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December 11, 2005

The Lion, The Witch, and the Wardrobe

I've enjoyed the Chronicles of Narnia since I was a kid, so The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe has been a film I've been awaiting for quite some time, albeit with a mix of eagerness and trepidation. If there's one thing I've learned over the years, it's that Hollywood can take a great story and utterly ruin it. Starship Troopers and Dune come immediately to mind in that category. Nonetheless, I was on line for the first showing of TLTWATW this morning, and I was pleasantly surprised by what I saw.

For those unfamiliar with the premise, the story is that of four English schoolchildren sent away from their family during the Blitz who discover a magical land called Narnia, and the adventures they have there. The land is suffering under the yoke of an evil witch (surprise) that will end only when a prophecy involving two boys and two girls comes to pass. Naturally, the witch wants to stop that from happening, and so we're off.

The film is, in a word, excellent. The story develops quite naturally, opening with the horrors of the bombing of London in 1940 and the different horror of hundreds of children being shipped out of London to protect them from the German bombing, at the price of taking them away from their parents. After some more establishing scenes, the real adventures begin as they discover Narnia. The story itself incorporates simple themes, but they are classic themes that resonate because of their strength, and the story is better, not worse, because of it. Fortunately the children selected to play the Pevensies do a good job with their roles, helping to make the story at once more believable and more entertaining. Given how they're established in the early going, their actions throughout the story really ring true, adding a critical element of reality to a story set in a fantasy world.

The special effects are quite tremendous. Narnia is a world of mythical creatures: fauns, satyrs, griffons, dwarves, giants, etc. While the creatures are not perfect, they're damn close, and it's easy to see Narnia as a real world despite its obvious fantasy elements. But what makes the effects really great is that they're seamless enough that they become a backdrop to the story, rather than becoming the story itself. The great risk with movies with large amounts of special effects, in my opinion, is that the effects end up becoming more important than the story. With Narnia, that isn't an issue.

If you're a fan of the books, you'll love these movies. But even if you've never read them in your life, I suspect you'll be glad you saw this film. The story, the casting, and the effects combine to make this film a joy to watch.

Update: Decent Films Guide offers a good review of the film, highlighting where they think the director fell short of the mark. They make good arguments, and I think they're absolutely right that the film could have been better than it was (of course, I'm not sure if that's ever not the cast). My own review may be tainted by my knowledge of the books, as I'm able to 'fill in the blanks' when I'm watching the film and therefore I may not notice certain omissions.