Narnia 3.0

[sakon76]

Went to see Voyage of the Dawn Treader. I think I liked it somewhat better than Wonderful Husband--the overreaching plot arc bugged him--but it oh so very much differed from the book. In places I thought it was brilliantly done (combining Deathwater Island and Dragon Island into one and the same was inspired), but in places I was meh about it. The sea serpent, for instance, being somewhat of a Stay-Puft Marshmallow Man had me rolling my eyes. And wishing that Captain Trinian had been the one who made it appear; he was the one who kept mentioning the possibility of the things, after all! But overall the CG was better than 1 and 2, the actors sold me on their characters, and I loved the familial attachment between Caspian and the Pevensies, which made so much sense. Eustace and Reepicheep's friendship was equally wonderful from the very start, and I adored Lucy not being all maidenly and sitting out the battles, which never made sense to me. She's Queen Lucy the Valiant, after all!

In short, I'm still hoping they'll make the other four books into films. It may not happen, but I can wish.

Comments

[aishuu.livejournal.com]

The third movie made me cry, in all the wrong ways. The only one I've liked is 1, but that was because it was most true to the books.

[sakon76.livejournal.com]

Hmm. Thus far I'm in the minority, then. I see why (most of) the changes they made to the very travelogue book made it stronger as a film, and thus I'm not too bothered by most of them. Part of my indifference to the changes, I admit, may be that I haven't read the book in a couple years.

[aishuu.livejournal.com]

These were my childhood books. You know how there's a couple that are holy? Mine with Narnia, Dark is Rising, and (to some extent) Chrestomanci.

[sakon76.livejournal.com]

The Narnia books were my childhood books too, along with the Spaceship Under The Apple Tree series, but... much as I love them and they still fire my imagination, I don't hold much sacred as far as adaptations. What works in one media doesn't always work in another, and what any one director puts on the screen can only complement or inform the version and vision I hold in my head, not sublimate or destroy it.

[aishuu.livejournal.com]

I think it's because the movies missed what I loved so much about the books. The first one felt right, the second was iffy, and the third is "why was Narnia in the title?"

[branna.livejournal.com]

I think for me it depends on what the adaptation does violence to whether I can live with it or not. The godawful movie travesty that was (or rather wasn't) _The Dark Is Rising_ thoroughly irritated me, but I loved the second Narnia movie, primarily because I felt it modified/took issue with some of the things that bother me about the book and about Lewis' writing in general. I haven't seen the third Narnia movie yet, so I can't comment there.

[aishuu.livejournal.com]

There was NEVER a Dark is Rising Movie. That's my story and I'm sticking to it.

[sandpanther.livejournal.com]

I'm in your minority as well. The travelogue format always made Voyage of the Dawn Treader the hardest of the Narnia books for me to get through, and I think would have been detrimental in a movie format.

[tainry.livejournal.com]

I could watch Caspian run up stairs all day. 8D

I started to reread the book after seeing the movie - was at a friend's house at the time and didn't finish - and it seemed to me they had done a good job with what they had. There isn't that much to the book, in a way.

Admittedly, I didn't read these books until high school, when the symbology was pretty obvious, overshadowing the way I might have enjoyed them had I been much younger on first encounter. Alas. Then, rereading them in college, after a few mythology courses, it got almost painful for a while. Dude, lay off with the 2x4, willya??? XD

Anyway, also liked it. ;D