Opinions on three fantasy movies
Chronicles of Narnia
It had some nice visuals, which, no doubt, were even better on the big screen. There were some nice moments in it.
But, damn, the whole "prophecy tells us to make a bunch of children war leaders to save the world, and it works" is so bloody, painfully stupid. As was dividing the good and pad people in Narnia along species lines, and putting the good guys in mirror-polished armour and in one case on a white unicorn, while the bad guys had black iron and were all in all more on the "ugly" goblin-and-troll side.
The movie also once again made me wonder if there is a fantasy stereotype saying that women in positions of power must be evil, or if my memory is selective there.
The Dark Crystal
Yeah, I saw that a short while ago for the first time, so no nostalgia for me here (same as with the Narnia movie; I never read the books).
Suffers from the same "prophesied hero with no clue whatsoever" as the above, but marginally less grave in my mind, because the scale is smaller... Or maybe I just like the rest of the movie more and thus am more forgiving.
The trying-to-figure-out-myths part of the story was rather interesting, even if it should not have been neccessary, if the gelfling's teachers were so damn wise. The ending seemed rather predictable to me, but, eh. I really loved the strange creatures all through the setting.
Labyrinth
Same as before, was new to me.
How refreshing! A story about "personal" problems rather than saving the world. Like in The Dark Crystal, I think the strongest point are the creatures and setting, though it got a bit very random at times, and I probably would have liked it better without that swamp full of farting arseholes.
Jareth's little "I did it all for you" speech was interesting. It's also one of the rare examples where I like the translation better than the original. From the German version, I expected the line that turned out to be "You cowered before me, I was frightening" to say "You wanted to fear me, so I was fearsome", which is just a better line.
All in all, I don't consider any of those a must-see.
Comments
Let's see.
1) They are not shown as leaders of anything in the movie - they spied on Aslan and mourned his dead, while their brothers did the warleadering.
2) It was said in the movie that Peter would be High King.
3) OK, in the one scene with them as adults, there is no indication that they are evil. However, the only hint at anything in the general direction of leader-qualities points at a lack of it, namely, Lucy "is always running off".
So, no indication that they are any good queens, either. In addition to that it seems more like something "after the story" than "part of the story".
Ehwell. It's a good thing the family didn't consist of four brothers, at least.
Oh, I thought of one! Princess Leia! :D
Narnia: butchered the book. Unicorns and Horses (i.e. talking ones) are people, not ridden except in emergencies. The blatant and upsetting racism is a constant thing throughout the books. As for women in power, granted Lewis was incredibly sexist (hello, 1950s Christian), but what do you call Queen Susan and Queen Lucy?
I think your adult eyes would dislike the book anyway, so don't bother reading it.
I thought Labyrinth was utter cack. Pan's Labyrinth was a bit better, but the end was too ridiculous.