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Narnia review
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I also posted this in Sensory Overload, but what the heck.
The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe
I saw Chronicles of Narnia last night.
Overall, excellent, I'd say. They did a fine job of keeping the meat of the story, while making minor changes needed to make it work well as a movie. It is inevitable that one will compare this to Lord of the Rings, of course. It may be that this did a better job of adapting the story than LOTR, but of course LOTR is a much, much bigger story and bigger challenge to adapt. Regardless, this was a fine movie of a fun book.
I was especially pleased that they didn't feel obliged to eviscerate the Christian allegory. While the most obvious nods to the story of Christ have been slightly toned down, a surprising amount remains. It's a nice job of making it profoundly meaningful to those who appreciate the story of Christ from a religious perspective, while not forcing one to see it in those terms (you can also view it as the basic archetype of sacrifice and redemption, without religious doctrine).
Some high points: Tilda Swinton is absolutely PERFECT as the White Witch. Magnificently evil, otherworldly, smooth, charismatic, powerful. She was one of the best points in the film for me. Lucy and Edmund were also played very well, I thoroughly enjoyed their performances. The effects were excellent, as one would expect. I was very impressed with the quality of the CG animals (except maybe the Beavers), they were entirely believable. Mr. Tumnus also turned in a fine performance, with some subtlety.
Things I was slightly less pleased with: While I though Peter and Susan were well-played, I was not as impressed with them as with Lucy and Edmund. I had a harder time seeing the nobility in their characters that is, I think, as important as Edmund's challenges and Lucy's innocence and spirit. Aslan is one of the most important characters, and while again I was not exactly displeased, I was not awestruck (and Aslan should be awe-inspiring). Liam Neeson did the voice, and he has a beautiful and skillful voice, but it is too human fr Aslan. He's not a tame Lion; his voice should not be urbane. The way I have always envisioned Aslan, he's the sort of being that whether you love him or despise him, you have no choice but to kneel in his presence. Him being there should make it almost impossible to pay attention to anything else. In this movie, he was impressive, powerful, and compassionate (all of which are important), but I would have liked him to be even more so on all three. He's not just another character.
Nice battle footage, and an excellent job of keeping the story focused and faithful but not slavish. 3.5 out of 4 stars from me.
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