Much as with the first Lord of the Rings movie, I had no intention of going to the The Lion, the Witch, & the Wardrobe. While I was never a big fan of Tolkien’s books, I read the Narnia books pretty obsessively when I was a kid, and the idea of seeing the whole story turned into a big-budget film put me off.
Also, I was made rather nervous by the pre-release controversy about the film being marketed to Christians. Being about 10 when I read the books, Lewis’s Christian allegory/metaphor went completely over my head. I was, however, afraid that the nuances of the book would be lost when transferred to the big screen, especially given what I am sure was the studio marketing department’s zeal to appeal to a potentially huge Christian audience.
Having decided on all of that, though, I went to see the movie this past weekend.
Frankly, the Christian stuff really wasn’t an issue. Sure, Aslan is a Christ-figure, but so is Superman, and that never seems to bother anyone. Plus, if this movie is supposed to be Christian propanganda, it’s not very good Christian propaganda. While one can never go wrong underestimating the logical consistency evinced by evangelica Christians, it seems to me that any evangelical Christian worth her/his salt would take one look at the buckets of magic and paganism in this film and run screaming. This is exactly the sort of stuff that drives them nuts about the Harry Potter films, isnt’ it?
No, my problem with this movie is simply that it just wasn’t very good. Yes, it stuck close to the book, but the acting was pretty bad, the directing was pretty bad, the effects were somewhat lackluster, and the whole thing had a rather cramped, unimaginative feel to it. Mostly, it seemed like it was trying really hard to be just like the Lord of the Rings films, but as told by a TV movie.
The actors playing Lucy and Edmund were both good, but Peter was rather wooden, and Susan was just plain irritating. Tilda Swinton did the best she could with the material at hand, but to little avail—while she was creepy at the beginning, the role went downhill from there, culminating in her laughably choreographed fight moves during the big final battle.
As for the effects, while I’d rather have good writing than good effects, I’d at least like them to be convincing, and honestly, these looked like they had been done on the cheap. The whole film had that feel; while I’m sure the filmakers intended it feel expansive and sweeping, it seemed pretty clear that all of the action was actually taking place on a green-screened soundstage.