From: owner-chakram-refugees-digest@smoe.org (chakram-refugees-digest) To: chakram-refugees-digest@smoe.org Subject: chakram-refugees-digest V5 #294 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 Monday, December 12 2005 Volume 05 : Number 294 Today's Subjects: ----------------- Re: [chakram-refugees] OT: Narnia review [meredith ] ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Sun, 11 Dec 2005 02:14:04 -0500 From: meredith Subject: Re: [chakram-refugees] OT: Narnia review Hi, (move along, no Xena content to see here ... ;) Xena Torres reviewed: > THE CHRONICLES OF NARNIA > THE LION, THE WITCH AND THE WARDROBE I just got back from seeing this for the first time ... yes, I will be seeing it again, and soon. :) > I have waited nearly all of my life for this movie. You're not alone in that. :) > 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. My sister brought me the entire Penguin set from the UK as a Christmas present when I was six. I immediately started with _The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe_ and never looked back. I think I've read each installment at least a dozen times, probably twice that for _Lion..._ and _The Last Battle_. (I actually think _The Last Battle_ is my favorite overall, but then I like dark creepy things... :) When I first heard that there was going to be a big screen adaptation of _Lion..._ I was first rather scared, but then the _LOTR_ movies raised my hopes (as well as my expectations), because Peter Jackson and every member of the NZ-based crew on those films set the bar for such adaptations *very* high. No film adaptation can hope to succeed at this point unless it uses _LOTR_ as a measuring stick. I was pleased to see that my expectations were met, and in some cases exceeded. This is a mighty fine adaptation, that certainly blows the BBC attempts out of the water (though that's not hard -- sorry XT, but they all suck). > 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 b attle  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? I didn't have a problem with her look or her costuming, though I will agree that the dead bird belly-up on her shoulder was rather bizarre. > 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. Oh, you're not kidding. I couldn't believe how incredibly well the animals were done. Absolutely stunning. If this film doesn't sweep the effects categories in the Oscars, I'm going to be really pissed. > 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. Wow ... well, here I must disagree with you 100%. But that's a post for a different time (and a different forum :). > 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. Again I have to disagree with you on that last point ... this was a pretty epic battle, true, and well done, but it doesn't even begin to approach the battle of the Plains of Pelennor in _Return of the King_ or even the battle for Helms Deep in _The Two Towers_ in terms of sheer breathtaking scope and rendering. Both of those were just on a whole 'nother level. > 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. I'm a credits-sitter anyway, I never ever leave the theater until the projector is shut off ... but thanks for this warning anyway. I knew to shift over so the morons leaving in front of me wouldn't entirely block my view of the screen. *g* > 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. I can't say it's the best movie I've ever seen, but it's definitely in my top five at the moment. I do think it's the best possible adaptation we could've hoped for, and that makes me very, very happy. I can't wait to see it again with my sister when I get to her place for Christmas in a week or so. Oh -- and thanks for the heads-up that Patrick Kake has a big role. I would've spent the whole second half of the film going "y'know, that centaur looks a heluva lot like Mauser!" ;) - -- =============================================== Meredith Tarr New Haven, CT USA mailto:meth@smoe.org http://www.smoe.org/meth =============================================== hear at the HOMe House Concert Series http://hom.smoe.org =============================================== ========================================================= 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 #294 **************************************