From: owner-chakram-refugees-digest@smoe.org (chakram-refugees-digest) To: chakram-refugees-digest@smoe.org Subject: chakram-refugees-digest V5 #293 Reply-To: chakram-refugees@smoe.org Sender: owner-chakram-refugees-digest@smoe.org Errors-To: owner-chakram-refugees-digest@smoe.org Precedence: bulk chakram-refugees-digest Sunday, December 11 2005 Volume 05 : Number 293 Today's Subjects: ----------------- [chakram-refugees] OT: Narnia review ["Xena Torres" Subject: [chakram-refugees] OT: Narnia review This review doesn't contain any spoilers (though, frankly, I should be able to write them, as I would have thought everyone has read this book - but there's no spoilers). This reviews contains less details about the movie than your local paper would have in their review, so it's safe to read. It IS long, but, I think it's a worth wild read if you really wanna know if this is a movie to watch (um, HELL YES!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!) THE CHRONICLES OF NARNIA THE LION, THE WITCH AND THE WARDROBE Starring: Tilda Swinton, Georgie Henley, Skandar Keynes, William Moseley, Anna Popplewell, James McAvoy, Ray Winstone, Dawn French and Liam Neeson Directed by: Andrew Adamson Novel by: C.S. Lewis Screenplay by: Ann Peacock, Andrew Adamson, Christopher Markus and Stephen McFeely Edited by: Sim Evan-Jones and Jim May Scored by: Harry Gregson-Williams Rating: A+ I have waited nearly all of my life for this movie. I fell in love with The Chronicles of Narnia, all seven of those wonderful books by the talented C.S. Lewis in grade four, when I first entered the wardrobe with Lucy. Though its hard to single out any one book as my favourite, if forced to choose, it would be The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe. To this day, Narnia remains one of my favourite book series (second only to the Roxann Dawson and Daniel Grahams Tenebrea trilogy, as Narnia is technically a childrens book). Needless to say, I viewed the movie as a lover of the book series and, unlike many of my generation, I not only love to read, but I believe the book is always better than the movie, and I approach movies based on books with the expectation of failure (though I try to watch a movie before I read a book if possible). That being said, I am also a movie buff and, unlike many book fans, I do not go into a movie based on a book, expecting a scene for scene, line for line film. Its an adaptation, not a live replica, because what works in a book, does not work in a movie. In the book, C.S. Lewis could tell us Edmonds thoughts  he could show us why he was being a jerk. A movie does not have this tool (except as a usually most horrid voice over narration), so a movie must show us in a different way  a movie must add, remove or change scenes. Narnia opens to fog. A heavy fog. Then, a World War II airplane fills the screen. A German plane  and the bombs are dropped. Opening to the cause of why the children would be sent away established quickly and efficiently Edmunds grief and anger at his father being off at war, of Peters role as man of the house, protector of his family, and leader of the children. Lucy and Susan would be established later. Were about fifteen minutes into the movie before Lucy enters the wardrobe and steps in the magical land of Narnia we had all envisioned in our heads every time we read the book. Out into the snow (which, sadly, does look like the fake snow it is, but I must point out, very happily, that the C.G.I. team decided to help us with that by actually adding the characters whisps of breaths in the cold air, to help convince us of the chill. Ive never seen this done before, and I have always said it should be, as it helps convince the viewer), Lucy walks out into Narnia. There, before her, seeming to grow from the very ground is the lamppost. The real world fades away at this point, and one is sucked so completely into the movie, that the sheer majesty and the realistic make-up and graphics, should make you cry to see something that existed for real for you as a child, to now seem to be flesh and blood before your eyes, despite the screen. Then, into the scene clips Tumnus, dear Mr. Tumnus the fawn, our very first creature of Narnia, and already the make-up is so good, that it doesnt make you jump up and scream about how good it is, but rather, you simply see a fawn, not a human actor dressed as a fawn. Cheers to the K.N.B. E.F.X. Group for their fawns, their minotaurs, satyrs and centaurs. They were the perfect choice to bring such creatures to life, as they perfected such creatures as the half-man, half-horse centaurs long ago on Xena: Warrior Princess. Long before the scene with Tumnus and Lucy has ended, I have fallen completely in love with Henley, who embodies young Lucy in every way, just as each of the other children will truly be the characters I love from the novel. When Edmund enters the wardrobe after Lucy shortly thereafter, Jadis, the White Witch makes her entrance. Swinton, very different from Barbara Kellermans introduction as the White Witch in the BBS series we all grew up on, is kind, or appears to be. She manipulates, she doesnt dominate. Not yet anyway. Her eyes, pools of black are terrifying. Evil whispers from them, though its completely lost on Edmund. Though my heart was set on Lucy Lawless as the White Witch, after having seen Swinton, I think the best choice was indeed made. Im going to nitpick now the one thing, and the only thing I hated in this movie  the look of Jadis. What was with her hair and those dresses? Looking like a dress that slept with a vase, the collar of Jadis outfit is a huge brim and it looks ridiculous. Add to that a bizarre hairstyle and one butt ugly ice crown and Jadis looks almost laughable, especially when shes in any light either than the dank darkness of night or in her castle, as the dark makes her white skin look scary, while the light makes it look silly. In the dark, she looks like the evil witch. In the light, she looks like a human someone attacked with a white painted sponge. Her second dress, which isnt seen until the stone table scene, looks fine, but shes sporting one odd accessory. Draped over her shoulder is a dead, black bird. Its head falls from her shoulder, while one of its wings stands ramrod straight behind her head. What the heck? Jadis doesnt get a cool outfit or hairstyle until the last battle  then she looks awesome. Her golden, skull-like, headpiece enhances her face perfectly, that, for the first time, she looks scary in the bright light of day. What were the hairstyling and costume design doing before that? When the rest of the children arrive in Narnia, one of my favourite characters, Mr. Beaver, our first talking animal in the movie and from the book, arrives. The scene is nothing like the book, but its perfect for the movie. Its downright hilarious, though equally magical. Narnias animated creatures were brought to life by the best of the best, Industrial Light and Magic, and it shows. They look more realistic than any C.G.I. creature before them, and they can stand between two real actors, and youd swear the animal really was there on set and was captured with a camera, not added in later. Its the way the animals move  exactly like a real one. Every movement of their legs and their tails are what we see these animals do in real life. The way they jump, and land, or slip on the wet snow. Adamson knows how to bring C.G.I. to life, and its Narnia that now holds the standard to which all other C.G.I. must be judged. And then Aslan takes the screen, and I have to say, as my most favourite character of the Narnia series, the embodiment of my childhood, of my wonder, of my first trip into fantasy, my eyes actually filled with tears to see him. Our only look of Aslan before this was a well made puppet/costume. Though the BBS Aslan looked real to me as a child, when I watched this series again as an adult, it crushed my heart to realize it wasnt a real lion (I thought it was as a kid). But Aslan in this feature  he is flesh. He is real. He stands there, as alive as if a real lion had been used, but even more magical than a real lion, as his eyes reach out and seize you and you cannot break your gaze from them. This has never before been achieved by a C.G.I. creature. This is a rare feat for the greatest actor  how is it possible that some image from a computer can capture you with such eyes, such life? But they do. At the stone table, Adamson zooms in on those non-existent eyes, and where I have never at any point before shed tears in a theatre, I could not look into those eyes during that scene, the saddest moment of all seven books, and not cry. Aslan was real to me, and those eyes spoke of his pain, and yes, I spilled tears for him; silent, but spilled. Nelson supplies the voice of Aslan. Other directors might have cast someone with a deep voice, a voice of presence and/or fear (personally, I had envisioned Patrick Stewart). But, to me, Aslan has always been soft spoken, with a roar to give sound to clear visual presence in the rare cases he decides to establish it. He is the king of all, the first and the last, but he is wise, and knowing, and this is what needed to be reflected by his voice. There are scenes in the movie that did not exist in the book, and even a few added characters, but each scene, each character, serves the point to make Narnia the movie. Regards of these additions, the movie is very true to the book, and it includes the lines from the book that needed to be included (as we must all remember that Aslan is not a tame lion). One of my leading complaints about the Lord of the Rings films that the fight scenes. I hated how there was a fight every two minutes and I hated every last thing about how they were filmed. The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe only really has one fight. Theres a skirmish here or there, but the only real fight, is the battle between Peters forces and Jadis. Adamson, I bow to you, as you know how to shoot not only a great battle, but a great battle sequence where nearly every creature isnt even there. C.G.I. creatures battle both C.G.I. and real people. You cant tell which are the animated minotaurs and which are the actors under make-up. The big cats look like real animals, attacking real werewolves and hags. The griffins soar from above and unicorns ride. They clash in one huge battle, in private fights. The camera always knows where to be and how to capture this epic battle. There has never been such a well shot battle in a fantasy film. Dont forget to watch the credits. The tumble out of the wardrobe is not the last scene. More and more movies like to hide a final sequence within the ending credits, and just when you think the movie skipped a scene from the book that really needed to be in the film, it shows itself, and lets us know, they are ready to make Prince Caspin. The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe is the greatest movie I have ever seen. It is everything I wanted and it is so much more. Watching Narnia as an adult is as magical and as special as reading The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe was for the very first time as a child. BATTLE ON XENA! Xena Torres: Bitch of Rome http://www.bitchofrome.com "Time to put you out of my misery." - Livia "Eve" ========================================================= This has been a message to the chakram-refugees list. To unsubscribe, send a message to majordomo@smoe.org with "unsubscribe chakram-refugees" in the message body. Contact meth@smoe.org with any questions or problems. ========================================================= ------------------------------ End of chakram-refugees-digest V5 #293 **************************************