Escape to Narnia

[tamaranth]

Went to see The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe at Burgess Hill's very own tiny cinema. Surprisingly OK, and only £4.50.

+ New Zealand landscape (oh look, it's Rohan!)
- Rhinoceri of War
+ Tilda Swinton
- Wolves with American accents
+ Aslan's mane
+ soundtrack
- insufficient gore in battle scenes (though probably a good thing for target audience)
+ Mr Tumnus
- the Witch's castle
+ child actors, all surprisingly good though Lucy looked a little too gormless on occasion
+ German bombers over London (context!)
+ SNOW, lots of it
- jerky, overfast CGI in battle scenes
+ Tilda Swinton's eyes, doing Deep Magic
+ graffiti'd lion
- coronation scene
+ Tilda Swinton with two swords

Overall, I enjoyed it, though it didn't engage me the way that Fellowship of the Ring did. The plot was more or less true to the book (which I reread recently) though there were a few Dramatisations that didn't really seem necessary, and a few omissions that could've been included. Jadis was all wrong, but still quite wonderful (see above for details). But the Talking Animals were much better than I expected, and Aslan -- despite a slight touch of the anthropomorphic -- quite deliciously feline.

The little girl behind me loved it too. And she knew the plot much better than her father.

Oh, and
++++ trailer for Pirates of the Caribbean 2: Dead Man's Chest. Far better on the big(gish) screen!