Missing the magic

Rating: 5/10 (18 December 2005)

I was rather underwhelmed by my experience of seeing Narnia for a few reasons. Some of the main problems arise from miscasting of the characters:
Mr Tumnus: he somehow manages to come across looking like some guy you would meet at a fancy-dress party, or in a bar, albeit in an excessively elaborate costume.
Jadis: this character is the most important of the movie and should have been played by a stunningly beautiful actress with a much more powerful screen presence, both in terms of her compelling and admirable (yes) intellect, and her sheer size. She is described in 'The Magician's Nephew' as one of the most beautiful women in the entire world. Tilda Swinton simply has no appeal, and comes across rather meek and albino/alien-esquire. As a result, it is very difficult to conceive the magnetic attraction that Edmund was supposed to have had to the White Witch. Andrew Adamson has said that he wanted to avoid the usual cliché of the "evil stepmother and the cackling witch" that has been seen too many times over the years. He said he wanted to "create a more sophisticated type of evil". While the usual stereotype has been avoided (which is good), its replacement fails to arouse much emotion at all. She could point her wand at me any day and I wouldn't bat an eyelid.
The children: Peter's actor seems the least likable. His strong leadership from the book comes across as joyless sanctimoniousness and is off-putting. Susan seems to suffer the worst from the CGI, especially scenes involving wind which doesn't seem to move hair very much. The actress playing Lucy tries desperately to be cute and show wonderment at the unbelievable world around her. Any scenes involving extreme emotion (for example, crying) were the most disappointing. Edmund was actually pretty good.
The beavers, and Aslan: The voices, provided by celebrities, did not blend into their scenes. They were simply too loud and too clear. The beavers were the best part of the movie and their lines were met with approving murmurs from the audience around me. Liam Neeson's Irish accent, while slightly modified, seemed odd.
Regarding the rest of the movie, I just have a few remarks: The most crucial part of the plot from the book that is left out is the fact that the Turkish Delight given to Edmund is in fact enchanted! The book says "anyone who had once tasted it would want more and more of it, and would even, if they were allowed, go on eating it till they had killed themselves." There are many instances in the movie where either critical information required for the story (such as above), or descriptive narrative, is left out, and the movie loses a huge amount of texture as a result. My solution would have been to include a narrator, making sure that they did not speak in a patronizingly slow manner. Father Christmas is depicted in the movie without his usual, hackneyed red outfit. I considered this to be rather refreshing. However, what Susan says a few scenes later doesn't really fit in as a result - "just because some fellow in a red coat gives you a sword doesn't make you a hero". I noticed that while leopards are featured in the book, the rosetted felines starring in the movie appeared to have cheetah heads, with prominent black 'tear' marks that leopards do not have. The bodies were clearly those of leopards. CS Lewis wrote in a letter: "Anthropomorphic animals, when taken out of narrative into actual visibility, always turn into buffoonery or nightmare -- at least with photography." This unfortunately rang true. I found myself many times thinking how clever the WETA graphics team was, and other times thinking that more work should have been put into the project. My objection to this is that I really don't think I should have been thinking about the WETA team at all.