The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, The Witch, and The Wardrobe started off with great promise. The story was intriguing. The photography had a richness to it that mimicked great films. And the acting by the kids was genuine and delightful. Then they all found their way into the wardrobe and everything unraveled slowly– the story grew disjointed and non-sensical, the photography was spoiled by the seams that were visible when the kids were standing in front of a blue screen, and the kids performances fell into two-dimensional, over-rehearsed, and maudlin fits.
More than anything, however, Narnia's story suffered from some serious logic holes. For example: Why was winter suddenly leaving after it had been winter for 100 years? Was it because of the kids or because of Aslan's return? Why was the Ice Queen, the epitome of lies and tricky deeds, able to march into Aslan’s camp and convince Aslan and his followers (without any ensuing questions) that Edmund’s deeds were traitorous? How can Edmund be traitorous when it seemed that the Queen had drugged him (when he drank the hot cocoa and ate the Turkish delights) in order to get his siblings into Narnia and up to her castle? Was Edmund acting on his own free will? Compound these questions with the fact that the Lion offers himself as the sacrifice in place of Edmund and Santa Claus rides up and bestows magical gifts to the kids (notice that he didn’t even mention Edmund or have a gift for him), and I was seeing evidence of a half-baked storyline.
(Now, to be fair, I understand from my friend that all of my questions are answered in the book. My reply to this, dear friends, is that Adamson and his writing team should have made the storyline as coherent as the book. This is simply just lazy filmmaking.)
On a very positive note, however, the stunning actress, Tilda Swinton (as the cold, Ice Queen) truly gives this film its only sense of gravitas. If not for her, I fear this film might have been relegated to an after school special. If there is any reason to see this film, it is because of her.
When this film won the award for Best Family Film at the Critics Choice awards earlier this month, the producer of the film commented that he was shocked that they had even been nominated in this category, as if Narnia was deserving of the Best Picture category. Well, I’m sorry, it definitely is not. Narnia is nothing more than an LOTR-lite film. And I mean -lite in all aspects.
Swinton has made a name for herself this year, not only appearing in Narnia, but also in the dark comic book film Constantine, playing the good-gone-wicked angel Gabriel. Tilda Swinton’s territory for over a decade has been in the art-house, independent genre, appearing in the films Broken Flowers (2005), Thumbsucker (2005), Young Adam (2003), Adaptation (2002), Vanilla Sky (2001), The Deep End (2001), The Beach (2000), Female Perversions (1996), and Orlando (1992), to name a few of her most known films.
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