Just come back from the late night showing of Narnia: TLTW&TW
I was a big fan of the books as a child and teenager, indeed I did my A-level English project on them at age 18. I haven’t read them in years, and would like to just to refresh my memory but they are buried in a box somewhere in store 😦
I enjoyed the film. People have mentioned stuff being cut to fit the film length but everything I remember in the book was there. Some of the scenes were very well done. Tilda Swinton as the Witch was excellent, scarier than the Witch in the book (I found the Witch in The Magician’s Nephew was more frightening, far less in control) – her grand gestures were ok but her silent looks, particularly at Edmund, were just chilling.
I don’t remember quite so much fuss about the battle and I also don’t remember so many different animals and other creatures. I did like the representation of the talking trees. In Lord of the Rings the trees walked and talked from their trunks, and my memory tells me the treetrunks talked in Narnia too. However the way it was blended with the Dryads in this film was nice and captured the spirit of it very well.
I didn’t think Susan was quite so much of a wet blanket in the book but she got better towards the end of the film. I was also ready to punch Peter after the first 10 minutes. Lucy was a bit younger than I thought, but she is supposed to be young enough to still be imagining friends etc, so that was probably about right.
Liam Neeson’s voice was fitting. Mind you I’m always ready to look at or listen to Liam Neeson no matter what the circumstances. The grace of Aslan didn’t quite come across visually and he never called Lucy “dear heart” – they changed it to “dear child” I think – which took the edge of the oldworldliness he has. But Liam’s voice had the right amount of gravitas.
I think anyone who enjoyed the book should see the film but if you haven’t read the book, probably reading it first is a good idea. The film is a faithful representation of the book with some nice interpretative touches.
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