The first Narnia film is a droll, humourless affair...

Rating: 6/10 (9 December 2005)

The long-awaited "other New Zealand movie" finally hits the screens. Will it live up to it's hype and it's $180m budget? Andrew Adamson has big shoes to fill; the Chronicles of Narnia encompass an imaginary world in the Tolkien mould, albeit at a less detailed and more child-friendly level. Thus children, not 300 yr-old wizards and rangers are the heroes here and Adamson has taken a gamble in picking unknown's for his characters; a ploy that worked somewhat for Harry Potter...but this isn't Hogwarts.
The film opens to a scene of WWII bombings in London a 5 minute sequence covering the first 5 lines of the book....we also have some character setting here; Peter is the stuffy, bossy one, whilst Edmund is the bad apple boy. After a Potter -style train ride they arrive at The Professor's house, their safe haven whilst the bombs are falling. It's all very gloomy and sad, which brings me to my first gripe. The situation portrayed in the book is one of excitement and wonder, not doom and gloom. Obviously Adamson was trying to contrast the boring world of Earth with the wondrous world of Narnia; but considering that they go there to fight a war anyway...where's the contrast? It makes for some tough viewing. The kids mope around and fight with each other, before Lucy, the youngest, finds her way into Narnia through the wardrobe. There she meets Mr Tumnus, half-human, half...something. He's charming enough, but his nervous manner indicates immediately that perhaps he's up to no good. Taking Lucy home and drugging her (not in the book) really doesn't help the situation. It ruins one of the best characters of the Narnia realm. Edmund's encounter with the white witch is interesting, if forgettable. Tilda Swinton has the cold complexion of an ice queen but "proud, stern and beautiful"? It's simply not there. There's more moping and more kid-fighting before the whole sorry lot end up in snow-land.
After this it's all Aslan and war. The CGI Aslan is very stately and lionish, but is largely expressionless throughout - a far cry from the joy and sorrow he expresses in the book.. The movie drags on and on - we simply don't care enough about the characters to be interested in their fate - and eventually we get to the big battle scene. It's all pretty simple. (King) Peter's army is animals and half-animals; the Witch's army is men in monster suits. The good guys win of course and everyone lives happily ever after.
The first Narnia film is a droll, humourless affair. It says something when the first and only laugh is from Susan shooting the Witches' servant dead with an arrow (?!?) So where did it go wrong? From someone who knows the books well, there's an awful lot of interesting characters and dialogue left out. The book is only 200 pages but it seems Adamson was more intent on providing battles and set pieces than humour and magic.