Review of Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe
On Saturday, my wife's company treated us to a preview of Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe. We dropped off Oliver with some friends and headed out to West County for the showing.
The movie opens during one night of the London Blitz as the Pevensie family scrambles to their bomb bunker as the bombs go off all around. The next day the kids Edmund (Skandar Keynes), Peter (William Moseley), Susan (Anna Popplewell), and Lucy (Georgie Henley) are shipped off to the country to live with Professor Kirke and Mrs. MacReady. At the Professor’s house, they entertain themselves by playing hide and seek. As Peter counts, Lucy ducks into a room that contains a large wardrobe. She ducks into the wardrobe to find herself in Narnia, a magical land in the grip of a hundred year old winter. She meets a faen named Mr. Tumnus (James McAvoy) who invites her to tea in order to kidnap her, but later relents and sends her back through the wardrobe. Back on the other side of the wardrobe, she finds that no time has passed. When she tells her family about her experience, they don’t believe her. Later that night, she goes through the wardrobe again. This time her brother Edmund follows her. While she meets up with Mr. Tumnus, her brother Edmund encounters the White Witch (Tilda Swinton), who charms him into helping her. When the two children get back to Earth, Lucy tells everyone about it and Edmund denies that it happened. But the next day the kids find themselves looking for a place to hide. They climb into the wardrobe and end up in Narnia.
The children are quickly brought up to speed on events in Narnia by a talking Beaver (voice Ray Winstone). Aslan (voice Liam Neeson) has returned to the land to put an end to the reign of the White Witch. The children have been prophesied to be the saviors of the land. Initially the children want nothing to do with this war, but when Edmund runs away to join the White Witch, the other children have no choice but to join the struggle.
Visually the movie is stunning. The special effects mesh well with the live action shots. Special care was taken to realistically depict the non-human races and animals. The battlefield scenes are especially realistic, perhaps not a surprise as WETA did the special effects. And as in Lord of the Rings, New Zealand does a good job standing in for a medieval fantasy landscape.
I really enjoyed the movie. Andrew Adamson did a good job with the pacing of the scenes and maintained the tension of the story well. There were a number of instances where I found myself literally gripping the armrests. I did find the movie perhaps a little strong for a PG movie. PG-13 might have been a better rating, but the script would have to have been more complex to interest a PG-13 audience.
The movie opens during one night of the London Blitz as the Pevensie family scrambles to their bomb bunker as the bombs go off all around. The next day the kids Edmund (Skandar Keynes), Peter (William Moseley), Susan (Anna Popplewell), and Lucy (Georgie Henley) are shipped off to the country to live with Professor Kirke and Mrs. MacReady. At the Professor’s house, they entertain themselves by playing hide and seek. As Peter counts, Lucy ducks into a room that contains a large wardrobe. She ducks into the wardrobe to find herself in Narnia, a magical land in the grip of a hundred year old winter. She meets a faen named Mr. Tumnus (James McAvoy) who invites her to tea in order to kidnap her, but later relents and sends her back through the wardrobe. Back on the other side of the wardrobe, she finds that no time has passed. When she tells her family about her experience, they don’t believe her. Later that night, she goes through the wardrobe again. This time her brother Edmund follows her. While she meets up with Mr. Tumnus, her brother Edmund encounters the White Witch (Tilda Swinton), who charms him into helping her. When the two children get back to Earth, Lucy tells everyone about it and Edmund denies that it happened. But the next day the kids find themselves looking for a place to hide. They climb into the wardrobe and end up in Narnia.
The children are quickly brought up to speed on events in Narnia by a talking Beaver (voice Ray Winstone). Aslan (voice Liam Neeson) has returned to the land to put an end to the reign of the White Witch. The children have been prophesied to be the saviors of the land. Initially the children want nothing to do with this war, but when Edmund runs away to join the White Witch, the other children have no choice but to join the struggle.
Visually the movie is stunning. The special effects mesh well with the live action shots. Special care was taken to realistically depict the non-human races and animals. The battlefield scenes are especially realistic, perhaps not a surprise as WETA did the special effects. And as in Lord of the Rings, New Zealand does a good job standing in for a medieval fantasy landscape.
I really enjoyed the movie. Andrew Adamson did a good job with the pacing of the scenes and maintained the tension of the story well. There were a number of instances where I found myself literally gripping the armrests. I did find the movie perhaps a little strong for a PG movie. PG-13 might have been a better rating, but the script would have to have been more complex to interest a PG-13 audience.
posted by mypetrock at 10:26 AM
1 Comments:
I'm dying to see it...
I, too, heard that some of the scenes actually warrant a PG-13 rating, too.
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