A Lion in Winter

I finally got to watch Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe last night. After a pizza dinner at Greenwich (yummy original crust pizza), I made a beeline for Gateway Mall's nice theaters. I caught the last full show and had my choice of pretty much everywhere to sit since there were only about a dozen people in the spacious theater. And good thing too, since the goddamn idiots behind me kept talking and talking even after the movie started. I walked off and found myself a nice seat near the front, nearer to the screen, away from cinematic barbarians.

Anyway, Narnia is the first in what may be a series of films based on C.S. Lewis' fantasy novels. Actually, I haven't read the actual book, but I DID watch the classic animation movie based on The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe shown years and years ago. So, yeah, I knew what was going to happen even before getting in the theater.
The four Pevensie children- Lucy, Edward, Peter and Susan- are living in London during The Blitz in World War II. After a night of bombing from above, their mom sends them packing off to the countryside where they'll be safe. They are sent off to stay in the rather large mansion of one Professor Kirke, along with the McGonagall-like housekeeper, Mrs. MacReady (Elizabeth Hawthorne). While exploring the mansion during a game of Hide and Seek, Lucy (the youngest) discovers a huge wardrobe closet which turns out to be a portal to the fantasy world of Narnia.
There, she meets Mr. Tumnus (a quite well-cast James McAvoy), a faun, and has a bit of tea with the hoofed halfling creature. However, fun and lightness soon turns into menace when Lucy learns of the White Witch, Jadis (played note-perfect by Tilda Swinton), a tyrannical sorceress who has locked Narnia into an eternal winter. Eventually, all four Pevensies enter Narnia, and there is some drama as younger brother Edmund finds himself making some pretty daft decisions involving sweets called Turkish Delights. Ultimately, the children unite with Narnia's Lion King, Azlan (voiced by Liam Neeson), and together fulfill a prophecy to vanquish Jadis and bring summer and justice to the land.

First off, comparison with the more mature and sophisticated LOTR trilogy are unavoidable- the effects (or at least some) were done by WETA Workshop, which also did LOTR's eye-popping FX. The flavor and mood of Narnia however is more storybookish and whimsical compared to the midieval pseudo-history of Middle Earth. While LOTR makes you feel that you walked into some lost chapter of earth's history, Narnia is a trip into a fairy tale.

This makes for the more ecclectic look of Narnia's creatures- the armies of both good and evil are made up of half-man, half-whatever races, or even actual animals like cheetahs, rhinos and beavers (ah, the Beavers...), wolves and foxes. While the faun and centaur warriors certainly look awesome, the armies look mismatched and motley compared to the armored humans of Middle Earth. Don't expect gritty combat- this is simpler by a long shot (with armies led by children, what do you expect?) but still you can expect some pretty exciting battle scenes by the end- a big pay off for a pretty long film (going a bit over two hours).
In terms of acting, the Pevensie kids are pretty good, though I have to say there's a bit of woodenness to some scenes. Lucy's (Anna Poppenwell) face is definitely button cute and perfect for the role, while Edmund (Skandar Keynes) has the sullen look befitting his character. As expected, Tilda Swinton own ever scene she appears in as the icy queen, even more so in her climactic fight scenes- that girl can swing a sword and make it look serious... I wonder if she can do it as a protagonist, eventually?

Worth watching certainly despite my nitpicks, Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe is a respectable entry into the fantasy film genre. Give Narnia a visit in theaters now in the Metro.