NOT SWORDS. So how is he supposed to know how to hold this sword. Plus he hadn't been in Narnia long enough for the slow transformation of maturity that always occurs to children entering Narnia to take hold. He's holding that sword how he has seen soldiers hold guns. Now, isn't that awesome? The second cool parallel I found was Adamson's parallel of Tumnus and Edmund. In one scene I realized how these two are so much ailke. They are both traitors of their race. And, more importantly, they are incredibly valiant once they realize they are wrong and do two of the most graceful 180s that you've ever seen. That scene that I mentioned was when Ed steps on Tumnus' father's portrait when they find his house ransacked after his capture and I remembered that Ed went back in the house in the beginning to get his father's picture before the house was bombed.
Other cool stuff was the great detail to the battle that you really didn't get to the book and the extra attention given to the childrens' lives in London prior to coming to Professor Kirke's house. Also Aslan looked AMAZING.
If anything this movie enhances one's reading of the book. The film didn't make up things that were too out there, it only took Lewis' established ideas and went deeper into them instead of running away from the message of the book. Andrew Adamson gets a huge tip of the hat for this one.

So there was my opinion on Narnia.

I have a few poems I've been working on so they will hopefull be up shortly.

Classes start tomorrow.

Pray for me.



Good Providence