LUCIDMEDIA

Return to Narnia: My underwhelmed look back

Written by Adam A. Donaldson Friday, 16 May 2008 06:57

In preparation for watching the sequel, I decided to revisit the original and see if anything of what I thought I felt had changed in the last two and a half years. At the time, I thought that The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe, while being extremely well-made, was ultimately kind of uneven. A few years on I was surprised to find that I still enjoyed the movie overall, but the same old problems still haunted the film, and that uneven tone is still difficult to shake.

The film begins in World War II London during the Blitz. Due to ongoing German bombardment, the four Pevensie children, Peter, Susan, Edmund and Lucy, are amongst the thousands of kids that are transported out of the city to the relative safety of the countryside. They’re taken to the home of Professor Kirke (Jim Broadbent), which, as one of its features, has a large empty room save for a dust covered wooden wardrobe that just so happens to be the doorway to another world.



To me this is the most magical part of Narnia, the time from the opening in London to when young Lucy (played adorably by Georgie Henley) takes her first trip through to the other side of the wardrobe. I think though that it’s the magic of anticipation that’s at work here; there’s something different about the never-ending winter of Narnia, the feeling is instantly unlike that for any other fictional world from Oz to Middle Earth.

But another part of the reason for this scene’s success is the great way that James McAvoy as Tumnus the Faun gently plays off the very naturalistic reactions of young Ms. Henley. According to filmmakers, they brought her on to the forest set blindfolded and introduced her to McAvoy in make-up during the first take to get as real a reaction as possible.

There’s the old adage in Hollywood, warning would-be filmmakers about the perils of working with children and animals. While Henley seems to wield a simple and natural charm, the rest of the actors playing the Pevensie children really don’t seem to engage that much. Skandar Keynes as Edmund comes close, but I think he’s let down by the story. In the film, Edmund is the only one of the siblings to not embrace Narnia, so to speak, and falls in with the White Witch played by Tilda Swinton. He seems to go from being an unwitting White Witch toady with a personal dislike for his big brother to becoming a team player within the blink of an eye.

The elder Pevensie children Peter (William Moseley) and Susan (Anna Popplewell) sort of get the short end of the stick when it comes to characterization. Susan just kind of seems to walk around, complaining about everything and how they all must be crazy for just setting off and following the beavers willy-nilly. My guess is Susan was the sibling that sat in the back of the car and asked if they were there yet. Peter, meanwhile, supposedly being a great leader doesn’t come off as such even in the final battle. Not that I’m expecting him to be Rambo or something, but be could at least give a sign that he’s been to the Prince Valliant school of heroism. Hopefully, these characters are served better by the sequel.

As for the animals, well, the real ones are bad enough, but increasingly, there’s really nothing out there more annoying than CGI talking animals. Somehow, this movie manages to be an exception. In Narnia there are Mr and Mrs Beaver (Ray Winstone and Dawn French), the Fox (Rupert Everett), Philip the Horse (Philip Steuer), the Wolf pack (Michael Madsen and others) and others that don’t get star status. It’s admirable that the filmmakers went decided on voice actors they didn’t go with anyone with an obviously recognizable sound.



But the biggest problem I found with Narnia is that it seems to lose something as the story rolls on. By the time we get to the concluding battle between the forces of the Lion Aslan and the White Witch, I found myself just not as engaged as I was in the beginning. Part of it was the distraction of the setting. You see, much of Narnia was filmed in New Zealand and what else was filmed in New Zealand? The Lord of the Rings trilogy, and unless I’m very much mistaken, I think a couple of the same locations were used for TLOTR. Perhaps it’s just because the character of the New Zealand landscape was so essential to the atmosphere of Rings that the two have become so indelibly linked.

But as for the battle itself, well let’s just say that when you build something up for an hour and 45 minutes, it better not be over before you get a chance to gain your bearings. It’s finished before it barely even starts; in fact I think the preamble where everybody stands across the field glowering at each other lasted longer than the main fight. Aslan pounces on the White Witch, she goes down and doesn’t get back up and, boom, the whole thing’s over. Wow, okay, that’s kind of anti-climatic; it makes one stop and wonder why no one ever thought to just drop something heavy, like an anvil, on the White Witch’s head.

The most difficult thing for to reconcile, for me anyway, was that there seemed to be very few consequences, both moral and mortal, from the children’s trip to Narnia. Aslan dies to pay for Edmund’s unintentional treachery, but he comes back to life easily enough. The White Witch turns all those that offend her into stone, but Aslan can reverse that let everyone run wild and free. And all the good guys wounded in the battle? Well, Lucy was given a potion by Father Christmas that can repair any wound: good as new.

And to top it all off, the Pevensies grow-up in Narnia and rule for years until, as adults, they find their way back out of the wardrobe again and return to our world where they are children again and only several minutes have passed. This kind of paints an uncomfortable picture of there being no cost to any of their actions, good and bad.

Not to mention there being some unpleasant parallels drawn between the two wars. In the beginning we see the faceless horror of the Blitz, while in Narnia flying creatures are used for air support to throw the bad guys off their game. Why is this different? Because in Narnia, they’re fighting “monsters.”

All in all though, the first Narnia was a solid effort that did have more green checks than red xes working for it. It certainly stands better than both The Dark is Rising and The Golden Compass films, which fell under the weight of their convoluted narratives and the obvious studio desire to turn one fantasy film into many.

But if current trends continue to work in The Chronicle of Narnia’s favour, than it’s assured that the second chapter will be better in quality over the first one. Will I be one of the one’s to hail Prince Caspian this weekend? I can’t say for certain, but I’m willing to keep an open mind.