Periodic Movie Review

[Janus%TheDoorman]

I kinda got the feeling that M. Night took inspiration from LotR. The North Pole was too similar to Helms Deep in too many respects. But LotR took two movies to get there, and for good reason. Rushing to the big fortress battle doesn't give you enough time to make it seem like there's anything at risk, like the badguys are really a threat to anything you care about. The fortress loses all meaning.

The firebending thing... you could make an argument that the firebenders need some basic fuel, like carrying around tinder or a can of oil, but really, that's just to provide energy, which bending implicitly provides to begin with, and all that goes out the window anyway when you find out firebenders can make lightning.

The name thing was infuriating on so many levels. You insisted on ethnically correct names, but not ethnically correct actors? You completely ignored the source material, putting your interpretation over the one the fans have come to love? It was like a slap to the head every time one of those names came out. It was like M. Night Shamalamadingdong was personally sitting behind me and tapping me on the shoulder and saying, "Hey, see! This is MY movie, and it's different from the series! See! We did the names different, the RIGHT way! This movie's dedicated to authenticity, man!"

AND THE EARTHBENDERS WHO DIDN'T REALIZE THAT AN EARTH PIT WAS NOT AN EFFECTIVE PRISON. I mean, c'mon! They were in there for EARTHBENDING. They were ALL earthbenders! It's like putting MacGuyver in a prison cell that was wallpapered with improvised weapons manuals.

[Mich]

I saw Mr. Pilgrim's Movie of Awesomeness last week with my mom and was so, SO not disappointed. I loved every minute of it. Michael Cera pulled through and I didn't think he would. Most of the jokes were pretty much perfectly delivered, and the new jokes and things not taken directly from the comic were awesome. The whole Seinfeld section was too hilarious.

I want to see it again.

Oh, and my mom enjoyed it a lot, too, even though it was "weird."

Finally, the game, which is on PS3 and will soon be on 360, is about the best throwback to SNES and 16-bit beat-em-ups ever. I played as Stills (who was and is awesome) and Kim (I kind of love Kim ).

[fawkes]

I kinda got the feeling that M. Night took inspiration from LotR. The North Pole was too similar to Helms Deep in too many respects. But LotR took two movies to get there, and for good reason. Rushing to the big fortress battle doesn't give you enough time to make it seem like there's anything at risk, like the badguys are really a threat to anything you care about. The fortress loses all meaning.

I think the reasoning behind the "hurry up and get to the north pole" thing was that he was trying to squash the entire first season of the show into a movie, so there could be one movie per season. The BIG problem with this? There is over 20 hours worth of story in each season! It is impossible to compress 20 hours of story into a three hour movie! It's waaay too rushed, the middle hour is a jumble of villages and Zhao running back to the Fire Lord to make reports, and Zuko didn't even encounter Team Avatar again until the north pole. Zuko is supposed to be the villain, with Zhao as a supporting character.

I think the movies could have benefitted from being split up even further, and planned 6 movies instead. The first could have ended around the winter solstice, followed by a second movie ending at the north pole, then begin the third movie at the start of season 2, and so on. Hell, you'd have to split up the 3rd season into 2 films anyway,what with Day of Black Sun, and Sozin's Comet. There are just so many ways this could have been improved!

On the plus side, Michael DiMartino and Bryan Konietzko are placating their fans with A BRAND-NEW AVATAR SERIES!!! I can't help but think they threw this together to keep folks happy after M. Night's horrendous failure.

[Janus%TheDoorman]

Korra's stance in that shot plus the description of Republic city make me hope that Legend of Korra will basically be Elemental-Magical-Steampunk Batman. Which would be awesome on a whole new level.

[Luet]

We watched a movie called Fanboys last night and while it was pretty funny, it mostly made me realize what an incredible nerd my husband is. He knew the answer to all of the Star Wars trivia mentioned in the movie. Just...wow. He told me that I can't call anyone else a nerd since I went to Endercon.

[Janus%TheDoorman]

Went and saw Machete. I didn't see Grindhouse, so I didn't realize going in that the whole movie was based off an idea from a parody trailer in that movie, but if I had, it wouldn't have disappointed. It pulls off a perfect blend of having the entire action of the movie not even bother taking itself seriously, while the characters take things seriously enough for you to get engaged with what's going on.

The one problem that creates is that the central plot of the movie is a bit like Shooter where the main character is setup to take the fall for an assassination attempt, except that the entire cast seems to be holding the idiot ball for most of the movie and can't figure out why someone would set up an illegal immigrant to take the fall for attempted assassination of an anti-immigration Texan state senator.

This isn't a problem in and of itself, bad writing maybe, but I can't tell if the movie's poking fun at the tendency for people to be holding the idiot ball in this genre, or if it's just bad writing. Always a risk for films like this, but it's the only part of the movie that isn't executed well.

[Luet]

My husband informed me that the actor who plays Machete was in Fanboys. Pretty funny.

[Gravity Defier]

Case 39

I'm actually pissed I managed to let a friend talk me into paying to see this in the first place. I would only grudgingly cough up 50 cents to get this out of Redbox if I could go back in time and not have seen it in theaters first.

When my friend expressed surprise at how it ended, I gave her a "Beg your pardon, you moron?" look because I watched the trailer shortly before going and could see the whole movie play out right then and there. I was hoping I was wrong, that there might be something clever, but it was a predictable, B-Rated movie with awful special effects. The only thing I was even remotely impressed by was how believable the little girl was in her role but even that was only some of the time. D-

Surrogates

I liked the idea behind the movie but the execution and overall flimsy plot wreaked of the same desperate need to impress as Gamer (starring Gerard Butler) with nothing much to recommend it. Cliche, dumbed down SF. D-

The Pick-Up Artist

80s movie starring Molly Ringwald and Robert Downey Jr., the former looking gorgeous, acting at about the same level as her previous, more well known films, but still managing to be mostly wrong for her role whereas the latter was infinitely less charming, comfortable with himself, and believable than in one of the first films I ever saw him in (Chances Are - great premise, great movie [for an 80s movie, that is ]).

I always tend to notice the soundtrack on 80s films and this one was schizophrenic. Going from something like The Crystals' "Then He Kissed Me" to Levert's "Casanova" later could have worked out seamlessly but it didn't here. It was also a bit jarring to have the music just cut out in places, something you shouldn't notice if edited correctly.

I'm willing to cut it a bit of slack, given 80s movies tendency to be completely corny and unrealistic in general but even so, I can see how it never rose to the top with the truly great stuff from that era. C

Outsourced

The jury is still out on this movie. It was definitely one of the better chick-flicks I've seen as of late and it certainly was the best of the four movies I saw over the course of the weekend but it still seemed a little...disappointing, maybe. I am pretty sure I hated the end, which probably means it was brilliant, and this may sound strange, but I was very distracted by the lead's teeth. He kept almost reminding me of Edward Norton (a good thing) in his delivery, voice, and appearance at times, but then he'd hold his mouth open and I couldn't focus on anything other than wanting him to close it.

That aside, I do think it is worth seeing, even for the non chick-flick types because it does a decent job with being culturally aware. B-

[Wil]

RED
Pretty decent movie. It's like a man's romantic comedy, really. I enjoyed it.

How To Train Your Dragon
Sooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo good.


... I'd be terrible at writing movie reviews.

[locke]

it's hard for me to even want to see how to train your dragon the trailers were uniformly hideous in almost every respect, imo. so despite the near universal rave reviews I've not seen it.

The Town is really well made, props to Affleck all around. Good solid entertainment.

Beauty and the Beast is still as brilliant and perfect and wonderful as always. R and I both loved watching it again for the first time in years, we made dinner drank a lot of wine and sometimes sang along (mainly to Something There), sometimes just said lines a hair before they were supposed to be said, it's the favorite Disney of both of us so a very enjoyable Sunday night. I got teased for reading books the way Belle reads and when the library with floor to wall book shelves is revealed I was told, "that's what you really want" Considering we've been talking about whether or not I have too many books as it is (I do not think that covering one wall floor to ceiling is too many books, you have to get to at least three walls before you hit too many) it was another fun element to seeing the film. anyways I was reminded of how amazing and cool having a ladder that slides along bookshelves would be. mmm.

[Mich]

Beauty and the Beast is still as brilliant and perfect and wonderful as always.

It's definitely one of my top three Disney movies. When we had our Disney Movie Marathon last year, that was the point at which everyone shut up and let everyone else actually watch the movies (which is kind of pathetic, as a huge fan of Disney animation, but at least they held out that long). The animation is top-notch, Belle is an extremely likable and capable heroine, and dat music...

I almost bought it the other day, when I saw it was selling, but then remembered that I absolutely hate the Disney Vault and never, ever want to encourage it. I will get it used, or wait for someone to get it for me, or not get it at all.

[Janus%TheDoorman]

Scott Pilgrim vs The World might be my new favorite movie. I'll have to watch it again after letting at least a few days pass to be sure. The comics are alright. I read through up to the point they had been published when I first heard about them, but I haven't really kept track since then. They're mainly just of interest because they're more or less a professionally published webcomic, and are enjoyable for their originality more than anything else. I didn't think rehashing that same ground would be worth it in the theaters, so I waited until the BluRay release this week and Oh Sweet Miyamoto was I wrong.

You'd think that a movie that tries to pack seven boss fights into two hours would be rushing through it, not letting the characters develop, and having no room for any interesting subplots. This is true, and yet the film is brilliant despite it. In the comics, while Scott is the central character, the story isn't conveyed from his perspective, so all the characters are well rounded and develop. The film isn't first person (most of the time) but it only picks up on information that Scott would notice or care about. This has two effects:

1) It makes Scott's self absorption and general jackassery much more apparent from the get-go. In the comics Scott seems at first to be a mildly immature slacker, and it's only as his backstory comes out over time do we see that he's got some serious character flaws to work out.

2) In marginalizes the rest of the characters so that the central plot can take up all of the time without it feeling like they're simply being ignored. A number of characters are cut from the film simply because they were only of secondary importance.

I know that makes it sound like another Hollywood decayed adaptation, but the delivery and execution of Every. Single. Part. is so flawless that all the character of the comics carries through and is made so much better by the liveliness of the characters. It's not Oscar-baiting emotional drama, and it's not pure comedic delivery, but every ounce of the film is so full of meaning that there isn't a single scene that on the second watch-through I wanted to fast forward. Any scene from the movie would be as enjoyable to watch on its own as with the whole of the film (except a number of self-referencing jokes) and they'll be as funny the 100th time as they were the first.

[Petrie]

I still haven't seen the ending of Scott Pilgrim but I've seen enough to have a good impression and I'm a little sad to say, I think this movie was vastly overhyped by a bunch of fanboy types. I really liked what I saw, particularly Kieran Culkin as Wallace, I laughed throughout, was impressed by how much it felt like the comics, etc. but I think what is turning me off is the barrage of "Greatest film ever" and similar. It is a really, really entertaining movie. It has all sorts of great qualities. It would even make it into my top 10 for 2010 but greatest movie of the year, let alone ever? Hyperbole, much, folks?

[Mich]

I've been secretly watching all of Avatar, and I can say that it is really good. The first season ("book," if you're annoyingly insistent) didn't hook me at first, but no one has ever said I'm not persistent at looking for good shows, and the second season really got me hooked, meaning I took about a month for the first season, and finished S2 and 3 in about three weeks.

Maybe it's just because of EG being in development hell for all of these years, but I now take some sick glee from watching poor adaptations, so I'm pretty excited to see the movie. From what I've heard on here + my friends + strangely, Cracked.com, it shall be glorious.

[Janus%TheDoorman]

I still haven't seen the ending of Scott Pilgrim but I've seen enough to have a good impression and I'm a little sad to say, I think this movie was vastly overhyped by a bunch of fanboy types. I really liked what I saw, particularly Kieran Culkin as Wallace, I laughed throughout, was impressed by how much it felt like the comics, etc. but I think what is turning me off is the barrage of "Greatest film ever" and similar. It is a really, really entertaining movie. It has all sorts of great qualities. It would even make it into my top 10 for 2010 but greatest movie of the year, let alone ever? Hyperbole, much, folks?

Oh no, I'm not saying it's the best movie ever, or even of this year, just that I enjoy it more than any other movie I've seen. It goes right into my head and plugs into all the things I like so that I completely ignore everything else I would normally be less enthusiastic about, of which there is quite a bit, but nothing that ruins the parts I do like.

[Mich]

...so I'm pretty excited to see the movie. From what I've heard on here + my friends + strangely, Cracked.com, it shall be glorious.

If I hadn't been laughing, I would have been angry.

[locke]

errm. uh. So yeah. Hallmark HD channel played The Cat from Outer Space in HD and I recorded it and watched it. It is every bit as awesome as you would expect a Disney movie about a telepathic, telekinetic kitty with a spaceship (who teams up with a Caltech scientist to get enough gold to repair his ship and make his way back to the mother ship) to be.

I used to watch it All the time as a kid, I don't know how many times we rented it from the library, fun to see it in HD and widescreen for the first time (though I think it was still cropped down from full scope). The film is cheesy to the extreme and oh so awesome because of it.

Also watched Toy Story 3 again and it is just swell, a bit better the second time around, but I'm still not as crazy about the Toy Story films, they are all great, but are all just 9 of 10s for me, not quite up to the level of Monsters Inc, Incredibles, Wall*E and Up for me.

[GS]

I've been secretly watching all of Avatar, and I can say that it is really good. The first season ("book," if you're annoyingly insistent) didn't hook me at first, but no one has ever said I'm not persistent at looking for good shows, and the second season really got me hooked, meaning I took about a month for the first season, and finished S2 and 3 in about three weeks.

I loved this show. I wasn't really hooked until I saw the season 1 finale for the first time. Not sure if the same will happen to you (or if you even plan on re-watching it eventually), but with the more I re-watched them, the more I appreciated the first season and the less I appreciated the third season. The second season pretty much stayed the same. But the first season is good man. Some of my favorite episodes were from that season (The King of Omashu (Bumi = Win!), The Storm, The Blue Spirit, The Deserter and the two part finale to name a few). The third season; I thought there was too much filler early on and everything was too rushed during the second half.


As for the movie, I couldn't sit through the entire thing.

[locke]

I finally finished watching Bell Book and Candle (started watching it in May) Jim Stewart and Kim Novak and Jack Lemmon are all so adorable (Novak and Lemmon play a witch and warlock). It's not a great film, but it's a very charming film.

The Whole Town's Talking is sort of a hybrid gangster film, screwball comedy, Edward G Robinson showpiece. Robinson plays Arthur Jones, a mild mannered clerk who just happens to look like the Killer Mannion, a recently escaped vicious gangster. Dark hilarity ensues as the doubles dopple each other.

the documentary Tyson, on Mike Tyson, is phenomenal, fascinating, hilarious and fast paced. I'd watch it again, tremendously entertaining.

White Christmas is a really great movie that got better for me the second time around (the first time I preferred the original film, Holiday Inn) The new bluray is really stunning, it made me wish I had a bigger TV.

Darjeeling Limited is pretty meh, kinda orientalist, kinda hapless dipshit comedy, didn't really care for it.

Due Date was very funny and entertaining, it's no hangover, and there is a TON of pot humor in the film, but it was pretty satisfying, I laughed and cringed a lot. but no worries, like comedies of old, they never actually get in trouble for anything they do.

Tell them anything you want: a portrait of Maurice Sendak, was a fascinating glimpse at a man who wrote some of my favorite children's books. I had no idea his upbringing was so unhappy or that he was gay and closeted. His pessimism and bitterness sort of surprised me, but in some ways did not. I think watching this illuminated why Where the Wild Things Are went in such a very dark and sad direction, it sort of feels like Max in the movie was based on the Maurice we see in this documentary, and I think that is why the movie rings so very true and is so very hard to watch.

Che Part 1 is a really outstanding piece of work, fascinating filmmaking, and the whole piece is clearly structured on/inspired by Lawrence of Arabia (which makes sense). the acting is outstanding and the production is excellent, I'm seriously considering buying it... but I need to finish part 2 first.

House is an utterly insane japanese ghost story, truly and absolutely and totally nuts in a way that makes you want to cheer and applaud. Holy s*** is that movie just all sorts of wrong in so many good ways. Anyone who is a fan of bad movies should watch it ASAP.

Bergman's The Magician is a meditative and tremendous piece of work that is not overtly religious but had me thinking deeply about faith and the parable of the talents nevertheless, I was surprised at the excellence and impact of the film, a major work of his that I'd never heard of a few months ago (I bought it actually, that's how much I like it and how much it's been on my mind since seeing it).

Lola Montes is like the best Terry Gilliam film not made by Terry Gilliam. It's convoluted and a spectacle, and filled with lovely acting and incredible sets and costumes. The story is pretty dang good too. I never thought I'd actually like an Ophuls film, but here is one that I definitely do enjoy, not quite enough to buy it, but a fine film nonetheless.

Vivre Sa Vie is a Godard film I'd thought I would like but turns out to be pretty much as awful as most of his other films. Godard's films are like entitled little s*****, they're full of themselves, self aware and think they're smarter and cooler than they actually are. They're also always only surface thin, having the idea of being 'different' is more important than actually saying something with the film to Godard. I love a lot of the French new wave directors, from the straightforward like Truffaut to the labyrinthine abstract like Resnais, to the intellectual like Marker or the populist sympathizer like Malle. But Godard is just vacuous and frustrating, he panders and plays more than anything else. I do like the playful side of his films, but I don't think he makes his films playful for the joy of it, but rather as some sort of juvenile 'rebellion' against the establishment, so he's constantly undermining, in my opinion, the one thing I find I like about his films.

There I'm caught up on posting about my recent viewings.

[Eaquae Legit]

Iron Man 2 is an insane, illogical movie. But dude, holographic computers and energy-whip-suit! Cool, if insane. Worth the watch.

[Eaquae Legit]

3 Idiots was wonderful! I kept getting harassed to watch the movie (it was my own fault), and we finally got to sit down and watch it, and I loved it! If you're not into Bollywood, you'll still probably love this one - very much less dark than Slumdog Millionaire, and I enjoyed it more. Make or order a curry, and enjoy it!

[Luet]

Speaking of Slumdog, have I ever mentioned Millions? It's by the same director as Slumdog but WAY better in my opinion. It's one of my favorite movies ever.

[jotabe]

EL, what would you consider essential movies for someone who wants to be introduced into the whole bollywood thing?

[Eaquae Legit]

I'm really not edumacated enough to answer that question, Jota. But I know that I really enjoyed 3 Idiots and Om Shanti Om, which are a good place to start, I guess? I've also seen Devdas (the remake), but I was not forewarned it would be a tragedy. Lagaan is fantastic, and I enjoyed Roja, though I'm sure I missed at least half the political relevance.

I'm still just getting into it as well.

[locke]

Voyage of the Dawn Treader

Absolutely PERFECT Eustace Scrub, and really a superb performance from the boy too, his transformation is genuine and his goodbye to Reepicheep is especially well done. He's also got some spectacularly excellent lines (and makes all his lines sound good, which is impressive because some of the adult actors can't make that happen).

Overall I think this is the weakest narnia yet, I'm in the camp that loved Prince Caspian, but I think the downfall here is the script department, it was just pretty meh and 'and then what happened' there was no sense of danger, little sense of discovery and it lacked the magic spark of the previous films. It felt more like the pirates sequels, an "of course we're in a magical reality, ho hum." Part of that, I think is the problem of being cooped up on the Dawn Treader. Part of it is there is no dynamism or interaction with anyone outside the Eustace-caspian-edmund-lucy-Reepicheep circle. I miss Eddie Izzard as reep as well.

I was also put off by what I'll call overt pandering to the Jesus Lion audience. There's some really horrific lines that make this feel more like a Christian movie and less like a movie for everyone. It's those bad lines that exemplify most of the problems with the movie, which are with the script. Caspian had it's share of script problems as well, but those were primarily structural. Dawn Treader has structural issues in the script, less so than Caspian, but has really bad lines. They couldn't come up with any reason for us to care about the character's plight in this film and so it comes off as a series of magical events.

The effects were terrific and it was tremendous fun seeing my favorite book of the series brought to life, but it just didn't seem quite as good as the other two, less passionate, I think.

Also I always have and always will hate the whole, 'your last time in narnia cause you're grown up now.' bullshit of kicking the penvensie children out of narnia. Ugh. So I think my response to the movie is somewhat colored by the annoyance that Lucy and edmund will not return to narnia (until the end of the last battle at least) because I still am really irked by that particular patronizing bit of garbage plotting.

[Rei]

I'm kind of alarmed about watching this film. I was planning to watch it just because... but now I'm really not so sure.

Also, Adam, I really, really do not understand what is wrong with certain people not returning to Narnia. Would you mind explaining to me what bothers you about it?

[Mich]

Adam, come on. Once you grow up you start to gather Dust, which hinders your ability to enter Narnia. Everyone knows that.

[Young Val]

I haven't seen the movies, after the first one, but I remember being irked in the books when the children can't come back after a certain point.

I don't know, just something about being forbidden to go, rather than finding themselves unable (like Wendy, in PETER PAN, who has forgotten how to fly and is ever so much more than twenty. Peter is trying to take her to Neverland but she herself believes she can't go. That is more palatable to me than being summarily kicked out).


It's been YEARS since I read the books, so it's possible I'm misremembering them. But I do remember having the exact feeling Adam describes.

[locke]

I'm kind of alarmed about watching this film. I was planning to watch it just because... but now I'm really not so sure.

Also, Adam, I really, really do not understand what is wrong with certain people not returning to Narnia. Would you mind explaining to me what bothers you about it?

One, I just find it really patronizing. As though imagination is inherently childish.

Two, it echoes my least favorite quote ever, "when I was a child I thought as a child..." etc

I also don't like the separation of Lyra and Will in HDM but accept that because its achingly sad and tragic, and works within the mythology of the story rather than just being a frustrating edict from God, "now you are banned from Magic and Imagination." as it is in the Narnia series.

[Rei]

I would strongly dispute your first objection, but that is probably because I feel no antagonism to that particular verse. I have always understood in that part of the stories that he is not making an end to imagination and magic as one grows older, but rather that he is pushing them to discover and recognise the same magic in their own world instead of relying on occasional escapes from their own world.

[Eaquae Legit]

I read another "really positive" review of Dawn Treader tonight that made me gag. I doubt I'll ever see this one. Feck.

Meanwhile, I had the pleasure of watching the delightful Taare Zameen Par yesterday, and I'd totally recommend it to anyone who felt grossly misunderstood in school, or has a learning disability, or is a parent/sibling/teacher of a kid with a learning disability. I'd recommend it to anyone, really, because it's a delight of a movie, but especially to the aforementioned. It's about a young boy with undiagnosed dyslexia, and his struggle to exist in a world that just thinks he's lazy and stupid.

It's another Aamir Kahn flick (same as 3 Idiots, which I mentioned above), and despite the ridiculous cockatiel hairdo, he's wonderful to watch. The first half of the movie got a bit long for me, and more than a little depressing, but by the midway "turning point" of the movie, I was well and truly inside the heart of the child at the centre of the story, Ishaan.

The filmmakers use CGI, claymation, and cel animation to take us inside the rather Calvin-esque imagination of Ishaan, and I laughed during the scene where a math problem becomes a space-quest to move Earth into Pluto's place. There's a scene near the nadir of the movie where Ishaan is being stalked by big hairy spiders with bodies shaped like letters of the alphabet - creepy!

There was also a scene which was the most l'Archey thing I've seen since leaving l'Arche. It made my heart ache with the memories and I hope so much that the school in question actually exists.

Anyway, it's a fabulous movie. I enjoyed that there were no Bad Guys, really, only people who didn't understand the situation. Sure they're unlikable, but they're not evil or unredeemed. The music is used to very good effect, and helps with the characterisation - it's not random at all.



I have to say, I enjoyed 3 Idiots and Taare Zameen Par much, much more than Slumdog Millionaire. Slumdog felt, to me, like a White Person's Movie - what do we show about India? Horrible slums and a fascination with the West. It comes off as a wee bit unconsciously condescending. Not to say that India doesn't have these issues, but the attempts to engage with the culture were superficial. Deepa Mehta's Water was similarly harsh, but much better, IMHO.

Anyway, just some thoughts.

[Rei]

I read another "really positive" review of Dawn Treader tonight that made me gag. I doubt I'll ever see this one. Feck.

Yeeeaaaahhh... and then he was encouraging people to go and see it multiple times because otherwise they might not make a film of THE SILVER CHAIR. From the sounds of it, that would be easily for the best.

Someday, maybe, they'll make a good film of Narnia. And I won't have to weep because they decided to try and improve them for our modern audience.

[Mich]

Someday, maybe, they'll make a good film of Narnia. And I won't have to weep because they decided to try and improve them for our modern audience.

Whenever I'm disappointed by a Harry Potter film I say this exact same thing to myself.

[locke]

eh, they're being absurdly faithful to the books anyway, I'd have been even more radical with prince caspian and I'd have jettisoned the whole idea of junking all the main characters we're invested in. I'd make the green witch from silver chair a reincarnation of the white witch for continuity's sake and I'd have junked the meaningless "The NOTHING!" menace of Dawn Treader for an abduction/rescue plot where Peter and Susan were abducted by the Spirit of the White Witch into Narnia and Aslan pulls Lucy and Edmund and Eustace in and the trio teams up with Caspian and turn his voyage into a rescue mission in order to give the narrative some semblance of narrative thrust. I think you could have quite a lot of fun with inverting some of the LWatW roles with Edmund now being the noble/loyal one and Susan or Peter wavering in their roles. Perhaps foreshadow Susan's last battle downfall (or as CS Lewis put it, Susan likes boys and is therefore damned to hell for such sacrilege).

***

Watched a Kid's Christmas in Chicago tonight, aka Home Alone. Good God, this movie is absolutely magic. It's brilliant on a classic pratfalls level with the things Kevin puts Marv and Harry through, but what makes the movie wonderful and perfect is the other 80% of the movie that actually achieves a truly wonderful christmas movie all on its own, even without the booby trapped house you have a wonderfully magical and magically told Christmas story that is moving and completely worthwhile. That's what makes the difference for home alone, the filmmakers took the time to let you get to care about the characters, not just Kevin, but his mother and Father as well. They spend 90 minutes just developing the story of the family and then have a comic climax with the villains, but the heart and soul of the movie is always the family story at the core.

Also, Columbus might have directed the most quoteable short film ever, Angels with Filthy Souls. "Leave it on the Doorstep and get the hell out of here." "I'm gonna give you to the count of ten to get your ugly yellow no good keister off my property before I pump your guts full of lead." "One, Two... Ten." "Keep the Change you filthy Animal." "Too bad Acey ain't in charge anymore."

[Eaquae Legit]

(or as CS Lewis put it, Susan likes boys and is therefore damned to hell for such sacrilege)

Rei will probably come in here and hit you with his hardcover copy of Planet Narnia or something, but I just wanted to reply to the above bit. Lewis never said (or intended) such a thing. You're reading into the text far more than is ever in it. Susan at that point in her life no longer believed in their time in Narnia. Whether she came back to believing in Narnia, or found some other way to heaven/Aslan's Country is never addressed. Lewis makes no final judgement, and certainly does not damn Susan to hell.