Directed by Andrew Adamson
Starring:
Georgie Henley - Lucy Pevensie
Skandar Keynes - Edmund Pevensie
William Moseley - Peter Pevensie
Anna Popplewell - Susan Pevensie
Tilda Swinton - White Witch
James McAvoy - Mr. Tumnus
Liam Neeson – Aslan (Voice)
Christian metaphor? Moral parable aimed at children? Or straight-up fantasy? All are good ways to describe CS Lewis’ Chronicles of Narnia series. Much like Lord of the Rings, to which it can, has and indeed will be compared to, your appreciation of this movie will be very much dependant on your familiarity with and appreciation of the books.
The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe is director Andrew Adamson’s – best known for the Shrek series - first live action feature film and it tends to show in places. For the most part, Adamson’s version of CS Lewis’ most well-known work stays remarkably true to the book. Some of the tiniest minutiae of the novel, such as the description of the room housing the ubiquitous wardrobe being empty except for a dead bluebottle on the window are adhered to, or mothballs falling out of the wardrobe in question when Lucy first steps into it.
The sacrifice of Aslan is as dark and violent as a family film could probably get away with and the ending follows the book almost to perfection, albeit greatly expanding the final battle against the White Witch’s army to something suitably impressive for a cinematic audience. Unfortunately, the middle of the movie, when not adding needless new characters (Mr. Fox, voiced by Rupert Everett), tends to stray into “Hey kids! You can play this scene in the video game!” territory. It’s disappointing really – regardless of your views on the meaning behind Lewis’ story, the source text flows smoothly enough without call for battles on ice floes or chase scenes with wolves. You can practically taste the studio interference.
If the Hollywood cliché of never working with children or animals is true, then Tilda Swinton and James McAvoy must have loathed their time on set. Being the only adults “in” Narnia, they are surrounded by a menagerie of fantasy creatures, talking animals and small children. Fortunately for them then, the child actors are of a seemingly higher capability than, say, a bunch of young wizards in a boarding school were in their first movie. Pithy insights aside though, Swinton is the highlight of the movie – her Jadis, the White Witch, is every bit as cold, manipulative, cruel and savage as you could hope for while McAvoy is suitably remorseful as traitorous faun Mr. Tumnus.
Narnia is eye candy, no argument there. At every stage, be it the stark wastelands of winter to the green liveliness of spring, there’s nothing in Narnia that offends the eye. There’s the occasional shot with badly composited CGI effects but very little to really quibble about. Harry Gregson-Williams’ score is implemented wonderfully, supporting the film throughout but never overpowering any scene.
The film is edited together well, has good pacing, etc. There’s very little in the film to fault on a technical level. At times it feels very much like a typical assembly line blockbuster. It ticks every box on the ‘big movie’ checklist and, sadly, doesn’t really do anything new. It’s clearly Disney’s ambition that this will both rival the Harry Potter franchise and take Lord of the Rings place as the highly anticipated Christmas movie each year. But for that to happen, any further instalments need to have that certain spark that this first entry seems to lack. Don’t misunderstand – Narnia is well-worth killing a couple of hours with and will ably entertain kids and adults alike but it does fall short of the heights it aspires to.
-
Matt Kamen is a freelance writer for a number of magazines in the UK who probably spends more time and money on assorted geekery than is advisable, healthy or financially sustainable. On the plus side he sometimes even gets paid to watch anime and play video games, so it’s not all bad.