I'm too lazy to hunt for the link, but some time ago ninme reported attending a conference where Barbara Nicolosi claimed that Hollywood was pinning all its secularist hopes on King Kong beating Narnia at the box office as proof that The Passion & Lord of The Rings box office was a fluke. Well: nyah-nyah to that. The Christians win again. (Curtsy to ninme for the link).
Having said that, I finally saw Narnia on Monday. I'd like to see it again, as the experience was greatly marred by being surrounded by talkers. To my right was a mythology buff who kept explaining the history of fauns and hippogriffs to his girlfriend (when they weren't smooching loudly or keeping up a running cynical dialogue on the whole thing). In front of us was a family of five with an infant and toddler in tow, and they kept coming and going, taking turns with their fussy kids. And they felt the need to offer theological pointers to the whole audience, shouting "Hallelujah!" when Aslan returned and "It's the breath of life!" when he redeemed those frozen by the White Witch. And the theater was packed, so there was no place to move. Argh!
The experience was redeemed only by the fact that our five year old sat in my lap to escape the conversation going on next to him, so I watched the whole thing through his eyes. He wept (silently and manfully --explaining later that he was not crying, just wiping the water from his eyes) at the death of Aslan and sat bolt upright with joy at his return. And cried in delight "Knights!" at the first glimpse of Aslan's armies. And squirmed and jumped during the battle scenes. Great fun.
Having just re-read the book, I can say the movie is faithful to the spirit of the thing. It takes a lot of liberties with the race between the children & the White Witch to Aslan's camp. Rightly so, however, because in the book the race is mostly talked about --I was shocked to discover how little actually happens in the book and how much is simply asserted in dialogue. Not what I recall from childhood. From the point Aslan is introduced, however, the movie sticks to the book except for introducing more doubt in the children than is present in the book. Overall it seemed well done; the inadequacies it suffers are in the book, too, I grieve to say (because now I'll be kicked out of the club for uttering anti-Lewis heresy). But I'll have to see it again before rendering final judgment. There were a few too many distractions to allow myself to get caught up in the thing.
