Falls short of a better film, but good

Rating: 6/10 (10 December 2005)

A decent film, 'The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe' is at times captivating, but, it falls short of delivering a better film. I haven't read the book since I was about 10, and I saw the cartoon on television -which I really enjoyed- before that. However, this review is not to look at the film adaption of the book and to say what was done wrong and what was removed; it's been too long ago for me to really remember the story to go into that detail! I am rating this as a film. Design, pacing, and acting and the three main areas that I'll cover in this review; each had varying levels of success. Although some of the film design was done very well, I did have some problem with some of the CGI and realism. Some of the design was done exceptionally well, and some of it wasn't. For example, the scenes of the children crossing the river, the lion, and the creatures turning to (or from) stone were quite well done, but I had some problems with the CGI beavers and some of the other critters. The beavers did not look realistic, but it looked as if they were made to be realistic without facial expressions (or limited expressions). The lion was done well, and CGI in other films is also done well, but it seemed to me as if the beaver got the short end of the stick (no pun intended) when it came to CGI. The battle scenes also involved some less-than stunning CGI compared to what I've seen in other films. Costume design and set design was generally very good from the castle to the beaver's home. There were some very good shots; in particular, the shot of the curtain falling down from the wardrobe while Lucy pulls on it is very good. The film did have some trouble with brining the camera into the scene; it seemed difficult to really get involved in the film in some places because the characters seemed distant while better camera use could have brought the audience more into the story instead of making them feel like outsiders. Pacing was another unfortunate drawback of the film. There was often a sense that some events were slow while the action scenes got less time. Not related to pacing, but I did notice consistency issues. Lucy provides one of the characters with a hankerhief, which is later retrived from another character and then by the same character at the end of the film. In principle, the character who presented this at the end should not have had the item anymore. Acting was done well throughout except for a couple of instances involving CGI, including the character who becomes alive again after being turned to stone. Overall, it's a good film for children, and it reminded me of Disney's older children's films. It also reminded me of Lemony Snicket -- I guess it goes to show that children enjoy films where children are in unfortunate circumstances and become the heroes. I hope more films like this continue to get made. It's certainly not a perfect film, but it is not too bad. I give it a 6/10.