Narnia

Movie info from IMDB
Movie reviews from Metacritic

Bugger all on the TV last night so we headed to the cinema to catch The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe. Before I go any further I’ll point out that I’m pretty sure I read the books when I was younger but can’t recall much about them, snippets here and there is about the limit of my knowledge and even then I’m not sure how much of that is by cultural osmosis rather than directing read of the text.

All in it wasn’t a bad movie, but it wasn’t a great one either lacking any real kind of depth and falling short of other recent remakes (Kong, LOTR etc etc). Acting wise the kids in the movie to a good enough job but stumble over into “precocious” mode a little too often for my liking although that may be the fault of the dialog which has an upper-class Englishness about it that seems more dated than it should. It’s all a bit of a wheeze though so it’s easy enough to put these limitations to one side.

Graphical this was always going to be a tricky movie to pull off, with such a wide mixture of animal, beast and creature, not to mention the fantastical setting, but on the whole it’s not too bad. Some moments are let down by some crude CGI – if they can make thousands of animals charging one another during a battle look realistic, why can’t they get a simple shot with the heroes in front of a backdrop to look natural? – but overall it’s stunning. Aslan in particular.

Anyway, I seem to be apologising for this movie and I guess that sums my opinion nicely. It’s an OK film that you feel could have tried a little harder, been a little better, so … you know.. sorry and all that.

Lovers of the books may enjoy it more but I’d file this as a “wait until it appears on TV” kinda movie.

UPDATE: Two things I forgot to mention. 1. Tilda Swinton is WONDERFUL, it’s worth watching just for her. 2. Louise loved the movie.