Pardon the Interruption

Movie Review: The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe

I first read The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe when I was 11 years old. I've read it four times in all, and I've read the entire series twice. Yes, I'm one of those C.S. Lewis people. When you read this kind of book as a kid, your imagination turns it into a movie (or at least mine did). Needless to say, I've been looking forward to this movie for about half of my life. So, at long last, my dream came true--and tonight, I got to see the Wardrobe open on the big screen. So did Andrew Adamson's vision live up to my impossibly high expectations?

There are a few facts that must be accepted going into this movie. First--the book is really short. Most book-to-movie adaptations have at least several hundred pages to work with, but Wardrobe (I'll call it that for the rest of the review) comes in at 200 pages even, and with pretty large type. So, Adamson had to flesh the movie out a little bit. And secondly--this is NOT The Lord of the Rings. The film was doomed from the beginning to be compared to Jackson's trilogy, and that is massively unfair. They are similar types of stories, as Tolkien took some pointers from Lewis' series. But Lewis was writing short children's books, and had a minimalist style (as opposed to the non-fiction books). On the other hand, you could take one of Tolkien's wordy, lengty books, and use it as a blunt object-type weapon. Lewis was going for childlike-wonder, Tolkien was going for the large-scale epic, and both succeed. Now, on to the film.

I give Andrew Adamson a B+ for his directing effort. He was given the job for his techie knowledge of CGI, and this is partly to the movie's benefit, considering the thousands of otherwordly, mythical creatures that had to be incorporated. However, he still needs to grow some in regards to capturing human emotion Sometimes he was right on the money (Stone Table), and other times, not so much. However, this is to be expected considering it is his first live action film. And to be honest, I was expecting worse. For the most part, he succeeds in capturing the wonder of the kids, but it doesn't get much more mature than that. As a picky 20 year old movie buff, this bothered me at times, but only a little bit.

Remembering that the dialogue in the book is pretty simplistic, I didn't expect to be blown away by any of the acting performances. Thankfully, I was very, very wrong. Tilda Swinton as the White Witch is perhaps one of the greatest casting decisions ever. She was perfect--even better than the White Witch my imagination created. The same also goes for Georgie Henley as Lucy. Her acting was good, for sure; but beyond that, she became the central focus of the attitude of the film. Never before have I seen such a moving portrayal of childlike wonder.

Other accolades go to James McAvoy, who played a fawn (man-goat) as well as anyone could expect; also to whoever voiced Mr. and Mrs. Beaver, who made a potentially cutesy pair (which I dreaded) believable and humorous. Susan and Edmund were better than par, but overshadowed by Lucy. Unfortunately, William Mosely as Peter just didn't work. In the book, Peter is the awkward yet caring older brother who grows into a brave hero. But Mosely never shifts out of awkward mode, and I almost found myself liking Edmund more than Peter, which is counterproductive for the story. And finally, Liam Neeson did a fair job voicing the impossible role of Aslan the Lion; his portrayal evokes respect and admiration for Aslan, but it doesn't quite pull off the fear that Aslan demands.

For me, the verdict came down to The Stone Table scene and the battle. If you screw those up, the movie's sunk. But thankfully, these are the moments that the movie shined.
I was worried that Adamson was going to go "Passion of the Lion" on the Stone Table, and beat Aslan to a bloody pulp. By today's movie standards, I expected it, and Christianty's current fixation on Christ's bloody suffering (thanks, Mel) would have permitted it, and maybe even wanted it. Instead, Adamson showed his potential as a director by stripping it back to a powerful feeling of hopelessness and apparent defeat. It's a sacrifice, not a massacre. It's important to nail the climax, and here, it's near-perfect.

Then there's the battle. In the book, it's only talked about secondhand, and it takes up maybe two pages. As a kid, I confess that I wanted to see more of the battle (I'm sorry Dad, and Mom, but I promise I'm not obsessed with violence). Well, here we see more--a lot more. In fact, I'm betting that Disney had to do some negotiating to keep this movie from being rated PG-13. It's not gory, but it's adequately intense, and amazingly rivals The Lord of the Rings in terms of execution and scale. It gives the story an epic feel that was only half-way present in the book, and caps off what is, otherwise, a mild adventure. Also, I don't want to spoil anything, but something very major is changed in regards to how the battle ends...and I applaud the change. Some would call me a blasphemer, but I think it works much better from a story-telling and theological perspective. Sorry, Jack.

So, in all, does the movie deliver? It's a tough call. Adamson and Mosley have some growing to do in regards to directing and acting, respectively. And the musical score, though good overall, has some moments of "eh..that could have been better." Howard Shore should have been given the job. However, so many things are pulled off well in this movie, that those flaws are canceled out.

Here's the shocker. Coming into tonight, my favorite movie of all time was The Return of the King (the crown jewel of the Lord of the Rings experience). And the Return of the King is a better movie than the Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe. But at this very moment, I actually like The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe more. And I can't put my finger on why. Maybe because it has more powerful themes, maybe because I'm more attached to the story and characters, or maybe my inner-child is just taking over. Whatever it is, I walked out very satisfied. It's not perfect, but it does the vision of the book (if not the book itself) justice. Here's hoping that they get some things ironed out for Prince Caspian.

Score: 9 out of 10 talking beavers

(I'll get into the theological side of the movie another time...I have exams tomorrow.)

posted by Taylor @ 11:52 PM