And no love for the Mighty Warwick? Truly a giant among little people.

Long live the mighty Bear!

That doesn't mean everything, but this review by Quint (who's not even a fan of the first film or the series) and the other positive review on here by Capone are really exciting me, as a fan of the series who enjoyed the last one with the whole fam.

This will do well, I predict: 60-70 mil opening weekend.

I think that's the joke of it. Christians watch/read it because they think it's all about their faith, and in fact it's standard fantasy with the same influences that Tolkien drew from. Maybe there's a bit of L. Frank Baum's influence in Narnia (every animal talks) and even some Oz-isms can be found.

I mean, so what if there's a "king" who sacrifices himself to save his followers, only to be resurrected later? That theme is common in myths that existed LONG before Christianity stole it from them. They weren't the first to have a demigod rise from death after a sin-absolving sacrifice.

SO in my opinion, supporting Narnia actually points out that Christianity is just another farie tale, just another myth.

I mean what do you expect of me? My mom edited all my papers all the way through college. She's a fucking school teacher. When ever she didn't edit my work the remarks were always. Well you had a lot of great ideas but your grammar was terrible.

WHAt the pleb is a Reepicheeper?

But also, I think that most people who are complaining about the 'flat' performances from the kids are missing the mark. I think the script and the kids (at least Peter and Susan) did an excellent job of portraying the sadness, frustration and (with Peter) even desperation of balancing Narnia and the 'real world' without hitting us over the head with it. Once you've been King of Narnia, it's pretty tough to deal with the mundanities of petty bullying. His desperation to lead the battle again directly comes out of his desire to prove his adulthood. Susan displays a great sense of isolation, and her sadness of knowing that even when she gets back Narnia, it will only be temporary. This of course comes back at the end. I remembered the book simply saying that Peter and Susan are too old to return (it's been a while since I read it, though), but in the movie Aslan explains that they have to integrate what they've learned in Narnia with their soon-to-be adult lives in the real world. That kinda hit home for me. The non-existent movie/book in my head is following Peter and Susan in their non-Narnian lives and seeing if they can actually do it and how.

While the first film/book is a more straightforward parallel to elements of the Jesus story, this film feels more 'religious' in a mature way, in that it deals with questions of faith and what happens to a cultural belief over time (especially after the culture that originated that belief has faded). And like others have mentioned, this is not necessarily a Christian thing, but a universal thing. But it is a religious (even theological) thing. Or call it cultural if you like. But again, even these issues don't overtake the film in any kind of preachy or didactic way.

And yeah, Dinklage is awesome. One of my favorite actors around today. The guy can say so much with just his eyes.

And yeah, that one-line bear was pretty ridiculous. That's the only moment that took me out of the movie. Well, that and all the teenager gangbanger-wannabes laughing at inappropriate places at the viewing I attended. I would have rather seen it with a bunch of kids. Sheesh.

Anyway, my summer movies (Iron Man, Speed Racer, Caspian) are 3 for 3 so far. I kinda have a bad feeling about Indy though. We'll see.