Reviewing the Reviews: 'Chronicles of Narnia'
The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe proved especially tricky to this weekend’s headline writers. Most reviewers had a hard time coming up with a good pun on the movie’s cumbersome title; better to reference the plot, with its magical closet portal to a fantasy world of perpetual winter, and its allegorical Christ-figure hero, the talking lion Aslan. Many critics noted the C.S. Lewis adaptation’s resemblance to another recent fantasy-epic franchise, one based on the books of Lewis’ pal J.R.R. Tolkien. (Full disclosure: I reviewed the movie this week for the Boston Phoenix, so I’m partial to the headline I wrote.) But there were a couple other reviews (in the Village Voice and the New York Post) whose headlines were even funnier. Read on and see if I’m lion.
- New York Newsday: In with a roar, out with a yawn
- East Valley (Ariz.) Tribune: ‘Narnia’ could use sharper teeth
- Las Vegas Weekly: Winter Wonderland
- Dallas Observer: Lion in Winter
- Fort Worth Star-Telegram: Cold case
- Arizona Daily Star: An epic of biblical proportion
- St. Paul Pioneer Press: Laying down the awe
- Calgary Sun: ‘Narnia’ can’t myth
- The Stranger (Seattle): Lionizing Jesus
- The Hook (Charlottesville, Va.): Narnia 1: The passion of the lion
- USA Today: ‘Narnia’ opens the door to excitement
- New York Post: Wardrobe Malfunction
- Boston Phoenix: Knights in armoire
- La Cañada (Calif.) Valley Sun: Lord of the Rings with a Lion
- L.A. Weekly: Lions and Witches and Wardrobes — Oh My!
- Village Voice: Trapped in the Closet: Robust Rendering of a Fantasy Classic
addCredit(“The Chronicles of Narnia: Phil Bray”)
Comments