VH Corner

The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, The Witch, and the Wardrobe
Author: C.S. Lewis

Four English children stumbled across a wardrobe that takes them into the magical land of Narnia where the evil White Witch has turned the land into a neverending winter.

First book written in the Chronicles of Narnia, but the second one in the timeline.

I read the books when I was younger and bought a recent edition of the series a few years back. I didn’t start rereading them though until recently, and only because I knew a new movie was being made of series. I think I might have watched some old television movie of the books too, but it was all a vague memory. I remembered the book being bigger than it was and more things happening to it, but that could be the tv movie that I am remembering since it isn’t the other books. I remember them even less.

The children’s personalities aren’t really devled into too deeply. Most of the time is centered on Lucy and Edmund. I felt like I knew them and why they made the decisions they made. I never got a feel for Peter or Susan in the book. I was confused as to why Peter became the one to lead the big fight at the end except that he was the oldest. I am still not sure why Susan was around. She didn’t lend much to the story.

Everything in the book was leading up to a big fight scene between the good and evil forces, but then it was all over very quickly. I wish it could have been expanded since it seemed that was the main point. It was a tad anti-climatic, but still a good read up until it was over so quickly.

Harry starts to have dreams of Voldemort’s return and the Tri-wizard Tournament comes back to Hogwart’s after a 100-year absence due to it being too dangerous.

Like I have done with all the Harry Potter movies, I read the book just before watching the movie. I know nothing about the fifth or sixth books, even though I own them. The fourth book is my favorite so far, but I had no idea how the movie would fit all the parts of the book in. It didn’t. It had to cut out subplots that are great to read about in the book, but aren’t necessary to move the characters or main story along.

I saw this movie with Jer and Amy when visiting Arizona. We saw it on the Wednesday before Thanksgiving so there were not a lot of people in the theater. Since Jer usually has a horrible movie-going experience, this one was not any better. He sat on the other side of Amy for a while until an ancient woman sat next to him, humming, smacking her lips and kicking the bar in front of her. He moved to the other side of me, which made Amy think that Jer didn’t want to sit next to her. A couple sat on the other side of Jer and the guy right next to him kept elbowing him and moving every five seconds. Jer decided that scary old lady was the winner so moved next to her again towards the end of the movie. I’m not sure how much of the movie he ended up seeing.

While watching the movie, and when Jer was next to me, we would say “O rly?” every time we saw an owl. We found this to be hilarious. When Jer moved, I had to start saying it over Amy. She laughed and hopefully was not too annoyed at us amusing ourselves.

Now back to the movie! I really liked the director of the third movie. I thought he did a great job and gave the movie a darker feel that was more exciting to watch. I think the director for this movie did a great job too. I liked the visuals of the third movie best so far, but this movie was very tense during the tournament scenes. I did feel some of the teen crush and romantic scenes seemed bit rushed, but then I don’t know if the movie could go into the same depth that the book did in the same respect without losing out on the action. I thought it did a good job with Harry’s crush on Cho, but missed a lot of the fun of Hermoine and Krum flirting. It skipped to the end of her becoming bored of him a little too quickly. It did a good job of Ron and Hermoine liking each other, but not realizing it yet though.

I loved Mad-Eye Moody in the book and was hoping my favorite scene with him in it would be in the movie–turning Malfoy into a ferret. It was! I was very happy. His eye cracked me up in the book, so I’m glad that he was as entertaining in the movie too. I also liked Dumbledore more in this movie. I wasn’t so sure about the actor playing him in the third movie. He just wasn’t the same as the original actor, but I think he came into the character more here.

For people that haven’t read the books, I recommend watching the third and fourth movies. I think the first two are too boring. I recommend the books instead. I think the last two movies definitely stand up the books and I can’t wait for the next one!

Rating: A-

Creators of South Park have made a marionette movie about a group of Americans hell-bent on reducing world crime by going after terrorists with weapons of mass destruction.

Yeah, so this movie sucked. I heard that it was hilarious and a witty, biting satire. I didn’t think it was any of those things. I have quit watching South Park, but mostly out of laziness. When I run across an episode here or there, I still think it is funny. I enjoyed the South Park movie. I thought this would be the same kind of humor, but I couldn’t believe it was made by the same guys.

There was nothing subtle about it, which I found to be annoying. There was every stereotype out there and they tried really hard to offend everyone. I wasn’t offended, but just annoyed that nothing funny was happening.

I chuckled a few times at the puppets sticking each other in the eye by mistake. I also found the songs amusing. They were more along the lines that I thought the movie’s humor would be. The song about patriotic Americans thinking they are awesome was pretty funny. I liked the song about how freedom costs a buck o’ five. I kept giggling at the Pearl Harbor/Ben Affleck song. Other than that though, it was back to a movie that I couldn’t wait to end.

I heard the puppet sex scene was great. I really wished we didn’t have the unrated version to watch because I could have done without the peeing and pooping. ack! When the “shock” value of the puppets having sex wore off in the first few seconds, then it became boring. The scene where the main guy vomiting for a million years just went on too long. If I could find the fast forward button on the DVD easier, we would have skipped it. The first time I heard the speech about assholes, dicks and pussies, it was slightly amusing. To hear it all again by someone else later on in the movie was boring.

I think Jer felt the same way since we watched the first 30 minutes of the movie one night before going to bed. After that, he asked if I had sent the movie back. I reminded him we hadn’t watched the rest of it yet. He groaned that we had to watch more of it and we hadn’t even got to the puppet sex, vomiting and asshole/dick/pussy speeches yet.

I didn’t think the movie looked too funny when I saw the previews, but I had heard that it was great so I thought I might not have seen the funny parts yet. I should have went with my first thoughts.

Grade: D

The Chronicles of Narnia: The Magician’s Nephew
Author: C.S. Lewis

Polly and Digory are children in Victorian London that go on an adventure in Digory’s attic during the rainy summer months. Uncle Andrew is a magician and tricks the children into exploring other worlds where they stumble across the birth of Narnia and let loose an evil sorceress Jadis. This book was written after The Lion, The Witch, and the Wardrobe, but is a prequel to that story.

I bought this series a few years back because I remembered liking the books when I was a kid, but really remembered nothing about them. Since a movie is coming out about The Lion, The Witch, and the Wardrobe, I thought I should reread the series. I couldn’t remember why tv shows and movies that were made from this series always skipped the first book. Part of it could be since it was written way after the first book at almost the end of the series as a prequel.

Another reason could be that not too much happens in this book. It is really a set up for the rest of the series. Stuff happens, but it all goes pretty quick and not much gets resolves. The creating of Narnia, the freeing of the witch, the introduction to the lion, and even the story behind the wardrobe will come into play later on.

It is a nice little story and it is written as if it is expected to be read to children. The way C.S. Lewis writes invites someone to read it outloud to someone else and is written at a young child’s reading level. It is a completely different experience after reading Harry Potter books that are aimed more towards teens, even though kids younger than that read the books. I forget when I read Harry Potter that it is a kid’s book. I couldn’t forget while reading this one.

C.S. Lewis is a major religious guy and the entire series is supposed to be an overall storyline of good vs. evil, with references to Adam & Eve and so forth, but it’s fine. It’s still a good, entertaining story. Now I have to read the second book about that lion, witch and wardrobe.

Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire
Author: J.K. Rowling

Harry Potter enters his fourth year at Hogwart’s where he watched the Quidditch World Cup, Voldemort is plotting to kill him still, and there is the TriWizard Competition that hasn’t been held in over 100 years.

It was most excellent.

**Don’t read if you haven’t read the book yet**

I keep thinking every book is better than the one before. I liked that Harry had a crush on Cho. I liked that Ron and Hermoine like each other but won’t admit it. They just get jealous when one or the other likes someone else or even mentions any one else. I liked that Krum likes Hermoine and I wonder in the movie if he’ll say her name as goofy as it was said in the book.

I loved Mad-Eye Moody and his magical eyeball. I laughed everytime his eyeball went all loopy and I wonder how that’ll translate in the movie.

Speaking of the movie, I am wondering how they are going to fit it all into the movie without losing major plot points or seeming too rushed. I guessed all the things they would cut out of the third book to make it fit into the movie and I thought the director did an awesome job.

I have read an article in this week’s Entertainment Weekly that the big squid in the lake in front of Hogwart’s and the subplot about Hermoine trying to stand up for the house elves rights are both out. The big squid was only mentioned twice so that makes sense. The house elves plots are really funny but I can see why that is cut too. I can see how they can use Winky and even Dobby in the movie, but leave their rights and S.P.E.W. out. I hope they do that instead of cut out Winky and Dobby altogether.

I’m guessing that the Quidditch World Cup will be shortened, but I hope it isn’t cut out since that leads to the Dark Mark and so many other things. I can see that the movie just concentrating on Tri-Wizard Tournament would be an entire movie, so I hope everything with Voldemort still happens with Harry’s visions and, of course, the very end where he comes back.