The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe is good. Really good.
At the end of the movie, the entire theater erupted into applause. Did I say it was good?
The film is emotionally very moving. I haven’t had tears in my eyes from a movie since The Passion of the Christ, or from fiction since The Good Earth trilogy.
Stylistically, Narnia is a kids version of Lord of the Rings. Like Rings, Narnia was shot in New Zealand, and that vast Mythic England is on gorgeous display.
Narnia also had wonderful comic relief. The Beavers drew a reaction from everyone. As someone who hasn’t read the books, the identity of he-who-gives-the-royals-weapons was hilarious. You didn’t see that one coming!
There’s a good deal of anti-Naria hate in the media, and along with it frantic denials by Disney’s stooges that the movie has anything whatsoever to do with a certain Christian apologist. Anyone who watches the movie and can write, like National Geographic‘s Stefan Lovgren did…
However, Lewis himself said he didn’t set out to write a Christian story, but simply a great children’s tale. His creative influences, at least at the outset, were not Christian, but various mythologies from early cultures.
… is either crazy or culturally illiterate.
But such peevishness is beside the point. The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe is a great movie. If Ender’s Game is this good, I will be thrilled.
See The Chronicles of Narnia now!
OMG, there's an Ender's Game film coming out?
And I'll be seeing it tomorrow after lunch.
I was hoping to see Narnia tonight too, but ended up watching Syriana.
I was fearful that Narnia would be a crap version of LOTR. I will be rounding up people to see Narnia this week for sure.
The main reason why people are associating this story/movie with a Christian fable is because other than these books, that's pretty much all C.S. Lewis wrote.
Unlike Tolkien, Lewis is a respected author without including his main series of books. If Tolkien had gone on to write a bunch of anti-war and anti-industry books, the campaign to portray The Lord of the Rings as allegorical would have more ground to stand on.
I'll admit that the first book does seem a bit Christ-y but they lose that more as the series goes on. I challenge anyone to make A Horse and his Boy into anything resembling Christian allegory.
“I'll admit that the first book does seem a bit Christ-y but they lose that more as the series goes on.”
Hmm, I'm not sure I agree. The Last Battle was the most overtly religious of all the books. The Horse and His Boy was rather like the story of Moses.
Lewis said that his books weren't allegories- they were his idea of what other worlds might look like and how Christ might appear to them. Sort of the same as his adult sci-fi series.