November 14, 2005
Aslan Is On The Move
Jonathan Last comments on the opening shots in the inevitable war over the upcoming release of The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe.
Sigh. My primary concern about this movie is that it is going to be tarted up to bring in the Lord of the Ring crowd, thereby destroying the character of the original story. Unfortunately, however, its release is going to unleash an awful lot of this sort of nonsense as well.
(And if you are wondering how I can manage to get all the way over to this topic after that last post, suffice to say that I get a lot of headaches.)
YIPS from Steve: Meanwhile, in the "At the Cinema with Felix Unger" meme, here's a demonstration of Kathy's pride, as well as her prejudice against the new Jane Austen flick.
My sense: it would be better with some car chases. Kind of in a "To Kill a Mockingbird" with Kurt Russell as Atticus Finch sort of way.
SOMETHING LIKE THIS:
I find that period pieces and courtroom dramas generally lack the requisite amount of nudity, slapstick humor, and gunplay. You know. The three pillars of quality filmmaking.
Note: You can substitute swordplay for gunplay in a period piece, if it is well done. My idea of a good period piece? Braveheart. My idea of a bad period piece? Let's put it this way: if there is a scene with Gwyneth Paltrow, Emma Thompson, et al., having tea and biscuits and discussing her "prospects" with a spinster aunt, then you're pretty much going to lose me.
And "use of Rickman" is also a yardstick. Alan Rickman getting thrown off a builing? Good movie. Alan Rickman saving the innocent maiden from a bad cold? Sorry, but you lost me.
I have to admit, I've got a bad feeling about this Narnia flick. The trailers and promotional spots make it look a bit too conspicuously epical; one of the charms of Narnia was the consciously medieval scale of its universe, which was almost consciously a counterpoint to the heroic scale of Tolkien's work.
On Emma, Austen is very nearly up there with Shakespeare as an author who "transcends literature," meaning you can do whatever the hell you want with their stories. Clueless was a fairly benign example, but the trend will continue as long as the number of people who've actually read Austen continues to drop.
Posted by: utron at November 14, 2005 04:47 PMMary Kate and Ashley?!? I'm pretty sure they've signed Dakota Fanning for this one. Scout is a weird little kid, but she's not heroin-chic weird.
Posted by: tee bee at November 15, 2005 02:39 AM
