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The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe December 12, 2005 |
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Aslan is Jesus. Theologians, and literature scholars, have been debating it ever since C.S. Lewis invented the secular lion in 1950 in “The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe”, but there’s no question anymore, despite Lewis’ own objections to the obvious Christian parallels, about whether the famous Christian theorist was shielding the King of Kings within his heroic Narnian Talking Beast, it’s true, it’s there, he’s glorious (or better yet, He’s glorious, as it’s capitalized in the text), and that’s that, the rest is symbolist history. Or at least I wish it was, because all I’ve been hearing leading up to the much publicized debut of the great children’s fantasy novels on the big screen is the debate all over again; is the thinly veiled Christian parable the kind of family friendly blockbuster that will save Hollywood, not only from box office ruin, but from it’s own immoral leanings? For the love of Gibson, everybody please take a time out and relax; you, red state fanatics, yes indeed, this is the faithful adaptation you’d expect, complete with soaring gospel-esque music, heavenly backlighting, and a second coming worthy of you know who, and you, blue state leftists, no, this isn’t going to cause a mass populist exodus to the pulpit of bible belt conservatism and a yearning for more Christian based entertainment, but what it is going to cause, and I hope without all of the Jesus talk, is six more sequels over the next decade that should be, given the quality of this first, and the brilliance of the remaining six books, quite simply, exciting fantasy filmmaking. It’s probably too much to ask that the media quit the speculation (jeez, I’ve dedicated this whole first paragraph to it myself), considering the following novels in the seven-book series all follow the same formula, and in every one, Aslan, whose appearances become more and more special, and infrequent, as the series progresses, is always God, or Jesus, or whatever supreme being you want to compare him to, but for the sake of the movies, let’s all agree, finally, that Christianity does play a major role in the books, films, advertising, and subsequent merchandising, and move on to what’s proper, like plot, characterizations, pacing, special effects, and cohesion, all that good stuff you’d find in any quality review of a 180 million-dollar tent pole franchise that could very well be, at best, the next Harry Potter, and Aslan knows franchises of that caliber are a needle in a lion’s mane. “The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe” is the first in Lewis’ series, the most action packed and famous, which is probably why the producers chose to film it first, rather than the prequel “The Magician’s Nephew”, which most read first, in sequential order, as Lewis wanted. There’s nothing wrong with that, it is a fabulous novel – though my favorite is book three (five in reading order), the swashbuckler “The Voyage of the Dawn Treader” – introducing us to the Pevensie children, four British school kids who, one day while playing hide and seek, discover a magical frozen world connected to their world by their uncle’s dress wardrobe, a land one day they’ll rule and kings and queens. To get to that glorious coronation is a grueling task though, battling the White Witch (Tilda Swinton), who has sunk the magical land, Narnia, into a hundred year deep freeze, awaiting an ancient prophecy that foretells of four human children, “Two sons of Adam, two daughters of Eve,” that will join forces with the great lion Aslan to fell the witch and begin the glory days of Narnia. All of this is a bit overwhelming for the four children – eldest Peter (William Moseley), reluctant Susan (Anna Popplewell), mischievous Edmund (Skandar Keynes), and youngest, most precious Lucy (Georgie Henley) – but along the way to the great battle at the end they get help from various sources; Mister and Mrs. Beaver, who shelter the children the first night, when Edmund runs off to the witch, also called the Queen of Narnia, who has bewitched him with delicious treats, a sly talking fox that helps them elude the queen’s fierce dogs, Father Christmas, in a bizarre sequence I don’t remember actually happening in the book, and eventually, in a holy moment, Aslan (voiced by Liam Neeson) himself, the king of all the land. If you know the book than you know where it all leads, but for those who don’t, just imagine any hand to hand combat war movie that builds up to the climatic scene where the two forces charge at each other like locomotives, one traveling east, the other traveling west, unfortunately on the same track, for a battle scene filled out tenfold for cinematic effect. This adaptation of the Lewis book is faithful in capturing the magic and wonder of Narnia, especially the CGI talking beasts like Aslan and the Beavers, but it’s also at times an overly melodramatic, downright cheesy adaptation, with Tilda Swinton’s wicked witch coming off like some kind of demented modernist Goth rocker, commandeering her polar bear pulled chariot into battle as if possessed by a mixture of Satan, the Bride of Frankenstein, the Abominable Snowman, and David Bowie. I’ve always pictured the witch less like Margaret Mitchell and more like a slightly satanic Elizabeth Montgomery, a beautiful woman who uses her powers over men (most importantly, the young Edmund), to get what she wants, and indeed, in “The Magician’s Nephew” she is that character, sweet one moment, ruthless the next, but here the characterization is always nasty and oddly over-the-top, unfortunate because she is such an important character in the movie, and it’s not good when your key villain comes off more cartoonish than realistic. The CGI creatures are all well done, thanks to director Andrew Adamson’s (“Shrek”) expertise in computer animation, and the four relatively unknown actors playing the Pevensie children do well enough, though their exuberant readings too are a bit much, but I suppose under the circumstances, fighting one-eyed ogres, two-legged bulls, and a glam rocking ice queen would get the heart pumping double speed. If you factor in the religious reading, “The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe” does justice to its famed source material, but if you stand back and judge it just as an example of big budget epic filmmaking, it may not reach the transcendence of Peter Jackson territory, but it’s a worthy, exciting, slightly stodgy outing, one that should easily spawn six much welcomed sequels. “The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe” is playing at the Movie-Plex 59. by Adam Suraf
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