Thursday, December 22, 2005

we saw Chronicles of Narnia. the ads or trailers that I saw, it looked like LOTR. it has some grandiose moments but is more intimate than anything. I have only read Wardrobe, Witch and Lion in the series, and I did so in my 30s. it was never beloved for me. I didn't dislike the book but wasn't inspired to finish the series. I find the Christian allegory distracting, constant replacement of x with y. it's kind of deflating, too, all these fantastical events and characters turned into sunday school verities. not to say I dislike Lewis, but I think there's the danger of overplaying one's hand when allegory gets going. 1st thought: New Zealand is now established as THE location for fantasy. 2nd thought: oh to be a foley artist. a foley artist is someone who adds explosive sounds to every possible sound on a soundtrack. someone blinks and there's an explosion. seems like nice work. I can't remember what the movie was in the thrilling array of previews, a sucky animated hunk of Disney crap. oh yeah: Curious George. I fear Disney is going to do what they did to Winnie-the-Pooh. don't go: make them stop! and hey, check out this amazingly original plot in another choice upcoming: Queen Latifah has 3 weeks to live so, chuckle, she decides to blow her money on GOOD TIMES. can you imagine the hijinx??? hahahahahahahaha. whew. that's nothing like what the 3 Stooges did in 1939, or those 37 other movies. great twist on St Francis of Assisi's famous rejoinder. gotta see that one. but back to Narnia. it looked good enough. it seemed to lack scale tho. not till the end did we start seeing crowds, e'en tho it's about the world at wr. before that, it didn't seem quite large enough. there were some uneasy moments with the children, Lucy and the faun, Edmund and the Witch: a predation element. Santa Claus handing out weaponry was an interesting touch. all I want for Xmas is an AK47. I don't remember how the books handled that. goes along with the view that our jihad is better than yours. religious Texas Death Match, woo hoo. I remember the phrase 'righteous anger' in Perelandra. you can do anything if you're right. which is certainly common thinking but not exactly challenging to the moral muddle. Aslan seemed merely pompous thru out the movie. okay, he let himself be killed, but he had that covered. that angle seems kinda weak with that other guy as well. if you know death aint death, then dying aint no thing. quod erat demonstratum. so quit being so dramatic about it. Lucy was the most consistently noble of the children but gets pushed to 4th place quickly, and Peter unconvincingly becomes the King of Kingness. he is about 14 steps down from Viggo in terms of born to be king. the White Witch was icky enough, and she handled her swords nicely, but the whole game seemed rigged. I hope your sunday school isn't taking you to a matinee because I think there are holes in that part of the flick. it looked good, mostly. I can get into this stuff actually but when the brain goes back on, it all seems weak. LOTR was eye candy most of the way, but it sure hurt at times. I have little interest in the presumed excesses of King Kong. George Bush is a movie.

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