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

Adam Adamson's film adaptation of C. S. Lewis' first entry in his classic Narnia Series starts off awkwardly like a combination of the "Wizard of Oz" and "Lord of the Rings." The filmmakers spend too much time early on trying to be cute and Disney-fy the product while clumsily presenting scenes composed of live-action actors and not-so-great computer effects. The result, not surprisingly is like an animated film with some flesh-and-blood actors spliced in. However, once you get used to the film stylistically, all is mostly forgiven.

The filmmakers finally find solid ground when they really start to dig deeply into the story and reveal the blending of nature-based neo-paganism with medieval Christian mythology and wrap it up nicely into a children's fairytale. It's when you start to realize the white witch (played effectively by the always somewhat creepy Tilda Swinton) represents the old pre-Abraham polytheism demanding animal and human sacrifice for appeasing the pantheon of gods/goddesses and the lion king, Aslan, represents the Christian view of one self-sacrificing god that you remember the brilliance of Lewis' source material. And while it isn't terribly well executed, the epic "Battle-Beast" style showdown at the end is pretty entertaining from a visual and imaginative standpoint.

So says Mrs. Macready to the children, but thankfully they do not listen in the book, or in the movie, which is perhaps most notable for clinging so closely to the original. My kiddos and I have been enjoying the Narnia books over the past several months, and they are big fans of them; so they were naturally drawn to the movie too, which I hadn't seen before. Lucy steals the show in both media, and all of us thought she was the best acted; as the youngest, of course, she guides the others with her imagination, which is validated by "the Professor" before all four siblings take the plunge into the closet. Probably the most striking scene is not Aslan's death, but Lucy's initial encounter with the faun, Tumnus, in which not only the wonder between the two but also the tension and potential menace is given its space. In fact, the Christianizing elements which are often pointed out by Lewis's critics and supporters take a clear back seat in the movie, which instead chooses to go even further than the book in "classicizing" Narnia with figures from Greek mythology, from centaurs, griffons, and satyrs fighting for Peter to the minotaur general and cyclops fighting for the Ice Queen. Both my son and daughter pointed out that virtually the only added scenes were London being bombed, at the very beginning, and the parallel vision of griffons "bombing" the Queen's army with rocks before battle was engaged.

To sum things up: I loved this movie.

I had been waiting for it ever since it was announced, so of course I couldn't pass up the chance to see a press preview this morning. And, while there were some definite weaknesses (mostly in the quality of the animations), overall I was completely convinced. Naturally it did not coincide 100% with my own vision of Narnia visually, but emotionally it rang absolutely true, choking me up several times and really touching me. I walked out of the theatre with a warm, contented feeling - just like I feel every time I read C.S. Lewis' book!

The stand-out performance was definitely Tilda Swinton's as the White Witch, but I liked all actors/voices, from cute little Lucy (newcomer Georgie Henley) to majestic Aslan (Liam Neeson). I thought the children did a great job, considering their relative inexperience and the amount of blue screen work involved.

Tip: Stay seated through the actor credits - afterwards there's another small scene.

A wonderful movie. The characters are beautifully made from a well chosen characters. The CGI and special effects are top notch. The centaurs, beavers, trees, tigers, bears, fox, all are taking. Oh! yeah, they are talking. The creators have done an excellent job in bringing out the emotions, the lip sync, and the body language of various animal, very well. The White Witch was scary as hell. The final battle sequence was spectacular. I was amazed with the battle sequence.

Aslan's character was the best. I love the way the Lion talks, walks and emotes. It's simply amazing.

Amazing direction. Amazing music. Excellent make-up. Amazing editing work. A very good adoption of the Narnia series. Very funny movie too. Worth watching.

I thought this a very well done film indeed. I will say the film looks just splendid, especially the scenes in Narnia, with beautiful snowy sets (some looked as though it had come from the LOTR trilogy). However, some of the scenes looked as though they had been computerised, such as the scene with the children and beavers running across the ice. There were also some attempts to put some humour into the story like the professor's line "ah yes, the weeping one" in reference to Lucy and the beavers especially, but because the director had taken liberties to make the story darker, the humour didn't quite work. However there are a number of positives, like the spirited performances of the children, Georgie Henley especially, better than Sophie Wilcox's rather goofy portrayal in the 1988 series. James McAvoy is charming as Mr. Tumnus, and Liam Neeson was majestic as Aslan. But the acting honours go to Tilda Swinton as the White Witch, even with her calmness she dominates the screen, in a sometimes chilling portrayal as the character. The film was fairly faithful to the book, but the added scenes and dialogue failed to engage as much. All, a flawed but enjoyable film. 7/10 Bethany Cox