First of all – Happy Republic Day! – as I like to think of it anyway. With John Howard out of the way and a current Prime Minister who is all in favour of rectifying a most silly situation and making Australia’s head of state someone who is actually an Australian citizen – not a citizen of another country – expect the momentum to build once again towards what the majority prefer in the next few years.
Speaking of royalty, it does have a useful place to play in the world – in fantasy books and movies! On Friday night I went with a few guys to see the second instalment of the movie adaptations of the Narnia series. It was good to see all these characters come alive on the screen again since I read all these books as a kid – but a long time ago, long enough to forget most of the details, and Caspian is one of the books I remember least well. The impression I get from these 2 movies combined is that it’s sort of "Lord of the Rings for kids" – maybe that arises naturally out of the fact that Lewis and Tolkien spent a significant proportion of their lives talking with each other. There are quite a few pretty good battle scenes in Caspian which go long enough to satisfy an action junkie and at the same time manage to avoid (through lots of camera shaking maybe?) portraying the more gruesome scenes of blood and guts in such battles – probably a good idea if you’re promoting this as a good thing for kids to see. The one on one duel between Peter and Miraz is a particular highlight. Once again the New Zealand scenery lends itself as well to portraying Narnia as it did to Middle Earth. I found myself thinking at times I was looking at the plains of Rohan or some such place. The pointers to where serious seekers of truth should look to find it in this world are again obvious to those in the know, and hopefully will stimulate helpful thoughts in those who are genuinely looking.
Astro's random writings 