Solid mythic adventure film, but all too often striking us as having been made with one's head more-so one's heart.

Rating: 6/10 (20 May 2013)

Films of The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe's ilk were a dime-a-dozen at around the time of its release. Unleashed upon us once the Lord of the Rings films had had their fill of our cinema screens; somewhere in the middle ground of the Harry Potter Franchise and then preceding projects such as The Spiderwick Chronicles, one can only muster up as much enthusiasm as one can when offered yet another magical, mythical adventure fraught with danger and wonder but driven by kids. The project in this case is a film based on the immortal books by C.S. Lewis; an English author who wrote about the trials and tribulations encountered in a magical land named Narnia, to which the entrance was of course granted at the back of the most famous wardrobe in literary history. One could argue Lewis was ahead of the game in this regard; writing which was released around the time of Tolkien's fictitious escapades in Middle Earth as youngsters ill-suited to their dramatic, danger-filled surroundings took on the elements. It is sad, then, that Andrew Adamson's adaptation of the first in the Narnia series is mostly as colourless and nondescript as all the other fantasy adventures in spite of its cherished, game-changing foundations.
Andrew Adamson's previous two films were both Shrek and Shrek 2, and where there was more of a biting energy in those films which subverted fairy tales and folk stories. Here, Adamson has gone all out to take something back from those projects in his production of a full-on-fairy-story with enchanted kingdoms and talking animals which is played for grimaces more-so grins. The tale begins in Wartime London, a city prone to attacks by the German air force as Hitler's armies sit perched across a small stretch of water at what potentially lies in wait. Trapped in the chaos of what will forever be remembered as The Blitz are the Pevensie family consisting of just their mother and her four children: Peter (Moseley); Edmund (Keynes) Susan (Popplewell) and Lucy (Henley) – a unit already mourning the loss of the man of the family to the war and now stuck here in their garden shelter as the flak rains down.
As was with many at the time, these kids are shipped out of a war torn London and into the countryside; a greener, safer locale where they may wait out the war with elderly guardians. Those unfamiliar with the historical importance behind such course of action, or indeed already aware of said item and looking for a decent dramatic depiction of it, should look no further than a late nineties production entitled "Goodnight Mr. Tom". The children are not a congealed unit, they argue; bicker; brand one another "selfish" and fall out pretty easily. Boredom and disillusionment at this large countryside house owned by a professor, who does not at all strike us as a professor, gives was to a harmless game of hide and seek wherein the eponymous wardrobe allows access to the wintry world of Narnia: a place where animals speak; war between two set sides broods and the key characteristics of the landscape and climate is snow and the freezing cold. Although as is custom in these films, the youngest discovers the secret first but no one around believes them.
Narnia arrives with its own set of challenges; there are allies in the form of Beavers and Lions, of which feature the voice talents of Ray Winstone and Liam Neeson, but then there are enemies and it is Tilda Swinton's White Witch who comes to be the chief threat. Along the way, the kids in the film learn (with the design being that the message will transcend unto the kids in the audience) the value of teamwork; of working together, especially if you're of the same blood, and that accepting sweets from strangers leads to bad things... My confounded inability to recall the books as well as I'd like does nothing to guard the criticisms I have for the film, a film whose worst characteristic is that it's a tad flat and whose content is, at the worst of times, often asking to be merely disregarded as nonsense. The text's carefree approach to the material, on top of its generally cartoonish aesthetic as a palette of bright colours and a range of contrasts sets the scene to what is ultimately a bloody fight to the bloody death, highlights its child-orientated thematics of fighting on through strife and using one's powers responsibly more than I would have liked.
Director Adamson works here with live action for the first time, although he breaks himself in easily with the retaining of some of what he's used to in the form of CGI animals voiced by famous people prancing around the screen looking expressive. He gets results out of the young cast, who do a thorough job in playing people put through the wringer before being asked to go and win a war that a Lion cannot against a pack of wolves and middle aged woman with a steely gaze. But the film is a stepping stone project more than anything else and the best you can say about this particular adaptation of a famous piece is that those involved do a professional job with an eye to move onto bigger things.