Thursday, May 15, 2008

Good Stuff From Here and There

I don’t often do summary posts, but I keep running into great stuff today and I want to hurry up and go watch LOST:

First, check out Barbara Nicolosi’s excellent interview with Salvo editor Bobby Maddex (excerpts of which will be in Salvo 5).

Next, and speaking of Barbara, she links a great review of Prince Caspian which comes out tomorrow and sounds to be better than the original:

The Christian theme is not only stronger in Caspian than in Wardrobe, but integrated more naturally into the story — slowly building with events until it perfectly climaxes at the end for maximum emotional effect. This is not some new-age Christian allegory where if you fall to your knees in some sun-dappled field and raise your hands to Jesus all your problems will go away. As in life, God is not a deus ex machina. There’s a bigger picture at work — a master plan — and it’s up to us to find our place within that plan, not the other way around. What Would Aslan Do? No. What Would Aslan Want Us To Do.

On the other hand, others are concerned that the film takes too many liberties and misses much of Lewis’ point (HT: Christ and Pop Culture).

Stuff Christians Like has an insightful post on measuring the true value of one’s time.

Finally, I caught Hellboy on cable again a couple nights ago (I love that movie, and the sequel looks promising too). I was especially struck by the closing voice-over, which sums up the plot (and my worldview) very well:

What makes a man a man? A friend of mine once wondered. Is it his origins, the way he comes to life? I don’t think so. It’s the choices he makes. Not how he starts things, but how he decides to end them.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

You know, I'm more with CAPC on this one. I felt that about Aslan when I watched the first one.

There was just no mystery or fearsomeness in Aslan. He was just another talking animal. They were too over-familiar with him.

I'd be interested to see The Horse and His Boy if they manage to do the whole series.

THAHB is one of my favourite depictions of Aslan/Christ and considering how they've handled Aslan so far, it's a far stretch from "the lion who gave the horses the new strength of fear for the last mile".

Ken Brown said...

So have you seen the new one then? I'm hoping to see it tonight.

I agree about the first film; it all felt kind of "precious," like a kid's movie trying to be a blockbuster. I suppose you could say this was because it was a kid's book, but I never felt that way about the original material (which I've read half a dozen times at least).

I'm also very curious how they will handle Aslan in later films, if they manage to make them (but I think they plan to). The Horse and His Boy doesn't seem so difficult to me, as the main characters don't actually know it's Aslan until the end, and in the Silver Chair he's mostly absent as well. But The Voyage of the Dawn Treader could be interesting - it's hard to see this toned-down Aslan ripping layer after layer of dragon skin off Eustace - and how on earth will they manage the overt creation and eschatology of The Magician's Nephew and The Last Battle?

I suspect they've bitten off more than they can chew with Narnia, but Peter Jackson surprised me with LOTR, so here's hoping Andrew Adamson will too!