On Narnia - once more, with feeling and that "s" letter.

[novin_ha]

Out of necessity, I'll refrain from speaking about Lewis's misogyny here - it's been ages since I've read the novels, and I was young enough at the time not to notice. But the film - oh, the film comes with a variety of its own issues, guilt of Lewis or not.

First of all, let me list all the stuff I loved - Susan's heavy make-up throughout the film (she apparently always has kohl in her pocket, just in case), her all-around awesomeness and the ease with which she killed people up there in the forefront. She's a little psycho, isn't she?

The battle scenes were very well done. I loved the massacres. And they went heavy on violence, didn't they?

The centaur wordlessly telling his partner about the death of their son really hit it for me.

Edmund was all-around awesome. He had so many moments of wisdom and skill - he was great fighting, he "killed" the evil witch (yet again, Peter and Caspian were sexual beings so they fell into her thrall, but he didn't. Lewis/Filmmakers, your problem with sexuality is disturbing), he told Peter to smile so that their people would think hope is not lost. He rocked the most in this film.

Caspian was kind of yummy, I have to admit. But I'd still rather wait for Edmund to be of age. Time-travel, anyone? ;D

Another thing I loved was the Telmars - especially Sopespian and General Glozelle. I loved their plotting together, and the way they set up Miraz - and then Peter. When I thought the tree killed Glozelle I actually shrieked a bit. The neighbours in the cinema were none too pleased, let me tell you.

But he was made of win. Oh yes. And the slash! There was slashy chemistry Miraz/General/Sopespian. Yes there was. More than Peter/Caspian (although that was there, too).

The music was fantastic - and Regina Spektor was such a surprise, I had no idea she was doing a song for the film.

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What I didn't like was the dialogue. I have no idea if it was that bad in original English, but the dubbed dialogue sounded inane and simple, and just got on my nerves. Susan/Caspian subplot had its rare moments, but on the whole it was pastede on and heteronormative and just plain didn't work all that well.

Peter was so annoying. My friend actually couldn't look at him when he was making all those stupid, hubris-driven decisions (and when I say hubris, I mean penis, actually). And the moments of agreement between him and Caspian based on "we protect our women" were so annoying.

Last not least... colonizer/colonized was the central metaphor and binary opposition of the film, y/y? There were a lot of moments to drive that home, including Caspian's disbelief "you have died out" and Telmars' "they were never there, we came to an empty land", so similar to what Western culture has done with say, Canada or Australia. Empty land to be discovered and possessed. There was never anyone there.

So old Narnia is the colonized. They have been oppressed and they want revenge and seemingly deserve it. They have to protect themselves from ethnic cleansing and...

most of them are ugly and disfigured or animals. Go figure. I'm loving this already.

Okay, there was some redeeming here - they're most of them good, after all.

/irony

The colonizers - they're white men, aren't they? Not blonde though, let's make them look Italian. And just a tiniest bit perverse - they're all using eyeliner, aren't they? And they dress elaborately and wear jewellery. They're men, but their masculinity is a bit... uncertain. They represent evil culture, opposed to good nature. Oh yes.

But then let's get to the happy ending.

The colonized people MUST be governed by a Son of Adam. A colonizer. Because that's the way it ought to be - oh yes.

And I'm just touching it here.

But I loved the film and had a lot of fun, ridiculous water deity or no.