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Thursday, May 15, 2008
Listen to me on the radio!
The Buggles said that video killed the radio star, but on Friday, I will become a radio star talking about a certain kind of video - namely movies.
The folks at WMUB radio in Oxford have very kindly invited me to appear on their show called WMUB Forum. Myself and NPR film critic Bob Mondello will be talking about summer movies and film criticism in general.
If you can’t pick up 88.5 on your dial, you can listen on their Website. (Look for the links in the upper left-hand corner.) The show will broadcast at 9 a.m. Friday and repeat at 7 p.m. If you happen to miss it (and how sad would that be?), the Web site does archive their shows.
So take this opportunity to know what I sound like, and to listen to a little back-and-forth about movies. If you like, you can give me a little back-and-forth here and let me know how I did, he said somewhat nervously.
This is Sir Critic, signing off for now.
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What do you expect from the new Narnia?
I’ll post my review of The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian Friday morning, but first I wanted to get a sense of what people are expecting from the second C.S. Lewis adaptation from the Disney team.
I know the history of most film franchises pretty well. but I’m not exactly what one would call steeped in Narnia lore. I know far less about it than I do the worlds of Indiana Jones, Batman, Iron Man, or even Speed Racer and Get Smart. I haven’t read any of the Narnia books, and I’ve only seen the 1979 animated movie and, of course, the 2005 feature film.
What I can say is that I hope the new Narnia movie is better than the first one. I liked the previous film, but for an adaptation of such a beloved property, I found it curiously mild. It was clear that Andrew Adamson, who co-directed the first two Shrek films, was still finding his feet as a live action director. The pacing was uneven, and for all of the detail lavished on the production, it came off as a junior version of The Lord of the Rings. And there is NO way on God’s green earth it should have been nominated for the Visual Effects Oscar instead of Revenge of the Sith.
On the positive side, I very much liked the cast. All the Pevensie kids were charming, and Tilda Swinton was excellent as the White Witch. The overall production was quite impressive-looking, even though the digital animals sometimes looked dodgy.
My hope is that Prince Caspian moves a little more briskly and has much more tension, but I want to know what you think. What do you hope for from the sequel? Is it a good idea for there to be hints of a romance between the prince and Susan, which I understand is an invention of the movie? If you must include revealing details of the plot, kindly provide spoiler warnings.
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