RETRO REVIEW: "THE CHRONICLES OF NARNIA"

Hi everyone,

After watching some recent flicks, like "X Men 3," "Over the Hedge," and "Da Vinci Code," I couldn't summon the enthusiasm to write about 'em, so I'm saying something about "The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch,and the Wardrobe" instead.

I wasn't brought up with C.S. Lewis and didn't know what the story was about before seeing the film.

For those of you expecting an epic in the vein of the LOTR trilogy and the Harry Potter films, I'd say that "Chronicles" is fantasy lite.

IMHO, "Chronicles" a pale imitation of LOTR, better than the first two Harry Potter films, and a step below the last two. No wrongs are too great to be unforgiven and the good will be resurrected if they're pure of heart, so there's no consequences to be paid.

C.S. Lewis' "The Chronicles of Narnia" novels seem tailor-made to follow up "Lord of the Rings" as a movie cycle. Written in roughly the same era (seven volumes between 1950-56), the books may aim at a lower age group but compose a similar fantasy saga set in a similarly complex, make-believe world.

I'd say "Chronicles" doesn't go beyond being a competent kids movie. The special inspiration and magic that makes an instant classic, accessible to all age groups, is not there. Shrek director Andrew Adamson capably adapts the tale, with flashes of magic--in Narnia, at least. The scenes leading up to the kids' escape into fantasy are drably everyday. The 1942 London blitz forces their mom to send the kids--big brother Peter (William Moseley), big sis Susan (Anna Popplewell), kid brother Edmund (Skandar Keynes), and kid sister Lucy (Georgie Henley)--to the safer country manse of Professor Kirke (Jim Broadbent, wasted amid this tedium).

In snowy Narnia, the pace picks up. Lucy, the movie's heroine, first stumbles upon a portal to an alternate world in another dimension that's been enslaved for the past 100 years by Jadis, the White Witch (Tilda Swinton). She visits a terrified faun (James McAvoy) in his Hobbity home for a few hours, then returns to the real world, where time stood still. Lucy excitedly tells the other kids the Good News. They're secularly skeptical until she, a little child, leads them tothe land of truth, which an ancient prophecy has proclaimed they are destined to free from the spell of the witch. Edmund, a selfish, disobedient boy, frighteningly flirts with Jadis and winds up clappedin irons in her igloolike castle keep.

The White Witch is a truly excellent villain played by the fabulously intimidating Tilda Swinton (Broken Flowers). With her ash-blond dreadlocks, erect icicle crown, frosted eyelashes and imposing attire -- what looks like the world's least comfortable wedding gown -- the Witch is only part of the intensity that might make The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe a tad inappropriate for most kids younger than 10.

Lucy and her siblings, minus Edmund, must make a perilous journey across the frozen land of Narnia, aided by a pair of cockney beavers (voiced by Ray Winstone and Dawn French) and Santa Claus himself, so they can join forces with Aslan, the noble lion of the title, andlead his army in a climactic battle with the witch.

The special effects are respectable, but less epic and awesome than those of the PG-13-rated Lord of the Rings. Fauns clip-clop convincingly, beavers waddle through authentic snowdrifts, winged creatures angelic and scaly ply skies in Newtonianly sound and quite thrilling arcs. Aslan has his fauns and centaur, the witch her Minotaur, plus scary Hags and Orclike Boggles. The chase scenes, across woods and a perilously thawing frozen waterfall, work well, and the battle scenes, if judged against anything this side of LOTR, are OK.

Little glitches in the special effects can be seen from time-to-time, though. The most persistent of these is the look of Aslan, who never appears real. He looks like a computer-generated lion. If one wishes to view Aslan as "more" than a big cat, then one could considerthe "unrealness" to be an asset. To me, it looked like the computer animators couldn't quite get it right.

Lewis was a noted Christian apologist and his story has a moral, but the movie is more interested in delivering an empowerment fantasy: the vicarious thrill of ordinary kids finding themselves elevated to royalty and leading vast armies against the forces of evil.

The movie does this well enough, and it also has an engaging young heroine in Henley, who could not be more charming and natural (she looks like Natalie Wood as a child). The acting is fine, although lacking in the recognition category. The biggest stars are Tilda Swinton and Jim Broadbent, neither of whom would be considered a "household name." Swinton does a good jobboosting the evil quotient of her character, while Broadbent's part qualifies as little more than a heavily made-up cameo. Liam Neeson has a sizeable vocal part providing Aslan's voice. Also lending their voices are Rupert Everett and Ray Winstone. Three of the four children are portrayed by actors in their first major roles. Only Anna Popplewell has a prior resume.
Some scenes in The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe (such as the one featuring Father Christmas) are childish. Others (which I will not mention here to avoid providing spoilers) are poignant. The film's central tragedy is handled with sensitivity, and tears will flow. On balance, more of the movie works than doesn't, but this isn't 140 minutes of unqualified successes. The film drags some in pace. I dozed off for a few minutes midway into it.

Aslan also keeps interrupting Narnia to save the kids in a way that makes allegorical sense, not storytelling sense. But I guess you could say the same about crucifixion and resurrection in the Bible. And this is only a PG-rated crucifixion, not The Passion of the Christ. Idly I'd wondered what Aslan needed the kids for?

I felt that the film's character development was fairlyunconvincing. I wondered when the kids got good at handling swords and bows and arrows? When they were told they were the sons and daughters of Adam and Eve come to fulfill a prophecy they never knewabout? Did being four siblings automatically make them the ones prophesied to come? How did their coming make the snow magically melt and bring the spring back? And were there other humans in Narnia before the White Witch took over?

My biggest reservations relate to the climactic battle scene. Director Andrew Adamson decided to show a clash between armies in which hundreds of creatures are killed but, in doing this, they avoid blood and gore. It becomes a clean, perfunctory war, and that's anodd and unsatisfying approach. If we're going to be shown a battle, the entire thing should be depicted in its ugliness. Instead we get a cleaned-up version with plenty of "look away" edits. It gets the movie its PG rating, although I'd say that it still has material that's too intense for young children.

I'd heard a little about the movie's "Christian connections." However, while it's true that Lewis' books are allegorical (with Aslan representing Christ), the movie doesn't hammer home this point. It's on-screen for those on the lookout, but it didn't strike me asa "religious picture," which should satisfy scientific rational types and nonChristians. I hear that Volume II, "Prince Caspian" was a popular novel. The sequel's scheduled to come out in 2008, so fans may be in for a treat.