Going to the movies

[lederhosen]

Saw The Lion, The Witch, and the Wardrobe last night. I'm not wild about the books, but I had fun, and fans of the books ought to enjoy it. calair will probably do her own review in the next couple of days. Random thoughts, more or less as they came up:

- Those lame "video piracy is theft" ads they show before the movies. Did they show them before 'Pirates of the Caribbean'?

- So there's a LWW computer game. If you get to play as Aslan, is that 'godmode'?

- What I'd *really* like is to be able to play Narnians vs. LotR. For all that the Narnians have a wider range of mythical beasts, I'm betting the Uruk-Hai would mop the floor with them. Peter just isn't much of a commander (calair will discuss this in greater detail).

- When the script has characters referring to another character as "a man in a red coat", you might want to mention this to wardrobe to ensure that his coat is not, say, brown.

- Aslan talking looked wrong. His mouth moved way too much. I'm sure a RL talking lion *would* have to move its mouth that much, but after years of non-CGI talking animals where the voice is synched to whatever facial movement you can get out of a real animal, it was jarring, as if he'd grown opposable thumbs or something.

- That nitpick aside, mythical beasts v. good.

Comments

[djfiggy.livejournal.com]

I hear Prince Caspian is next to be made into a movie.

I figure they won't have a terrible time of it until they reach The Last Battle. I don't know anyone who liked that book, out of the few people who read more than half of it before giving up.

Movie Piracy

[tamahori]

I just want to know if I'm the only one who watches those adds (also showing up on DVDs now) and gets so annoyed by them that I find myself actively wanting to go out and pirate something, just because.

-- Brett

[cornute.livejournal.com]

*raises hand* I liked it. Finished it, too.

[djfiggy.livejournal.com]

In that case, we should be introduced. That way, I can no longer make such a claim!

I'm Figgy.

[lederhosen.livejournal.com]

I finished it, but it was probably my least favourite of the series. I'm curious to see how they'll make it into a film; I suspect they're going to have more difficulty making that one appealing to non-religious viewers than with the others in the series.

Re: Movie Piracy

[lederhosen.livejournal.com]

I think they should get Johnny Depp to do an anti-piracy ad. As Jack Sparrow.

Re: Movie Piracy

[djfiggy.livejournal.com]

Which commercials are these, again?

I remember one where stuntmen are talking about putting their lives on the line, and then with a click of a button someone downloads the film... in an era where I would think stunts are slowly being replaced by CGI.

Re: Movie Piracy

[lederhosen.livejournal.com]

They go like this:

"You wouldn't steal a car." (Visual: guy breaks into a car.)
"You wouldn't steal a handbag." (Guy grabs a handbag off somebody's arm.)
"You wouldn't steal a mobile phone." (Somebody grabs a mobile phone off a bar.)
"You wouldn't steal a video." (Somebody grabs a DVD off a video store shelf and tucks it inside their jacket.)
"Would you?" (Somebody picks up a pirated DVD."
"Video piracy is stealing." (They put it back and walk away.)

All accompanied by loud supposed-to-be-menacing music. Sounds like the stuntmen one is better...

Re: Movie Piracy

[djfiggy.livejournal.com]

From what I remember, our version (which I don't see anymore) has some guy who's supposed to be a stuntman being interviewed. He talks about a particular type of stunt involving someone driving a car while a small explosive device goes off underneath, causing the car to go violently rolling. He says he's proud of how people leave an action movie all excited and stuntmen help it to happen... and then someone comes and with a click of a button all the fruit of the danger is viewed free of charge.

[cornute.livejournal.com]

Hi there! Corrvin here.

If it helps, I also like his other books, including the Space Trilogy (Perelandra is surpassingly sweet, if you like that sort of thing).

[djfiggy.livejournal.com]

I read ridiculously little for an aspiring writer, so I'll make a note of the Space Trilogy whenever I get around to what I really should be doing. :)

[scascot.livejournal.com]

Peter just isn't much of a commander...

There was a point, I don't remember when, where Peter drew his sword and pointed it at something in what was supposed to be a menacing way for the umpteenth time. I actually said (rather louder than I intended), "It's a fucking sword, you idiot. You swing it. Pointing is for guns."

To which someone a few rows in front of me replied, "Amen. Swing the damn sword already."

Meanwhile, sarapooh died of embarrassment.

[krfsm.livejournal.com]

The Last Battle: Finished it, thought it was "okay" when I re-read it last (less than a year ago).

[waitingman.livejournal.com]

And where was all the blood??!!

Aslan - stabbed by White Queen... no blood. In fact, no visible wound whatsoever.

Edmund - stabbed by White Queen... no blood.

Centaur General - stabbed by White Queen... no blood.

All of this exsanguinated imagery is brought to you by a company whose CEO believes that his god was beaten up, nailed to a cross by his hands & feet, stabbed with a spear & had thorns stuck in his head. If kids are to be exposed to some of the more horrific crucifixes you can see in churches (usually Catholic ones), then surely a little blood on the battlefield wouldn't traumatise them that much...?

What kind of news reports do they get to see about the war in Iraq? Lots of explosions & gunfire, but nobody really dies &, of course, no blood...

Or is that the report they show George?

[krfsm.livejournal.com]

They had to keep the blood away to get the rating they got, is how I understood it.

[krfsm.livejournal.com]

My opinion: Liam Neeson doesn't work as the voice of Jesus Aslan. Otherwise, enjoyable movie. And mmmmm, Tilda Swinton. Especially her outfit, gear, and combat techniques at the battle at the end.

Re: Movie Piracy

[shadow-5tails.livejournal.com]

I like the ones that existed a couple of years ago, wherein the claim was made that if you pirated movies, THE TERRORISTS HAD ALREADY WON!!eleven!!1!

I'm sure I recall that one playing when we went to see Pirates of the Caribbean...

[shadow-5tails.livejournal.com]

Silly.

The White Witch was the bringer of winter and cold as ice - obviously all the blood in their bodies just froze as she got near.

*grin*

And South Amercica was a great place for Baroque iconography. They'll have none of that seraphic calm at the Crucifixion that's so popular elsewhere; it was anguished rictuses and blood by the bucketload.

[shadow-5tails.livejournal.com]

Yet another who finished the book. Multiple times.

And liked it as an end to the series and a counterbalance to Magician's Nephew. Wasn't as swept away by it as by some things I've read, but certainly didn't mind it. And it's not like the various themes contained within it haven't shown up in many other works of fantasy the world has seen.

And *poke* You should read more. *smile*

[lederhosen.livejournal.com]

Liam Neeson doesn't work as the voice of Jesus Aslan

I had a nasty moment at first where I thought I was hearing Sean Connery, so I was willing to forgive Neeson a lot on account of his not being Connery ;-) But yes, not *quite* the right voice.

Tilda Swinton was good, and she fought nicely, but I'm beginning to get a bit tired of the two-swords-nancing bit; it really is possible to fight dramatically with a shield!

Re: Movie Piracy

[jazzmasterson.livejournal.com]

Nope. Not the only one.

Re: Movie Piracy

[jazzmasterson.livejournal.com]

I'd feel a lot less annoyed with the whole anti-piracy hype if they spent their time and money going after the actual, disk-duplicating-and-selling, major-money-making, piracy rings in southeast asia. The ones who do actual harm, without any connection whatsoever to file sharing or the internet.

But that would take actual effort, and in fact the organizations pushing this crap don't really have any interest in stopping piracy. They just want a convenient excuse to justify their falling profits to their shareholders. And also to convince a gullible lawmaking body to change IP laws so that they don't have to work out a new business model that doesn't revolve around the scarcity of little plastic disks.

Two Sword Nacing

[tamahori]

Heh, my comment coming out of it was 'Well, it looks like D&D was right, twin sword (or sword and combat-wand) really is the way to enhanced munchkinisim.

And if I had a compliant, it was that our main good guy and bad girl weren't impressive enough. Tilda Swinton was the right person for the job, but just didn't seem to be putting her all into it.

And Aslan needed a better voice and I think to be about 50% larger, and ... not quite as real as he looked. He's meant to be a larger then life, and somehow not quite part of the reality he's walking though.

-- Brett

Re: Movie Piracy

[tamahori]

Now now now, we don't want the Buggy Whip makers to have to change their product model, it's better if we just ban the car.

I find the MPAA annoying, on several levels, but I don't think I have quite the hatred I do of the RIAA, at least major actors in movies, don't somehow end up coming out of a movie with less money then they started with.

Which still doesn't mean I don't think the MPAA's biggest problem with falling profits has a lot to do with their habit of putting out really crap films.

-- Brett

Re: Movie Piracy

[lederhosen.livejournal.com]

Did you know they're currently making Under Siege 3?

Re: Movie Piracy

[jazzmasterson.livejournal.com]

Agreed and agreed.

A non-insane media-tech bigname (forget who, exactly), who owns a sports team, said something that sums the whole situation up nicely, which I paraphrase thus:

"The owners of teams in the NBA have one overriding job, which is to keep their job. In the '90's, if their team was losing games, they had a couple of options: they could own up to it, and probably lose a high-paid job with six months of free time a year, or they could blame Shaq. Everybody blamed Shaq.

"Today, piracy? Is the content industry's Shaq."

Re: Movie Piracy

[jazzmasterson.livejournal.com]

I wish I were surprised.

Re: Movie Piracy

[waitingman.livejournal.com]

Will they get Gary Busey back to play the villain?

Apparently that's what a casting agent wanted to do when Under Siege II was being made. He thought GB would be a great villain for Seagal.

And, as we know - he was, until Seagal killed him at the end of Under Siege I...

I don't know how much truth there is to the rumour that Busey actually signed a contract & had to be paid out when the 'error' was discovered.

[jesusandrew.livejournal.com]

Read the series several times in primary school, no problem with The Last Battle. I remember finding A Horse and His Boy a bit boring, but haven't read any of them since primary.