Beautiful, but far from classic.

Rating: 6/10 (8 February 2006)

I must admit, from the first shot that took you up into the cockpit of the German Bombers over the London rooftops, I had high hopes for the this film. Beautiful opening, I thought, emotional, and set up the relationships between the characters quite well while maintaining good pacing. Unfortunately, as the film continued, it started to drag in its attempt to fit all the characters and the plot elements into what turned out to be at times a tedious experience.
Admittedly, this is well crafted film, and it's meticulous workmanship can be seen in every shot and transition. The actors and CG characters all do a wonderful job of maintaining the fantasy that is Narnia. You won't be seeing any swaying cardboard cutouts and badly rendered crowd effects in this film. But perhaps I have been spoiled by the likes of Peter Jackson and even Chris Nolan with his recent take on the Batman franchise, but this version in all its loyalty to the work of C.S. Lewis somehow missed an element of magic which comes from a directors authorship.
In other words, this is not an enduring creative masterpiece, but rather palatable adaptation An adult vision of a children's story. It never creates that distinction between Narnia and the real world, and by creating a Narnia that is as believable as that London Flat, it actually took away some of the wonder that could have made this film as enduring as the original work by C.S. Lewis. The director did not choose to show this world as it would have appeared in the eyes of a child. . .the over bearing whiteness of winter snow in contrast to a damp musty country estate, the incredible and unbending evil of the manipulative white witch that distorts her beautiful features to one of animal like menace.
Remember how in the Wizard of Oz, Dorothy's world suddenly went from black and white to technicolor in the turn of a tornado. Ah. . .there's the authorship that transitions a classic work of literature into a classic film. So in the way that every shot was predictably framed, in the same way that every cut was just the right length, and every costume just as it would have been in C.S. Lewis's world, it became a technical affair which for someone like me who already knows the plot quite well became. . .well. . . boring.
But then again. . .this is a well made film. Few would call it a blasphemy of the original version laid on paper and not celluloid. But this version is like a well made suit. Beautiful, but a suit never the less. Perhaps I went the the theater seeking not a suit, but rather, a pair of wings. . . not quite proper dress etiquette but that's what makes it magical.