Narnia a Roaring Success

www.boxofficeguru.com ^ | December 11, 2005 at 4:15PM EST | Gitesh Pandya

[sweetliberty]

"This could be called a fag flick."

And Hollywood has probably already decided to give it multiple Oscars. Anything queer is "good" in the opinion of these decadents.

[sweetliberty]

The Magician's Nephew fills in a lot of gaps in the story, however; Voyage of the Dawn Treader would translate beautifully into movie form. It has the most magnificent characters. My personal favorite is The Horse and His Boy though. I think that one might be tougher to do.

[ovrtaxt]

However it works out, The Last Battle should be last- on that I think we can agree. :)

[Vaquero]

No, I think you're wrong. Harry Potter is now destined to be a permanent fixture of children's works unless J K Rowling decides to kill of Potter in the last novel, which is what is predicted.

[LS]

Even that won't matter. Children today expect you can "bring them back."

[SJSAMPLE]

Outstanding!

Compare this to the press coverage of "Bareback Mountain" which was only released in LA, NY and SF (of course). You'd think that all of America was cheering for the pudding eating cowboys.

[SJSAMPLE]

Just bury him up in the Pet Sematary on the hill behind Hogwarts.

[HostileTerritory]

But Narnia has had very little in the way of a traditional ad campaign. It is mostly marketed through churches.

That's not really true. It's gotten tons of media attention. I'm not a Christian and I saw it on opening night, as did many of my friends who read the books as kids and weren't looking for the Christian aspect.

And while I enjoyed it for what it was, I can appreciate why Christian parents would like it for their kids. It's rare that a movie can serve both audiences so well, and I applaud them for that. (Much better than _Left Behind_, which I thought was embarrassingly bad.)

[Chewie84]

I saw it yesterday with my mother, and it was wonderful! We both liked it a lot, though we did note some problems.
First, here's what we didn't like, so I can get that out of the way quickly:
1. My mother was rather upset that they left out certain scenes, such as when Aslan restores the Giant Rumblebuffin to flesh and blood, and he attempts to wipe his huge face with Lucy's handkerchief (Though the Giant does briefly appear in the final battle and bowls over some monsters with his club). Maybe they could have cut the bombing scene in the very beginning of the film, and included that scene instead.
2. Although Tilda Swinton made a pretty good White Witch, my mom and I both thought there were other actresses who could have done better (She said Anjelica Huston, I said Darryl Hannah).
3. I thought the Turkish Delight scene could have been a bit longer and more intense, to show how addictive the candies were. Edmund seemed to just be snacking lightly on them, like I would if I were eating popcorn. They should have had him stuffing his face with the Turkish Delight and looking rather sad when he had eaten them all.
Now, for what I liked:
1. Aside from those minor hitches, I thought the story translated very well to the big screen.
2. The child actors were very good, especially the girl who played Lucy.
3. Mr. Tumnus was very well- portrayed.
4. The creature effects (Especially for the monsters who were in the Witch's army) were excellent, some of the best I've seen since "Lord of the Rings."
5. ASLAN! I loved every scene with him. I had some doubts about Liam Neeson when I first heard he was cast, but he turned out to be perfect!
All in all, I loved it. I'll be seeing it again with a friend on Thursday, and I hope it gets a ton of Oscar nominations, including Best Picture.

[TomSmedley]

All new Star Wars movies = lame

"Episode I" with its virgin-born prince of darkness was so unremittingly STUPID, as well as theologically offensive, that I never bothered watching II or III, not even on video. An offended viewer is almost impossible to reclaim.

[TomSmedley]

I loved The Silver Chair for a tale of how the elect can screw up time after time, but still achieve their destinies in the end.

[lepton]

Then one could imagine a Brooksian scene where someone has Kong on Broadway singing "Putting on the Ritz."

And Koko shouting, "Show me the nipples!"?

[LS]

I haven't seen it but I hear Sharon Stone makes a good white witch.

[LS]

I loved it. Cry somewhere else.

[Chewie84]

I actually thought "Episode I" was okay. I can't believe so many people hated JarJar Binks, the only time when he kind of got on my nerves was in the beginning of "Episode II," when he greets Anakin. However, in both "Episode II" and "Episode III," I loved what they did with Yoda. Plus, I really liked the ending of "Episode III," when it nicely wraps up some of the previously unanswered questions from the series (i.e. why C-3P0 didn't recognize Anakin in the original trilogy), and it was cool how, when baby Luke and Baby Leia were being delivered to their foster parents, it plays their respective theme music from the original trilogy.
Though, yeah, the original trilogy is definitely better.

[Mr. Lucky]

Sharon Stone could've been cast to play the role of the Beaver.

[Choose Ye This Day]

All new Star Wars movies = lame.

No argument here. I fell asleep in the Sith one, I think it was. A C-SPAN broadcast of the U.N. proceedings would be more entertaining.

[television is just wrong]

Disney doing what it should, "Great FAMILY entertainment"...

Thanks Disney...

[discostu]

That's the true genius of Lucas, he can get hundreds of thousands of people to go see a movie they know is going to suck. Now you know the power of The Force.

[discostu]

Must not be watching the right channels. I saw at least one Narnia commercial everyday for the last 3 weeks before the movie opened.