narnia

THE FLICK: Cinema may have gone through a technical revolution in the past ten years, but the business behind it has not. And when one particular film or genre proves successful, it’s a safe bet the market will soon be glutted with copycat productions. Just as the success of Star Wars inspired a slew of sci-fi films throughout the 70’s and 80’s, the one-two combination of Harry Potter and The Lord of the Rings is bound to have lasting effects on the industry for years to come. The first of which is The Chronicles of Narnia – The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe which beat the odds and became one of the highest grossing films of 2005. It brought along a fantasy pedigree, some religious controversy (the text contains rather obvious Christian overtones) and a pantheon of computer generated creatures that hop, fly, snort, stampede and otherwise clutter the screen for the final 30-minutes or so. Andrew Adamson, the director behind Dreamworks’ Shrek films, was a rather logical choice to helm the project seeing as one of the main characters is a talking lion rendered completely in CG (and voiced by Liam Neeson, mentor-for-hire). And he begins the film with a remarkably brilliant 45-minute first act, delicately introducing his displaced family of siblings who stumble upon a magical world hidden at the back of a wardrobe. Blanketed under an eternal winter by the White Witch (Tilda Swinton), the kingdom of Narnia is poised to rise up behind Aslan and his animal army, but only if the human visitors survive to fulfill their roles in an ancient prophecy. After introducing itself in an incredibly mature manner, the special effects kick in and Narnia loses much of its focus and self-restraint, as if the picture simply slipped away into a paint-by-number fantasy where characters are assigned roles and weapons which they fulfill with little or no trouble. In fact, the characters are swallowed whole by the rather unconvincing assortment of beavers, wolves, and assorted nasties. Only Lucy’s early relationship with a “fawn” named Mr. Tumnus, which plays out like a dark version of Alice in Wonderland, has any real emotional connection. Everything else plays like a CG backdrop layered atop a Hallmark Channel adaptation. Yes, it’s tailored for children a few grade levels below the Potter flicks, but that doesn’t mean the cinematic execution has to drop a few levels, too. THE FEATURES: