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Firefoot · 12-10-2005, 09:25 PM

I definitely recommend going to see the Narnia movie in theaters. I went to see it today, and I thought it really was fantastic. For those of you who are concerned about Disney involvement, I can't recall any "Disney moments." If I hadn't known Disney was filming it, I wouldn't have been the wiser. The movie was beautifully done.

I'm not going to say whether it was better or worse than LotR - my feeling coming out of the theatre today was definitely comparable to that of when I came out of seeing RotK. Summed up in a word: wow.

I would say that the casting of the Narnia movie was overall better than that of LotR. Just about every single one of the characters I could look at and say "That's Peter" or "That's the White Witch" - as much as I love the LotR movies, I can't say the same thing about Elijah Wood's Frodo or Orlando Bloom's Legolas, for example. The acting was pretty strong all around, I thought (I'm not the greatest judge of acting, though), whereas in LotR I could find definite stronger and weaker performances. The Narnia movie also has a much smaller cast, though, and several of the main characters were animals...

LotR is definitely the more dark in tone between the two (four?) movies, which I suppose is to be expected. While both movies depict a good vs. evil struggle, Narnia isn't quite as dire about it. The danger in LotR feels more... real? evil? Not a better or worse thing, just different. I do think that the humor in the Narnia movie tended to be better done and more fitting in the movie - some of the humor in LotR bordered on too forced or too corny (coughGimlicough).

As for battles. The shivery sort of feeling I got at the charge of the Rohirrim and the charge in the Narnia movie was definitely similar. Again, though, the Narnia battle was more colorful, I suppose. It's not the same sense of smoke, ruin, and war. However, it was still superbly done.

The CG of the Narnia movie was quite good - I'm sure LotR laid the groundwork for much of it. In some ways, I'd imagine it was more complex than LotR's CG (mostly thinking Gollum here) being that they had to blend people and CG for the fauns and the centaurs. Talking animals was one challenge LotR did not have to deal with, but the Narnia movie carried it off excellently. The best way that I can put it is that it worked - and not simply in the "it was adequate" sense.

The biggest difference is probably in my own reaction. Initial reaction is that I like the Narnia movie more than the book, which I last read about a year ago and so am a little fuzzy on the details. I was disappointed by FotR when I first saw it, and while I was completely wowed by the RotK movie, the story had already been complete for me before I saw the movies. For the Narnia story, I enjoyed the books, but the movie brought it to life for me.

12-10-2005, 09:25 PM	#7
Firefoot Illusionary Holbytla Join Date: Dec 2003 Posts: 7,547	x2 I definitely recommend going to see the Narnia movie in theaters. I went to see it today, and I thought it really was fantastic. For those of you who are concerned about Disney involvement, I can't recall any "Disney moments." If I hadn't known Disney was filming it, I wouldn't have been the wiser. The movie was beautifully done. I'm not going to say whether it was better or worse than LotR - my feeling coming out of the theatre today was definitely comparable to that of when I came out of seeing RotK. Summed up in a word: wow. I would say that the casting of the Narnia movie was overall better than that of LotR. Just about every single one of the characters I could look at and say "That's Peter" or "That's the White Witch" - as much as I love the LotR movies, I can't say the same thing about Elijah Wood's Frodo or Orlando Bloom's Legolas, for example. The acting was pretty strong all around, I thought (I'm not the greatest judge of acting, though), whereas in LotR I could find definite stronger and weaker performances. The Narnia movie also has a much smaller cast, though, and several of the main characters were animals... LotR is definitely the more dark in tone between the two (four?) movies, which I suppose is to be expected. While both movies depict a good vs. evil struggle, Narnia isn't quite as dire about it. The danger in LotR feels more... real? evil? Not a better or worse thing, just different. I do think that the humor in the Narnia movie tended to be better done and more fitting in the movie - some of the humor in LotR bordered on too forced or too corny (coughGimlicough). As for battles. The shivery sort of feeling I got at the charge of the Rohirrim and the charge in the Narnia movie was definitely similar. Again, though, the Narnia battle was more colorful, I suppose. It's not the same sense of smoke, ruin, and war. However, it was still superbly done. The CG of the Narnia movie was quite good - I'm sure LotR laid the groundwork for much of it. In some ways, I'd imagine it was more complex than LotR's CG (mostly thinking Gollum here) being that they had to blend people and CG for the fauns and the centaurs. Talking animals was one challenge LotR did not have to deal with, but the Narnia movie carried it off excellently. The best way that I can put it is that it worked - and not simply in the "it was adequate" sense. The biggest difference is probably in my own reaction. Initial reaction is that I like the Narnia movie more than the book, which I last read about a year ago and so am a little fuzzy on the details. I was disappointed by FotR when I first saw it, and while I was completely wowed by the RotK movie, the story had already been complete for me before I saw the movies. For the Narnia story, I enjoyed the books, but the movie brought it to life for me.