Pass the Chronic- What? -Cles of Narnia!

Wanting to see at least one holiday release film before heading back to college, I looked over the listings for the closest theater. I wanted something well received and entertaining for good money value (going to matinees is practically half the cost of prime time), but also not excruciatingly long.

The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe was only two hours long, and I was familiar enough with the book series to know it should have plenty of action. And thank god it did.

Most of the primary actors in the film were horrible. Only Tilda Swinton seemed to bring life to her character, without being incredibly clichéd. The children, who must have all had allergic reactions to craft services with their enormous bee-stung lips, were two-dimensionally sweet and, well, childish. I didn't see a lot of reasons for maturity in the film, or why any of them should be ready to fight a war equivalent to Peter Jackson's epic (and honestly, the battle scenes were quite good). True, the kids have lived in a bombed out London, had both their parents driven away from them by war, and even been left to their own devices in a secluded mansion. But hardly any of this seems to have much affect on them, insofar as their behavior changes.

Narnia's first film really suffers from not knowing what it is. The film is based on children's books, so of course, it should be accesible to kids. But at the same time, serious themes of conflict, sacrifice, betrayal, and even redemption are sprinkled throughout, but in fairly black-and-white, everything-gets-neatly-resolved-in-a-vacuum terms.

I'm mostly suspecting the director of having a skewed idea of how to bring the content of Narnia to life, and not just the visuals (which Weta has done an incredible job on). The Lord of the Rings had a story several times as complex and dense, yet fans and average movie-goers alike could easily access the material based on the performances of the actors. Here, most of the emotion is heavily subdued and diluted (save for some moments from Swinton).

The visual color is also something I had issue with. There was no clear difference between England and Narnia (other than how wide the camera shot was) and Narnia in winter was just as bright as Narnia in summer. The interplay of light was highly under-used (this is primarily a wannabe filmmaker griping).

If this is to be a franchise to compete with Harry Potter, which may also run to seven films (a record for a non-serial franchise), then it has a lot of growing to do. The extent of the visual ingenuity needs to match the actors' performances.