Quote of the day... (and thoughts on Narnia)

Time for a late night ramble...

"Bottom line: Anyone looking for similarities between Narnia and Christianity is clearly unable to enjoy the simple pleasures of a lion being tortured without spoiling all the fun by reading something into it."

So, this Narnia malarky....

It would appear that I am the only (christian) person who has seen it and doesnt seem to think it was that great. This may have partly been due to the fact that I had 14 vaguely disinterested young people from church in tow (youth group trips to the cinema on the day of the premier are an interesting concept, and maybe not one i would repeat too often), but i just didn't think it was as great as it could have been.

The scenery was all very nice, if ripped straight out of lord of the rings, and at least they found kids that could act (unlike the harry potter films), but it just left me a bit empty. Aslan should have been more fierce (if you have read the books you will remember that 'he isn't a tame lion', and you tend to get the opposite impression from the film. Probably bad animatronics or something), and the film just kinda felt like it died. There was, in my critical opinion, no real sense of climax to it. Which was odd and dissapointing.

I'm also not too keen on the christian bandwagon jumping thats going on with it. Of course its an allegorical story, a very obvious one, but it seems so overplayed that it kinda helped wreck the film for me. It was very much 'oh, so Aslan's Jesus then? thats nice. it was too obvious, nothing to think about, and will therefore have no lasting effect in anyones mind. I didn't find it particularly moving, and from a film buff point of view it just made it a not terribly convincing take on the old 'good vs evil, evil nearly wins, not very subtle twist and its all happily ever after' tale. Christians, however, seem to think its going to be the best evangelistic tool since the alpha course, but unfortunately it isn't. its just an average christmas family film that rips off huge chunks of the bible.

Top Athiest Polly Toynbee makes some great points in a fascinating article which can be found here on the Greenbelt website, and i found myself agreeing with far too much of it to be healthy if you're a middle class christian. The bit i found most interesting was her comments on what kind of 'Jesus' the film is actually trying to portray. However i'm not going to paraphrase it here cos i'd just do it badly. But if you want to read it its above. And then if you want to be a hardline evangelical, slagging off my backslidden ways do feel free to post a comment :-). I just think its not all its cracked up to be, really, this whole Narnia lark.

So yeah, thats my none-sensical and badly ordered two cents for today. It is late and stuff. And tomorrow i have to dress up as Liam Gallagher and cause a riot at the Oxygen Christmas party. Will be as much fun as you can have on two legs and a walking stick i'm sure. Still no job. Still no wife. Any other news isn't worth telling

Night all

Tim the christmas tree xx
























(do you like the hat Paul? it was an addition from last year....)