The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe (2005)
The Chronicles of Narnia @ arturmarques.com
I admit that I never read any of the Narnia books. So, when the first Narnia movie arrived, in late 2005, I watched it very open minded and zero biased. This is relevant, because - very much like with the Harry Potter community - some of the people who appreciate the books, tend to go blind and also appreciate the movie, no matter what.
“Narnia 1″ is a very good movie!, but with strong imbalances.
This is the story of four children, during World War II (WW2), yet there are no airplanes, nor machine guns. In fact, after the first five minutes, it is like if there was no [human] war going on.
But there is a wardrobe and a mythical war: Lion versus Witch.
The four children are brothers and sisters: Edmund, Peter, Lucy and Susan. The most obvious imbalance is the performance of Georgie Henley, who plays the young Lucy: Georgie appears to be light years ahead, as an actress, despite her tender age. It is a fact that her character is “central”, but her array of expressions is just superior.
Skandar Keynes (Edmund) knows only two expressions: angry and fear - and he had many opportunities.
William Moseley (Peter) isn’t convincing, as a leader. The script forces him to play “Mr. sweet sensible” for too long, so when he must lead an army of hardened creatures, his authority isn’t believable.
As for Anna Popplewell (Susan), she is very confined, nearly non existent.
Tilda Swinton (the White Witch) is superb on her role, as always - or since Orlando.
The script is all about a fantastic world [at war], with impressive creatures. The Narnia world is very black-and-white: the Lion people are the “good” team; the Witch people are the “bad”. There is absolutely nothing in-between. This is good for children, because it makes it easier to understand what is going on.
I am very sorry for the minotaur creatures: they are big and scary, but they deserve no more than a couple of minutes of action. The lion is just a big cat…
My Rating: 7/10
External Links:
http://www.libertyfilmfestival.com/libertas/index.php?p=1176
http://www.moviefreak.com/artman/publish/movie_narnia.shtml
Shop: DVD** (USA) | DVD** (Europe) | Poster*
*Poster info:
Title: Chronicles of Narnia-Advance
Type: Poster
Size: 69 x 102 cm
Usually ships in: 24 hours
**WARNING: the Narnia DVDs on sale, are NOT the 2005 version!
Sunday 29 Jan 2006 | am | movies, movies reviewed, movies seen