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- Review count1
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- First reviewMay 19, 2008
- Last reviewMay 19, 2008
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Nadodad's Reviews
Overall rating
4
/
5
Great adaptation... until it's not
PostedMay 19, 2008
Nadodad
from Coronado, CA
First off, I don't know how to review the movie for people who haven't read the book - I've read the series to each of my four kids so the stories are pretty well stuck in my head. But this movie, like the first, constantly amazed me, not so much with what they had to take out, but all the emotional and visual impact that the filmmakers put in. For instance Peter, who's frankly a sort of blank in the books, comes alive here as a conflicted, uncertain, very teenage boy who finds his courage at just the right moment. And the political situation in Telmar, which is an important plot point, actually gets more attention here than in the book.
Unfortunately, that loving attention to politics is part of what's wrong with the movie - there are incredible, gut-wrenching fight scenes (again, more - and gorier - than there were in the book), but these are punctuation marks in lots of brooding, and talking, and plotting, and scheming... my younger kids frankly squirmed through a lot of the "alliance forming" and "what do we do next?"-ing, making the next battle scene something of a relief.
Some humor with the dwarves - an excellent way to lighten up the mood - and Aslan's final triumphant appearance got my kids really into the movie. The next, "Voyage of the Dawn Treader", should be even more enjoyable.
A quick note - I don't honestly recall how the Telmarines were portrayed in the books (Lewis' critics usually focus on a different culture, the Calormenes, when they accuse him of racism), but this movie seemed to bend over backwards to present the Telmarines as swarthy, bearded types with thick Middle Eastern accents. The problem is the bad guys could've been portrayed as Norwegians and had the same menace... not sure why the filmmakers went this way.
Unfortunately, that loving attention to politics is part of what's wrong with the movie - there are incredible, gut-wrenching fight scenes (again, more - and gorier - than there were in the book), but these are punctuation marks in lots of brooding, and talking, and plotting, and scheming... my younger kids frankly squirmed through a lot of the "alliance forming" and "what do we do next?"-ing, making the next battle scene something of a relief.
Some humor with the dwarves - an excellent way to lighten up the mood - and Aslan's final triumphant appearance got my kids really into the movie. The next, "Voyage of the Dawn Treader", should be even more enjoyable.
A quick note - I don't honestly recall how the Telmarines were portrayed in the books (Lewis' critics usually focus on a different culture, the Calormenes, when they accuse him of racism), but this movie seemed to bend over backwards to present the Telmarines as swarthy, bearded types with thick Middle Eastern accents. The problem is the bad guys could've been portrayed as Norwegians and had the same menace... not sure why the filmmakers went this way.
Yes, I recommend this movie.
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