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Excellent.

I realize that I’m almost totally alone on this and I’ve pretty much kept it to myself since it was so unpopular at the time but the Lord of the Rings films always seemed to lack something. I could never put a finger on it but each one of them was missing something. The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe (Lion)wasn’t lacking in anything for me. The pace, while probably perceived as slow by others, was perfectly suited to getted comfortable in the story and providing ample “thinking room” while the plot still progressed. I’ve always enjoyed films that developed in what seems a more logical pace than those Hollywood blockbusters that dive right into the action and visual trickery.

I was completely taken in by everything in the film. Particularly the scene in which Aslan is killed. To see him suffer and be ridiculed so harshly really spoke to me about how Christ suffered on his way to the cross. This, after all, is exactly what C. S. Lewis intended. And in all scenes like this one with direct analogies to their Biblical inspirations the film is a success and true to its source material.

That scene is also when the whole point of The Passion completely clicked with me. Although this is very after-the-fact, that’s what Mel Gibson was trying to convey: how awful Jesus suffered for us at the hands of people who hated him. It wasn’t about reveling in the violence, but making that violence and sacrifice real to a very cold and desensitized modern audience. Anyone who thinks otherwise is completely missing this main point.

Anyways, big Disney producers must not have interferred with Lion too much or it wouldn’t have been such a true and wonderful translation to the cinema. It probably would’ve been full of quipful generic hijinks like so many of their other travesties of recent years.

Lastly I’d like to point out the realism of Aslan and the other CG creatures. Nothing looked faked to me as even some of Legolas’ aerial displays did from that other movie. And make no mistake, Lion was put into production precisely to compete for the same audiences and their money that flocked to
Lord of the Rings en masse. All the big studios want their own big fantasy epic since Peter Jackson became synonymous with the act of printing money.