Thursday, September 22, 2005
Thinking About The Narnia Movie
I have never anticipateed anticipated a movie, not Spider-man, not Batman, not X-men, like I am anticipating the upcoming Narnia movie. I have seen the trailer probably a dozen times now and each time, I tear up.
iMonk is worried that the marketing machine and the mechanisms of movies will rob the story of it's magic. And Common Grounds Online has a link to an on-set report from a theologian no less.
I don't have the huge worries Spencer does, but everytime I think about it, I will admit to a little voice in the back of my head saying things like, "What if Aslan is not not quite right?" -- "Suppose they try to tame the blatant gospel parallels?" -- "What if Edmund is so annoying at the beginning that I never buy his 'salvation?'"
Then I remind myself, as much as I love the Narnia books, as much as those stories have meant to me, they are not holy writ -- that are not sacred. Allegory, parallels and imagery notwithstanding -- they are children's stories. They are artistic creations by a truly talented man. The questions that I ask above are questions of possession, questions rooted in how much the books mean to me. But it is not about me -- it is about the books. And frankly, much as some of my images of Christ are strongly built on Aslan as I read him int eh books, that is a form of idolatry -- Aslan is not my savior -- Jesus is.
If I wanted to, I could devote an entire blog with daily posts on how superhero movies don't get it quite "right." They stray from the "true" comic book legend in so many ways. But why, movies are different from comics, which are different from books. I take them on their own merits and I enjoy them greatly. I expect the same with this movie. It will probabaly not capture my heart in the same way that books do, but I bet it does so in new ways.
iMonk is worried that the marketing machine and the mechanisms of movies will rob the story of it's magic. And Common Grounds Online has a link to an on-set report from a theologian no less.
I don't have the huge worries Spencer does, but everytime I think about it, I will admit to a little voice in the back of my head saying things like, "What if Aslan is not not quite right?" -- "Suppose they try to tame the blatant gospel parallels?" -- "What if Edmund is so annoying at the beginning that I never buy his 'salvation?'"
Then I remind myself, as much as I love the Narnia books, as much as those stories have meant to me, they are not holy writ -- that are not sacred. Allegory, parallels and imagery notwithstanding -- they are children's stories. They are artistic creations by a truly talented man. The questions that I ask above are questions of possession, questions rooted in how much the books mean to me. But it is not about me -- it is about the books. And frankly, much as some of my images of Christ are strongly built on Aslan as I read him int eh books, that is a form of idolatry -- Aslan is not my savior -- Jesus is.
If I wanted to, I could devote an entire blog with daily posts on how superhero movies don't get it quite "right." They stray from the "true" comic book legend in so many ways. But why, movies are different from comics, which are different from books. I take them on their own merits and I enjoy them greatly. I expect the same with this movie. It will probabaly not capture my heart in the same way that books do, but I bet it does so in new ways.
