The Lion
My wife and I saw The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe last night. Good movie. Maybe not great, but a good movie. Go see it. Eat a bunch of popcorn. Hit the bathroom before it starts, though, cause it's about 2.5 hours long.
It's good, but I was a little disappointed. Maybe my expectations were a little high. Maybe it's just me knowing and loving the book. But I think there's a limitation movies are always going to have.
You see, Aslan (C.S.Lewis's lion who represents Christ) is VERY well done. He's animated but looks like a lion. His mane? Perfect. (Did you know I touched a lion once? Yup, snuck up behind him at the zoo and stroked him with one finger through the double fence. Since then they've planted a hedge right there. I wonder why.) Anyway, Aslan looks great. Big, furry, and majestic.
Like Christ, Aslan is forced to deal with a traitor. The law requires he be killed, but Aslan knows a deeper law - if one who has done no wrong will willingly die for the traitor, the punishment will be lifted and death itself reversed. That's what happened at the cross, friends - we were all in rebellion against God, and Christ died in our place. He carried our sin, removed our guilt, took our punishment and made it so we can live forever in His kingdom.
And as Christ died for us, Aslan died for Edmund. And as Christ rose to life again, so did the lion. Great. Wonderful stuff! Yes, I did cry.
BUT... in the book, Aslan comes to life and lets out a joyful, resurrected shouting roar that shakes Narnia from one end to the other. In the movie it's a BIG roar, but not a divine roar. It's BIG, but it doesn't let you know all is right with the world. It's a BIG roar, but it doesn't carry the weight of all life and death and love and joy.
The problem is, Hollywood can't do that. It would have helped if the director had pumped the volume right then and shaken our seats. But even then it would have just been cool. It takes God, or a mind that can imagine God, to try to do justice to a roar like that. Only a limitless imagination can reach far enough to describe God. Once it's taken from the realm of imagination to the land of mere movie physics, it HAS to be less than it should be.
God is simply too great to be captured on film.
It's good, but I was a little disappointed. Maybe my expectations were a little high. Maybe it's just me knowing and loving the book. But I think there's a limitation movies are always going to have.
You see, Aslan (C.S.Lewis's lion who represents Christ) is VERY well done. He's animated but looks like a lion. His mane? Perfect. (Did you know I touched a lion once? Yup, snuck up behind him at the zoo and stroked him with one finger through the double fence. Since then they've planted a hedge right there. I wonder why.) Anyway, Aslan looks great. Big, furry, and majestic.
Like Christ, Aslan is forced to deal with a traitor. The law requires he be killed, but Aslan knows a deeper law - if one who has done no wrong will willingly die for the traitor, the punishment will be lifted and death itself reversed. That's what happened at the cross, friends - we were all in rebellion against God, and Christ died in our place. He carried our sin, removed our guilt, took our punishment and made it so we can live forever in His kingdom.
And as Christ died for us, Aslan died for Edmund. And as Christ rose to life again, so did the lion. Great. Wonderful stuff! Yes, I did cry.
BUT... in the book, Aslan comes to life and lets out a joyful, resurrected shouting roar that shakes Narnia from one end to the other. In the movie it's a BIG roar, but not a divine roar. It's BIG, but it doesn't let you know all is right with the world. It's a BIG roar, but it doesn't carry the weight of all life and death and love and joy.
The problem is, Hollywood can't do that. It would have helped if the director had pumped the volume right then and shaken our seats. But even then it would have just been cool. It takes God, or a mind that can imagine God, to try to do justice to a roar like that. Only a limitless imagination can reach far enough to describe God. Once it's taken from the realm of imagination to the land of mere movie physics, it HAS to be less than it should be.
God is simply too great to be captured on film.
posted by David Hardesty | 2:12 PM
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