Bother

I went to see The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe last night, mostly because I was bored both in and out of my mind and was willing to put down the six bucks to have something to do. I enjoyed the movie overall. I'm always glad to see a movie follow a book accurately. That kind of thing says to me that the people who wanted to see the story hit the big screen actually cared for the story itself, not just its ability to turn a quick buck.

I could probably go on and on about how great the CG stuff was, but hey, that's pretty much the norm now, and amazing though it is, has become the standard and no longer really impresses me. When they get to the point that they can do CG humans without me realizing it, then I'll let my jaw drop. Suffice it to say it was a great movie, visually. Though, oddly enough, the cinematography itself is really the only part of the movie where I had any complaint.

I've took two film classes in my undergraduate career, both for German films. And I've been watching my League of Gentlement DVDs with the commentary on, which includes a lot of discussion about camera angles and shots and cutting between shots. So, that said, I'd like to think I have enough knowledge about films to realize that thought is put behind how the film is shot, and to analyze and, ultimately, criticize that thought. There's strong emotion at many points in the movie (the girls crying over Aslan, the reunion of the Pevensies, etc.), and my beef is that the director did not allow enough time on these moments before going on to the next scene, line, or bit of action. Maybe I'm just more in touch with my emotions than some, but I wanted just a little more time for catharsis. The other time was during the final battle scene, as the camera was panning up to reveal the size of the White Witch's army. Right in the middle of this, it cuts away to a centaur's face (not even a named character) to show his reaction, then cuts back to the army and finishes panning up. I think the shot would have carried quite a bit more force if the director had let the size of the army speak for itself.

During the scene where the baddies were humiliating Aslan and tying him to the Stone Table, I kept thinking to myself that I wish we could have seen what Jim Henson would have done with this kind of movie. The appearance of all the evil creatures would have lent itself well to the style of Dark Crystal or Labyrinth. Ah, I miss those days of very little computer graphics in movies.

One last thought about the Narnia movie...I saw on television about a month ago an advert for the video game. The commercial mentioned a website where one could go to obtain a cheat code for the game. I guess I was under the assumption that the books in the Narnia series were about people being pushed to be their best and most honest and try their hardest. Almost needless to say, I was struck by the discrepancy.