Walt Disney Pictures Starring: Tilda Swinton, James McAvoy
Directed By: Andrew Adamson
Rated: PG
Walt Disney Pictures
Apparently, there's quite a lot of religious fervor accompanying The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, The Witch, and the Wardrobe. I think I might be the only one who doesn't really see this film as some kind of high-powered allegory of Christianity. Sure, there are some elements that are clearly Christian in origin, but still...it's far from The Passion of the Christ (a film to which many critics have compared it). To me, it's really more like Lord of the Rings. Well...Lord of the Rings light.
The best known book of the seven-book series by C. S. Lewis, The Lion, The Witch, and The Wardrobe is the story of three children who find a passage into a magical world in the back of an old wardrobe in the gloomy home of The Professor (not the one from Gilligan's Island), where they have been sent for the duration of World War II for safety.
Narnia (the magical world in question) is in a state of perpetual winter because of the evil magic of the White Witch (Swinton). The coming of the four human children--two "daughters of Eve" and two "sons of Adam"--is the fulfillment of a long-standing prophecy, however, and things start to change for the better in Narnia--but not without a fight from the White Witch. It is up to the children and Aslan, a supernatural lion (voiced by Liam Neeson) to make Narnia a fit place to live once more.
Meghan, my wife, was very excited about this film--she had read the books about 20 years ago, and loved them. In preparation, I read the first two books in the series (in Narnia-chronological order). Honestly, although I found the stories rather charming, they were certainly nothing as epic as the fantasy of Tolkien. And, in the first book (The Magician's Nephew), I found the story of the creation of Narnia--which involved the world being "sung" into existence by the invisible voices of nature--far more indicative of Eastern mythos than with Christianity. I suppose one event in The Lion, The Witch, and the Wardrobe is very Christian...but, the presence of all of the magic and talking animals and mythological creatures--at least to me--made the religious elements far from obvious. (And isn't it strange that the same religious groups who boycott Harry Potter because magic is evil are flocking to this film--even though it is chockfull of very overt magic?)
At any rate, I enjoyed the film. The battle sequences, while nothing compared to Lord of the Rings, were very exciting, and the computer generated imagery--especially that of Aslan--was outstanding. The acting was also good. All four child actors do a good job. One slight exception is the youngest girl, Lucy (Georgie Henley), who is excellent most of the time isn't very good at crying--best she can manage is a grimace. But give her time--in all other situations, she's excellent.
Overall, I thought the film might have run a bit long--it's two hour, twenty minute run time is certainly way more that I would have expected from such a short source novel (about 120 pages). It also gets off to a bit of a slow start. Still, it's a good fantasy flick. Even if you don't pick up on the religion thing.
Bottom line: A decent fantasy film that's true to the book.