Zorro and previews

[mneme]

We just saw Legend of Zorro -- it's fun -- a total romp, with lots of silliness and plot holes, but it's humorous and charming, and features appropriately nasty villains, and in addition to the two obvious leads, a kid who gives a good account of himself (and echoes Zorro's style sufficently that one suspects that if they do a third movie, it will involve the kid taking up the mantle).

Definately "check your brain at the door," but it works. My favorite out of movie quote: during the train sequence, I turned to drcpunk and said "horse". She repeated happily "horse". And lo and behold, "horse'" happened.

Previews: the ones I cared about were Narnia and Potter.

Potter looked gorgeous. Lisa wasn't thrilled with the book, and I admit it wasn't one of my favorites, but the movie looks like. it does even more for the images in this novel than in the previous ones, if the preview's anything to go by.

Narnia lookes...well, Narnia appears to look like someone saw the success of the Tolkien moves and thought "Narnia would work as well!" If the movie's this good, it's going to be something special.

Comments

[suecochran.livejournal.com]

I'm also looking forward to Narnia and HP. I recently re-read all of the Narnia books, and when I first saw the preview at a movie some time back for "The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe" I was really excited. I hope that they do it right, and who knows? Maybe eventually the whole series will be done on film. One can dream...

[madfilkentist]

My thoughts on Narnia are divided. If they take out the religious subtext (which I think they will), then they aren't being true to Lewis. If they don't take it out, I probably wouldn't want to see it. There may not be any good solution.

[bigbrotherinlaw.livejournal.com]

The religious subtext would be difficult, if not impossible to excise from Narnia without disastrous results. Did you read the books? If so, did you enjoy them? Personally, I missed the religious subtext altogether when I read them at ten or eleven when it might have turned me off. Of course, mileage varies.

[madfilkentist]

I've read several of the books, and enjoyed them in spite of the realization that Aslan is a Christ, and that The Last Battle is a variant of Revelation. But I think I'd find those aspects more difficult to take in a movie. On the other hand, if Aslan isn't a Christ, then the story becomes a very different one.

[avram]

If they don't take it out, I probably wouldn't want to see it.

Why not?

[orawnzva.livejournal.com]

I think there is a broad and subtle territory in between, although Hollywood's ability to navigate such regions is a bit spotty. Certainly, the story is inherently religious, but so is The Lord of the Rings, and in many of the same ways — Lewis just made the Christian worldview much more explicit than Tolkien did. If the Narnia film tones the religious subtext down to the level of LotR, it should work pretty well.

My personal view on Narnia is subtle — for me, myth is a doorway to the sacred, without having to be true in the normal sense, and any story that touches me in the right way is fair game — a Jungian view, perhaps. Anyway, I think The Lion the Witch and the Wardrobe is a better instantiation of the archetypal story of Redemption through Sacrifice than what it's based on, and since it is neither alleged to have occurred in historical time nor encumbered with the same baggage, I'll take the opportunity for a sacred encounter with tha story, and then get back to being a Jewish pagan, or whatever else I was doing.

But that's me, and my quirky metareligion. Your mileage will of course vary.

[imogena.livejournal.com]

Funny I got the exact same impression of the Narnia movie. Mike even went so far as to read the book. It was a bit too condescending for his tastes, it'll be interesting to see if its any good.