Narnia

[AndOne]

Has anybody been to see "The Lion, The Witch, and The Wardrobe" yet. My two boys went to see it last night - I'll be seeing it tommorrow with my wife - while they watch the baby. My oldest son has read the book recently and said the movie followed the origonal storyline pretty good. I haven't read the Narnia books since I was a kid - so I asked him to look for any glaring changes.

Anyway - if you saw it - what did you think? What do you all think of C.S. Lewis?

 

[Knight]

I've not seen it yet but plan to.... (Not sure when though)

 

[edie19]

Haven't seen it yet - plan to take grandson (Luke is 4). When we went to see "March of the Penguins" he saw a poster for it and asked if I'd take him. He loves "fantasy" stuff, also the movies where the hero wins.

Luke's mom has been reading him the book at bedtime in preparation - he's really enjoying it. We'll probably go next weekend and can't wait.

edie

 

[calmcoolandelected]

By all reports, which means a 16 yr old friend of my son's and Greg Wilbur (co-hort of George Grant), it's two thumbs up!


Our family might try to go later today.

CC&E

 

[JJB]

We saw the film yesterday. It was good and worth the time and money. I thought it stayed to the book very close. One chase scene was not from the book.........I won't give it away.

I must say, after reading LW&W several times to children, having one child in the play, seeing another play of LW&W, then the movie, I am kinda done with it.

 

[pinkieposies]

Has anybody been to see "The Lion, The Witch, and The Wardrobe" yet. My two boys went to see it last night - I'll be seeing it tommorrow with my wife - while they watch the baby. My oldest son has read the book recently and said the movie followed the origonal storyline pretty good. I haven't read the Narnia books since I was a kid - so I asked him to look for any glaring changes.

Anyway - if you saw it - what did you think? What do you all think of C.S. Lewis?

I haven't seen it yet, but I am absolutely dying to! Okay, maybe not literally...but I must have read the Chronicles of Narnia 12 times over when I was younger, and if I still had those books I probably still would be reading them!

I am waiting to go see it on my birthday on Tuesday! I can't wait!
{NOBODY GIVE IT AWAY!} Ha ha!

I don't know much about C.S. Lewis really, the only other writtings of his I have read was Mere Christianity. But I like the way he writes, and I thought it was a good book.

God Bless,
Erin

 

[McWilliams]

One son took his family to see it last night and they thought it was excellent, thoroughly enjoyable!

 

[GrinningDwarf]

I only have three words to describe it...excellent, excellent, EXCELLENT!!

Just remember...every one of us is an Edmond.

 

[CoffeeSwirls]

I saw it last night and was pleasantly surprised. The movie is about 2 and a half hours, so though there were some things that could have been added, there really wasn't more time for it. Very little was inserted that wasn't in the book, and it played well in the story. I won't give it away, but the words Aslan said when he triumphed over the witch were not in the book, though they were very reminiscent of something in the Bible.

Oh, and stay during the credits. About two minutes into them is the final ending of the movie. Two thumbs up!

 

[drstevej]

Saw it.

It teaches Limited Atonement.

Aslan died as a substitute for the one not all four.

 

[CoffeeSwirls]

It goes beyond that. Aslan died to destroy the curses written on the Stone Table. He died to complete the defeat of the White Witch. He died to secure Narnia from it's bondage to "always winter, never Christmas." He died that all may be made right in Narnia. He gave up His life so that He may take it up again. Victory is not assured in anyone, including Edmond, until these things are realized.

 

[Erinwilcox]

Has anybody been to see "The Lion, The Witch, and The Wardrobe" yet. My two boys went to see it last night - I'll be seeing it tommorrow with my wife - while they watch the baby. My oldest son has read the book recently and said the movie followed the origonal storyline pretty good. I haven't read the Narnia books since I was a kid - so I asked him to look for any glaring changes.

Anyway - if you saw it - what did you think? What do you all think of C.S. Lewis?

I saw it on Friday night with my dear friend, her family, and my brother and sister. (Now comes in the "slang" which I don't often use) It was so totally awesome!!! It did really stick well to the books (due, I believe, to the fact that Lewis' stepson Douglas kept things well in line) and it even included the stone table scene which many Christians were afraid might be excluded. As far as I am concerned (and I'm very conservative when it comes to movie content), there was absolutely nothing objectionable in the entire film. . . unless, of course, you don't like violence (there wasn't too much of that, but the last battle scene might be too intense for younger viewers). I loved it! I have read and reread the Narnia books so many times since I was a very little girl and have always loved them. The movie was excellent and was NOT a disappointment. My brother, who is a LOTR fan, liked it better than LOTR (in my opinion, it was good, but not that good).

 

[Paleoconservatarian]

I saw it on Friday night with my dear friend, her family, and my brother and sister. (Now comes in the "slang" which I don't often use) It was so totally awesome!!! It did really stick well to the books (due, I believe, to the fact that Lewis' stepson Douglas kept things well in line) and it even included the stone table scene which many Christians were afraid might be excluded. As far as I am concerned (and I'm very conservative when it comes to movie content), there was absolutely nothing objectionable in the entire film. . . unless, of course, you don't like violence (there wasn't too much of that, but the last battle scene might be too intense for younger viewers). I loved it! I have read and reread the Narnia books so many times since I was a very little girl and have always loved them. The movie was excellent and was NOT a disappointment. My brother, who is a LOTR fan, liked it better than LOTR (in my opinion, it was good, but not that good).

Call me a purist, but while the LOTR movies were unusually good films, they did not do justice to the book. Much better than the Ralph Bakshi animated version, but I'd still say you don't really know Middle-earth unless you've read the book (and better to read The Silmarillion). Anyway, I have always been very hesitant about Lewis or Tolkien on film. It's just not a medium that books translate well into. I have much higher standards for "being true to the book" than most fans. I have also expected much de-Christianization, as can be seen in the LOTR films (although it would be impossible to remove all of it, of course, without rewriting the entire story). For those who have seen it, what can I expect?

 

[Imblessed]

Haven't seen it yet, but if I do...it really will not be with an expectation of the christian view. Honestly, while the book is clearly a "what if?"--it is first and fore most a fantasy tale for kids,and I want to enjoy it in that context. I read the books several times as a kid, but it's been years and years.....

I cannot possibly see how it could be better than LOTR! Those were amazing movies, and while there was a lot left out of the books, I don't think it would have been possible to do the movies any other way, and I thought they did a great job deciding how to go about it. The books were certainly better(as ALL books are, really), but I truly loved the movies(because I'm a movie fan!!) and happy they did it.

But as far as the LW@W goes....the previews looked good. My husband isn't really gun-ho about seeing it, and my kids are too young(4 and 6) so I'll probably go see it myself this week.

 

[Erinwilcox]

Call me a purist, but while the LOTR movies were unusually good films, they did not do justice to the book. Much better than the Ralph Bakshi animated version, but I'd still say you don't really know Middle-earth unless you've read the book (and better to read The Silmarillion). Anyway, I have always been very hesitant about Lewis or Tolkien on film. It's just not a medium that books translate well into. I have much higher standards for "being true to the book" than most fans. I have also expected much de-Christianization, as can be seen in the LOTR films (although it would be impossible to remove all of it, of course, without rewriting the entire story). For those who have seen it, what can I expect?

Alright, alright. the LOTR movies didn't exactly stick very well to the book. However, they were really awesome movies. However, I've told many LOTR movie lovers to read the books since they are much better (although, isn't that the case with every book-based movie?).

Now, in my opinion, Narnia did a pretty good job of sticking well to the book. Of course, they couldn't put in everything, but they did really well. As for the de-Christianization, they actually left in all of the most Christians scenes from the book. I was pleasantly surprised. About LOTR, though, they were never supposed to be Christian allegories in the first place, I don't know if you really can say that they were de-Christianized. But, in my opinion, Narnia, while a really good movie, doesn't eclipse LOTR.

Since I too like movies that stick to the books, I don't even like to think about Ben-Hur. The book is one of my favorites and I enjoy the movie. However, they are about as diametrically opposite as you can get! I just like to think of them seperately. That's what I'll do when I go to see the new Pride and Prejudice (one of my all-time favorite books). For those of you who have read the book and seen the six hour movie with Colin Firth and Jennifer Ehle, you know that nothing could ever compare. . .so, I'll think of the new movie as just a movie, rather than a movie based on a book.

 

[Paleoconservatarian]

About LOTR, though, they were never supposed to be Christian allegories in the first place, I don't know if you really can say that they were de-Christianized.

A lot of people recite this about Tolkien, without really knowing what it is that Tolkien meant. It is true that LOTR is not a Christian allegory in the same sense that The Pilgrim's Progress is. But simply because it is not allegory does not mean that it is not Christian. Tolkien, in fact, meant to represent for us Christian truths in the form of storytelling, mythmaking. You really can't write a very good story without borrowing from the true story, the Bible. And this is clear in Tolkien's work. The Christian themes and symbols are impossible to miss if you read the book, the Adamic figure of Tom Bombadil to the sacrifice and return of Gandalf being just a couple examples. There is no Christ in LOTR, but all of it points to Him.

Anyway, my sister has seen and recommends Narnia, so I guess since everyone recommends it, I might shell out the cash to go watch.

 

[Alexandrian]

The problem with LW&W is that it illustrates a heretical view of the atonement; or at least an incomplete understanding of the atonement. Christ died not only to defeat satan and "work death backwards" as Lewis states in LW&W but also to be the object of an infinite penalty rendered by God as an expression of his just punishment of humanity for their sins. In Mere Christianity, Lewis describes this understanding of the atonement as "silly and immoral":

Now on the face of it that is a very silly theory. If God was prepared to let us off, why on earth did He not do so? And what possible point could there be in punishing an innocent person instead? None at all that I can see, if you are thinking of punishment in the police-court sense. Now before I became a Christian I was under the impression that the first thing Christians had to believe was one particular theory as to what the point of this dying was. According to that theory God wanted to punish men for having deserted and joined the Great Rebel, but Christ volunteered to be punished instead, and so God let us off. Now I admit that even this theory does not seem to me quite so immoral and so silly as it used to; but that is not the point I want to make. What I came to see later on was that neither this theory nor any other is Christianity. I can only tell you, for what it is worth, how I, personally, look at the matter.
​

The atonement is not just "Christus Victor" as Lewis illustrates in "Mere Christianity" and LW&W but is also "Penal Substitution" which lewis had nothing but scorn for. C. S. Lewis denied the doctrine of a divine penalty for sin, he denied the penal substitutionary theory of the atonement, he denied a penal understanding of hell, and he denied the doctrine of justification by faith. Calvinist Dr. Lloyd-Jones told Christianity Today that because "[C.S.] Lewis was essentially a philosopher, his view of salvation was defective... Lewis was an opponent of the substitutionary and penal theory of the Atonement."

 

[jak]

I have several of CSLewis' books and admire him. He became a Christian reluctantly, going "kicking and struggling", he says, into faith, and later came to understand "the grace that could accept me even on those terms"...
His faith affected every part of his life, including his classical studies, and work as a college don...I am always been stimulated by that to let my faith go deep into my life and work...
He writes honestly and creatively, and with insight and wisdom. "The Screwtape Letters", the narnia series, Mere Christianity, the Ransom trilogy of science fiction, the problem of pain and his two autobiographical novels Surprised by Joy and A grief observed are all good. All of his views are not right, as in the Narnia series when the witch claims that every sinner belongs to her and a price has to be paid to her to set him free. That is not a right view of the atonement...but then, its just an allegory...

 

[pinkieposies]

I saw it last night!

I really liked it! {My husband did also, which really says a lot! }

I thought it stayed really true to the book. The only complaint I would possibly have was with Aslan and the way he looked and talked and all that: I guess I kind of expected him to be different. And I never really like the whole animal's talking with their lips moving thing {My husband told me that C.S. Lewis was pretty against having a movie made of these books because of that}, but it wasn't as bad as I thought it would be when I first saw the beaver talking. I got used to it. I guess that's pretty minor anyway...

As for the whole allegorical aspect of it, I thought they did a really good job clearly presenting the parallels between Aslan's sacrifice and what Jesus accomplished on the cross. Of course it may not be completely perfect in it's theology, but I still found it very moving and meaningful to me.

Also did anyone catch this:

"Once a king or queen of Narnia, always a king or queen of Narnia."

Can anyone say, "Once saved, always saved"? Haha!

God Bless,
Erin

 

[Imblessed]

Saw it last night. My husband gave me the "night off"! He's so awesome!

I thought it was well done. They stayed close to the storyline, and I thought the computer generated characters were pretty well done. I wouldn't say it was like the one the best movies of all times, but I think C.S. Lewis would have been happy enough with it.

I'm always for watching a movie version of a favorite book, as long as they try to be honest to the book. I like movies as much as books!!!


Even if I had read the book to him, there is NO way my 6 year old would have been able to watch.. It would have scared him to death! He gets scared easily anyway at "tense" scenes in movies. I just don't think he could have dealt with this.