Greta Gerwig's Narnia Trailer Worries Me Ahead of Its Super Bowl Clash

I've now seen the first real look at Greta Gerwig's Netflix Narnia movie, and I don't see something successful here. At least it's a bold swing, but it has a streaming look that left me worried.

I want Gerwig to succeed for her own sake, but there's a lot riding on her for female directors in general. A number of women have managed to break through, but they can't stick around. I will say her body of work is impeccable. I love all of her movies, particularly Little Women and Barbie, and with Barbie she showed a strong business sense that we haven't really seen from other female directors. Netflix couldn't be giving this a bigger platform. She's going head to head with the Super Bowl, and all eyes are going to be on this movie. Adapting a Narnia book also puts her in potentially direct conflict with conservatives, who have gained real momentum in the entertainment space lately.

Gerwig's Narnia trailer leans on 60s music and a green screened look

I hadn't been totally impressed by the still images released so far, and partway through the trailer I said: "It's starting to look like a streaming movie. I'm getting scared." Putting on my business hat, I don't think Gerwig wore hers for this. For the most part, people do not like movies built on the music of the 60s. Julie Taymor, another great female director, made a movie with Beatles music, and it crashed and burned. I even kind of appreciated her Spider-Man, but that crashed and burned too. I'd put Taymor's and Patty Jenkins' photos on a vision board of what not to do. Edgar Wright also did a really good mystery with 60s music, starring Anya Taylor-Joy and Matt Smith, and nobody wanted to watch that either.

Visually, this looks like a lot of movies that have tanked, like a movie with Dustin Hoffman, or the Jason Momoa one where he rode a bed. It has that overly busy, overly green screened look, as if a lot of money was spent but not a lot of time. I was kind of into it when they were just in England, but then it drove off the edge of the cliff. There's also a shot that's just so The Lion King that I'd ask why it's ripping that off.

The Barbie approach may not fit Narnia

Barbie was a huge success, and I think some guys went, but the female audience was obviously ginormous. Narnia is supposed to have a broader appeal, so I wouldn't lean so heavily into the Barbie situation. I think Noah Baumbach, Gerwig's husband and her collaborator on Barbie, was important to that movie, and I don't see the Ken element here, which I think was so crucial. This doesn't look as good to me as Little Women, for instance.

I think the Super Bowl will run right over it

There were cool shots, but they look like a streaming movie to me, and I don't mean that in a complimentary way. I think the Super Bowl is going to run right over this thing. I really liked the wardrobe at the beginning, and I remember those movies, which I liked at first until they also went off the edge of the cliff. But I don't remember anybody putting rings on to enter the world, though I know this is a different book. I think we're even a little bit worried about Cliff Booth having that streaming look as well. Perhaps it's the lack of oversight, and the lack of structure, at least visually, since we don't know about the script yet.

What did you make of the first look at Greta Gerwig's Narnia?