How I felt...

Rating: 5/10 (31 January 2006)

First, I like get two facts clear before writing the review: (a) I am a Christian from both the Anglican and Catholic denominations, so there will be no surprise that I have something in for this film (b) And I also began reading C.S. Lewis' adult work (i.e. his science fiction trilogy, "The Screwtape Letters," and his theology) before reading his work for children.
I first saw this film in Hobart, Tasmania with my Dad and two friends from the Anglican church as a type of treat. I was interested in seeing it because I admire the work of C.S. Lewis and also I wanted to see this film out of interest. I confess that my only "Narnia" experiences were the cartoon and BBC versions, and, so I started reading all of the books, and I got the invite by the time I was halfway through "The Silver Chair." Anyway, onto the film...
The film goes along a good pace and does an okay realization of Lewis' Narnia, the New Zealand backdrop does as well for this film as it did for Middle-earth (I was most impressed with the portrayal of Father Christmas). As for the computer graphics, they may not be as well done, as say "Lord of the Rings," but they added perfectly to the creation of Narnia (indeed they much better than the BBC which had F/X no different than the original "Doctor Who," so that I couldn't tell the difference between a werewolf and a normal wolf). As for the acting it was okay, the children were all right and being connected by a desire to go home. Although he merely provided the voice, Liam Neeson was a perfect choice for the voice of Aslan because in the book he has a "golden voice," while Tilda Swinton was a perfect choice for Jadis, making her evil witch first ambiguous than going revealing some more evil. This was better then the other versions that tend to show the witch as a screeching crone. Ray Winstone and Dawn French were good as the beavers, provided some good humour.
My only complaints with it, are some shots that feel cheaply as if shot on hand-held camera, the camp fox and the ending. Those shots felt artificial and seemed to clash with the rest of the film, as did the portrayal of the fox by Rupert Everett. His line about being one of the good guys seems to be more Hollywood then Lewis, and he seem to be doing this out of a favour for the director for his work on the second "Shrek" film. As for the ending, I know it is a film and different from the book, but to it felt a bit too quick, especially the chase of the white stag, and when the children came out of the wardrobe, it felt too Hollywood as well. The only ending worked was with Lucy and Professor Kirke looking at the wardrobe and talking their Narnia experiences, unfortunately this was set a bit after the end credits when people were just heading out of the cinema! Otherwise it was all right adaptation of a work, while not being able to set the house on fire, it did perfectly to entertain for a whole evening.