I have
mixed feelings about The Chronicles of
Narnia films as a whole. There are
points where they absolutely shine and, in my opinion, improve on some of the
black-and-whiteness of the books, but I also feel they have a tendency to keep
drifting back toward something toothless, bloodless, and a little sterile. Too much studio interference maybe? It’s frustrating, because rewatching them, I
do get the feeling that they might have been something really wonderful if
they’d had the chance to (a few plot spoilers.)
Peter,
Susan, Edmund, and Lucy are four siblings evacuated from London during World
War II. Sent to live in the country with
an odd but kindly professor, the children are shaken from what they expect to
be a dreary, rather lonely stay when Lucy makes an unbelievable discovery: the ornate wardrobe in the spare room serves
as a gateway to another world. In the
land of Narnia, she (and later her siblings) learn that they may in fact be the
very saviors prophesied to rid Narnia of the tyrannical White Witch, who has
cursed the land with an eternal winter.
They are aided by the friends they meet there in the Narnian resistance,
who, in addition to having waited many years for the prophecy to come to pass,
have also pinned their hopes on the long-awaited return of Aslan, the Great
Lion.
Of the
three Narnia films, I think The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe
might be the most inconsistent for me.
It has some of the best individual elements, but on the whole, it’s the
one that most comes across as being a “safe” adaptation, with fewer risks taken
and a slightly manufactured feel. On the
whole, the production design, CGI, and casting are all very good. As with any film franchise of a beloved book
series starring children, I think all four young actors improve as they go, but
each does do a pretty good job of capturing the essence of their character from
the start, especially the charming Georgie Henley as Lucy. Iconic images from the book, like the lamppost,
the Beavers’ lodge, the Stone Table, and the White Witch’s castle are all
stunningly realized, and while the realistic-looking animals who talk look a
bit silly in this year of pre-Jungle Book
technology, it’s respectable enough for the time in which it was made. On the latter front, the film is helped along
by able voice-acting from the likes of Ray Winstone, Dawn French, Rupert
Everett, and of course, Liam Neeson as Aslan.
For me,
the film’s strongest points are easily James McAvoy’s Mr. Tumnus and the Tilda
Swinton’s White Witch. Both characters
succeed so strongly on every level, looking and feeling as if they stepped
right out of the pages of the book and conveying the clearest sense of truly
being from another world (side note – this was the first movie I saw James
McAvoy in, and his performance as Mr. Tumnus still remains one of my favorites
of his.) I love the warmth of Lucy’s
scenes with Mr. Tumnus – the two of them shaking hands is just ludicrously
adorable – and the White Witch exudes this seductive lure of power every second
she’s onscreen; even though she’s blatantly capital-E Evil from the first
moment she appears, you kind of understand the snakelike way she’s able to draw
Edmund in.
Perhaps
because it’s the first film in the franchise, perhaps because it’s the most
iconic of the books, the movie is hindered by an unfortunate by-the-numbers
feel. As excellent as many of its
individual parts are, they don’t always seem to come together into a compelling
whole. I have nothing but my own
(biased) suspicions to base this on, but I have a feeling screenwriters Christopher
Markus and Stephen McFeely, the duo behind the Captain America films and Agent
Carter, were given increasingly freer reign with the story as the franchise
progressed. While I think Prince Caspian and The Voyage of the Dawn Treader both benefit from the richer themes
they found to explore with additions to the story, The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe feels more tied to the source
material. There are a few interesting
threads tugged at here – the whole idea of the underground resistance movement
feels a little more fleshed out, and the movie tries to lay a bit more
groundwork for Edmund’s betrayal – but it never ventures too far from the
established plot.
Warnings
Scary
moments for kids, thematic elements, and some very Disneyfied violence.
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