Sunday, December 18, 2005

Chronicles of Narnia

We actually got out of the house to see this movie today. The weather is awful. It's been raining for the last 3 days straight. It's overcast and dreary. We needed to get out and do something even if it was just being inside watching a movie.

Well, the movie itself was great. They remained pretty true to the book. The pacing was nice and slow. Not forced, rushed or disorderly. Some say that this makes it a kids movie; I say it made for a good movie. But I am a kid at heart.

The only drawback to the movie was that it was in a theater. A crappy theater, with other people. People who were rude, loud and SEAT KICKERS! WTF is up with seat kickers!?!?!? Do they think that people can't feel their bumping, knocking, tapping and shifting through a thin metal chair?!?! The idiot behind "A" was the worst ever. No amount of glaring helped, I had to actually turn around and say, "C'mon, watch your feet." before he would stop. But even after that I had to repeatedly turn and glare, cuz he decided he'd rest his foot on MY chair and shift around every ten minutes. Obviously he had it out for me then. Pretty pitiful.

This is on top of the theater being full of people eating. And drinking. Never go to a movie around lunch. You will only hear bags crinkling and straws squeaking in the plastic cover. You know that noise? Yeah. I don't mind that so much - especially at a kid oriented/safe movie. Kids are forgiven. Parents? Never.

Don't go to the theater in Redwood City. Ever. The screens are small, curved in an effort to make up for their smallness and seating is sparse. I think there were fifteen rows. And you HAD to be in the back 6 or you were right under the screen! (Did I mention it was small?) The only screen I have EVER seen that was smaller was in Japan. I'm not going into that here.

We made a pact today never to go see a movie in the theater again. It's not worth $10 (nor even a matinee price of $6.75) to sit with a bunch of inconsiderate buffoons and not actually enjoy the experience. I'd rather stay home.

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

Yeah.... I hate Bay Area theatre goers. But they are probably just as bad as the ones in NYC.

We gave up on going to movies when it's crowded. Before Bryan's arrival, we'd started the routine of going to movies in the mornings of the weekends. It's cheaper and less crowded. We have nothing against saving a few bucks.

In the meantime, the search for a dollar-theatre continues.

Anonymous said...

This post, and the attached comments thread, discuss this problem in some detail.

Belle said...

I know some people that went to see the movie and said it sucked. That made me sad..I was so excited. I'm glad you guys liked it...makes me feel better. I'll take your guys opinion over theirs any day.

and don't even get me started on chair kicking, bag rustling, mouth open chewing PUNKS.

Anonymous said...

I though it was okay, but not great. The creature effects were superb, but the storytelling had kind of a book-report quality to it. I didn't really feel like I connected with any of the characters. The biggest disapppointment in this regard was Aslan. I felt nothing for the character. Compare this to Gandalf in The Fellowship of the Ring, where I really grew attached, and even though I knew the whole story, I really felt something when he was pulled into the abyss by the Balrog.

Granted, the structure of that story afforded Gandalf a lot more screen time, and nobody could match Ian McKellan's performance, but still, Aslan almost seemed like a side character in the film when he should be the heart of the story.

Also, the final battle is REALLY violent. They kept the blood to a minimum, but it takes a lot of cues from The Lord of the Rings, and I'm not sure this was a wise choice in a children's film.

spaceJASE said...

I agree that we didn't feel very much connection with Aslan. We mentioned to each other that they made quite a big fuss over Aslan dying when they hardly knew him. Hopefully there are some cut scenes of the children forming more of a real bond with him.

The battles WERE just another attempt to put the "massive" software to good use. (Thus makign them seem like LOTR.