So, I watched the second Narnia movie tonight (whatever the name is .. I thought the book went by the name the Silver Chair, but maybe that was the third one. I don’t remember. Anyway .. ), and it was really good! I was more than pleasantly surprised.
I had put off watching it for a looong time, pretty much completely until a friend recommended it in passing and I was like “Hmm, it’s on Netflix Watch it Now, meaning it’s probably not that great, so I’ll go watch it.” Yah. Don’t ever expect me to explain my logic to you.
I was really excited when the first one came out, and I was sorely disappointed by how much I thought it didn’t live up to the book. I thought it was good, but I was really bothered by the fact that the “epic” battle scene at the end was seriously less than 5 minutes long, and I don’t think you ever saw *one* person do anything battlerific.
The second one, though, was awesome. Probably about half the movie was one big battle or another one, and well done for the most part. I especially liked the duel. Oh yah, spoiler alerts. Whoops.
The movie was interesting, though. I don’t remember the book *at all*, so that could be why I enjoyed it a bit more. I thought there was a lot of interesting touches. There was just one thing that kept nagging me a bit, though. I kept thinking that, no matter how good the movie was, it seems like they focused on making it a spectacle movie more than a really good story. It wasn’t poorly done, but it wasn’t excellent, either. I often wonder why movies with really gripping stories and dialogue are so few and far apart. This one went both ways. At times it had some class and grit and character all its own, and then at other times it took things a little less seriously. I suppose that’s not too bad considering it’s a film for kids, and I have to say that, overall, they did a really good job. I think that the sequel was far better done than the first — although I will admit it’s been a *long* time since I saw the original Narnia, and I should probably give it a nod again.