For my sisters Grace and Sam's last Saturday of homework freedom before their semester beings, our family took the afternoon to veg out in the Jacksonville movie theater. Is there any better way to waste an afternoon than to see a couple stories played out on screen? Well as long as you smuggle in less junk food than I did today, I don't think so. I love those mini Reese's cups, but I should never eat an entire bag in one sitting again. Lesson learned.
The first movie was Tron Legacy. I saw the original 1982 Tron about a year ago because I was inspired by the poster on my favorite TV character Chuck's wall. It was soooooo hard to sit through because the "special effects" were pretty horrible and story was super slow. I'm sure it was awesome for 1982, but it's junk compared to 2011 standards. In case you haven't seen it, check out the theatrical trailer...
My nerdiness required that I see Tron Legacy. But based on the previews, I figured I shouldn't set my hopes too high. I found the story again to be super slow and really kind of lame. And they didn't even tell you who the Tron character was until the end of the movie... right before he died. And I have absolutely no idea what happened at the end. While the visual effects and the few action sequences were impressive and entertaining, I can't give a movie my seal of approval if I don't understand the ending. It was fun to watch, but I don't think I'll be seeing it again.
After a short intermission, we went to see Chronicles of Narnia: Voyage of the Dawn Treader. It's been almost a month since the movie came out, so it's nearly killed me to wait so long to finally see it! I adore the books, but I was a little concerned when I learned they would be straying significantly from the book. While they made a few small tweaks to help the story flow a little better, they only made a couple big but actually acceptable changes.
Instead of the dark island in the book being just another stop in the voyage, it was an island controlled by a spell that frequently kidnapped people in a creepy green mist. And so in addition to the voyage being about finding Caspian's father's lost lords, it was also about saving the people who had been kidnapped by the mist. A little unexpected, but I didn't mind it.
One change I really liked is the length of time that Eustace was a dragon. In the book, Eustace was a dragon for only the duration of the their stay at that particular island. In the movie however, he was in dragon form for much longer. He was able to tow the ship from one island to another on a windless day when provisions were running low. He was also very brave as he fought the scary-by-mom's-standards sea serpent at the dark island. I'm sorry to Mr. Lewis, but I love how Eustace was able to learn a lesson on being helpful and brave before Aslan came along to rid him of the dragon suit.
The Lion, The Witch, and the Wardrobe is still my favorite of the recent Narnian movies. But Voyage of the Dawn Treader is my favorite of the books and it was great to see it on screen and I really did enjoy it. Although I felt kinda silly tearing up at a mouse's speech. I wasn't expecting them to make another film after this one, but a part of the ending made me think that maybe they are going to try to do the next installment, the Silver Chair. If they do, I'll be sure to give a review and outline all the ways the movie differed from the book. You're welcome.
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