Four kids sent off to a the country house of a professor. This is the groundwork for the new movie The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe by Walden Media and Disney. Can a compelling story come out of it? C.S. Lewis thought so. And apparently, so did over 60 million readers. Through this fantasy thought up with the images of a white witch, a roaring, magnificent lion, and a faun with an umbrella, five decades of readers have enjoyed the books and used them in their own lives. Because of this, making a movie like this was very difficult, for many would have their own expectations of what the film should be like. We had our own expectations, and the movie topped most of them. Aslan is as glorious and majestic as C. S. Lewis intended him to be. And Liam Neeson, who did the voice, did a great job on it. The special effects by Weta are incredible and very believable. The land of Narnia with all the creatures was beautiful in all its white glory. New Zealand had its share of beauty which brought the movie to life. The child actors and actresses themselves, around whom the story is based, didn't do a bad job, though in some scenes that required their strong performance, they were a bit lacking. Of the four children, Lucy (played by Georgie Henley) came across as the most believable, but her tears looked very forced at times. The CGI characters did actually a better job than the children did. The White Witch (played by Tilda Swinton) did a job deserving of an Oscar.
For his first partially live-action film, Andrew Adamson did a pretty good job. The cinematography in particular was a very strong exclamation mark in the film. One thing that we very much enjoyed was that the main elements in the book were kept intact and the added scenes did nothing to detract from those. The Christian parallels, which were intended by C.S. Lewis, (Aslan giving up his life for Edmund who betrayed not only his family but also Aslan and his followers) were left untouched and unharmed. As Christians, we know many people (also Christians) who were extremely anxious to watch this film. We were relieved that Walden Media didn't take out these religiously intense moments.
But there were glitches in the film as well. The makeup, though most of the time was terrific, was noticeable in a couple of scenes. The landscape at times looked flat (like a painting), though most of the time it was excellent and very realistic. The fox looks like a CGI character and not like a real fox. The epic battle was not really as desperate as it needed to be. The fighting was confusing and because the camera switched angles so often, it was hard to admire the swordplay. The battle itself also was not as violent or as epic-minded as we were hoping that it was going to be. We both hope that Walden Media makes a PG-13 version of the film.
All in all, it was an enjoyable, family oriented film (except for the preview of Pirattes of the Caribbean, which was a bit scary for the young ones). We hope that it will be seen by many people and that it impacts them for the better. This movie is definitely deserving of everybody's praise!