Films/DVD Asylum

Posted by DWPC (A) on April 05, 2006 at 15:55:44

I hated half of it, liked the other half. Its as if there were two movies; a dull and plodding one with actors and sets, and an imaginative one beautifully executed with CGI. Far too much plot time was allotted to the intro and the children just getting to Narnia; far too little spent explaining the conflict and Aslan's character (though that IS a different book).

The Christian allegory, central to Lewis' story, seemed grudgingly included and to be rushed through before anyone really noticed the parallels. The brutal nature of true evil in the "rock table" scene was, however, well and strongly done. There's isn't much graphic violence but I was surprised at the completely un-Disneylike discomforting portrayal of cold brutality in several scenes. While basically true to Lewis' book, for the most part it just blew past most fundamental questions.

The big battle scene wavered between fairly spectacular and too LOTR-like. One-on-one combats were unconvincing. Its too bad so little imagination was invested in how the richly mythic creatures might do battle. A major opportunity to differentiate Narnia from LOTR was missed.

The application of animation and CGI were the best I've personally seen in any film; the reality of movie creatures is getting downright spooky. Not that the CGI wasn't visible, but it's matured to a point where the shadings, textures, and motion modeling were lifelike and completely in synch with the film images. However, except for the faun, the wonderfully imaged mythologic creatures of Narnia are there only for visual effect and virtually ignored in the story. Another missed chance.

The human characters were another disappointment. Tilda Swinton as the White Witch was OK, but not altogether convincing. None of the children made any emotional impression whatsoever. Compared to, say, the kids in "Finding Neverland", this lot were absolute duds. If the director wanted bland actors who wouldn't compete with the CGI creatures, he succeeded.

The film writers for future episodes need to understand better that these books aren't simply fantasy adventures; their power is in the underlying themes. As a fantasy movie, its second half makes it worth seeing. As "the" movie of a much-loved CS Lewis classic, however, its disappointing; more so that Disney couldn't quite get it right.