The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe

Of the three big budget movies released this month, The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe is probably the most successful effort. Where King Kong was slow to get going and ridiculously long, this film is a nice ‘short epic’ at a length of 140 minutes. Where Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire struggled (fairly unsuccessfully) to contain all of the information from Rowling’s massive novel, this film manages to do all that C. S. Lewis described, and more. In fact the attention to detail is astounding, even down to the blue bottle sitting on the windowsill.

The opening scenes are a little clumsy, and indicative of director Andrew Adamson’s lack of experience with real actors (having directed both Shrek and Shrek 2). The performers never look entirely comfortable unless there is a CGI creature in front of them, an interesting reversal of the usual trend in special effects laden films. The effects themselves aren’t perfect, and rarely look real, but when it really matters (as with Aslan) the filmmakers have delivered. The battle scenes in the last act are fantastic. They mightn’t be very realistic (there’s almost no blood), but they’re certainly thrilling.

This film doesn’t come across quite as English as it should, which is a pity considering the language of the books. We only hear one actual American accent, but it jars rather horribly even so. But I guess without American input the film mightn’t have been made, so I can’t complain.

The rather un-subtle religious allegory on show has caused a bit of a fuss, but all I can say is ‘get over it’. The truth of the matter is this: it was originally a pretty powerful story, and in The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe it’s powerful also (even if the thirty pieces of silver have been exchanged for Turkish delight). In actual fact, this film was a lot more powerful for me that The Passion Of The Christ was. The only real problem with Lewis’ interpretation of the Bible is that it shows a rather large lack of originality, but thankfully the Chronicles go other places.

The performances are fairly strong, and naturally you’ll find no complaint from me concerning the almighty Tilda Swinton. The kids do a fine job, in particular Lucy, played by Georgie Henley. Of course Adamson’s got the CGI characters in the bag, and there are no complaints there.

The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe is a great adventure film, a kind of Lord of the Rings Lite, and I’m sure its success will mean a new fantasy franchise to look forward to in coming years.