Reviewing - The Chronicles Of Narnia
Narnia has a special place in the hearts of children around the world - it's full of talking animals, epic battles, and Turkish Delight. Though not the only cinematic adaptation of C. S. Lewis' fantasy world, this trilogy raked in the millions upon its release and received significant praise for its special effects and score. Welcome to the world in the wardrobe.
The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe (*****)
In which four siblings pile into a piece of furniture and then come right back out with hysteria and mass delusion
I had forgotten that this is one of my favourite films of all time.
I’m the oldest of four children. It’s me, then my first sister Elaina, then my brother Joel, then my second sister Anna as the youngest. A year after this film came out, we were all roughly the same age as the four Pevensie children. Our parents had just split up, so we were in an arrangement that had us alternating back and forth between parents from week to week. We felt like the world had fallen apart.
The fact that we matched the Pevensie children in birth order was easy enough to spot, but we also soon realized that the different characters resembled ourselves in terms of personality as well. Like Peter, I did try to act as a leader (unsuccessfully as often as not). Like Susan, Elaina was confident and assertive. Like Lucy, Anna was innocent and always optimistic. Joel admittedly got the short end of the stick because his doppelganger turned out to be the traitor of the bunch, but even so, Joel shared Edmund’s biting sense of humour and loyal bravery (at the end of the film, anyway). Further, we’d all read C. S. Lewis’ story as younger children, so in many ways this film was the perfect escape for each of us.
Putting aside my nostalgic emotional attachment to this film, there’s so much that I loved all over again when re-watching the flick this year. First, the movie looked awesome. Aslan was a living and breathing lion, and I think the effects held up amazingly. To be honest, I looked at Aslan and then started wondering why Jon Favreau couldn’t pull off facial expression in 2019’s The Lion King. Obviously Favreau’s lions take Narnia’s CGI to the next level and beyond, but I thought Aslan was perfectly acceptable - while still giving us a face that showed compassion, rage, and jocularity (never thought I’d use that word in a sentence). The film clearly uses a mix of puppetry and CGI, which I love. Long shots or action shots are better for CGI, but when characters are up close and personal with CGI characters, they tend to fall short. That’s when puppets and animatronics should come in – movies like Star Wars or Jurassic Park are prime examples of film worlds where such a back-and-forth is essential. Imagine how much worse the scenes with Mr. Tumnus would’ve been if he had been wholly CGI or wholly live-action, for example. Instead, they blended CGI together with live action design (the horns, the fur on the arms, etc.) to give us a character that looked as real as Lucy and her siblings did.
And WOAH, can we talk about the centaurs?! Man, they looked awesome. That Orius guy was a BOSS. That bit where he charged into battle alongside a rhino was the stuff of legend. There were lots of other cool creatures too – all of the fauns were great, and the Minotaurs were imposing to say the least. Some have criticized how Lewis just grabbed anything he liked and threw it into a fantasy world, but I loved seeing these mythical beasts come to life in one narrative. Well done to the design team that pulled all of that off.
So yeah, the visuals of this film are great, but the musical score kicks the whole thing up a notch. Harry Gregson Williams’ Narnia theme is powerful, magical, and instantly sets the exact kind of mood you’d expect after reading one of Lewis’ children’s books. There’s a number of musical moments that each set their own sweet or haunting atmospheres. Listen to “Lucy Meets Mr. Tumnus” or “The Stone Table” from the soundtrack. The opening seconds of “Father Christmas” in particular perfectly capture that feeling you get when as a child you walk for the first time into your family room on Christmas morning. The whole soundtrack is great, from start to finish.
Both the soundtrack and characters like the killer two-sword-wielding centaur show us that the filmmakers worked hard to make this movie their own. But what I really appreciate about this film is how hard they also worked to stick to the source material. There’s a bit in the book where Mr. Beaver says “Aslan is on the move”, and C. S. Lewis describes the facial expression of each Pevensie child with a beautiful analogy. In the movie, the moment Mr. Beaver says the same line, the camera cuts to a slowly panning shot of each of the children, lingering on their expressions. It’s the same moment told in a different medium, and the attention to detail there was enough to earn my respect. So many times you see books that are torn apart by their films (I’m looking at you, Eragon and A Series of Unfortunate Events), so seeing the filmmakers include even the smallest of moments from the book was a real treat. When they show you that they care about the small stuff you remember (like how Lucy didn’t shut herself in the wardrobe but Edmund did), it’s easier to get on board with a bit of creative license – like that FREAKING AWESOME CENTAUR – okay I’ll stop mentioning the centaur, I’m sorry.
In my review of the original book, I talk about the Christian undertones (although they’re a bit too blatant to be called ‘undertones’) that are present in the storyline. Although I’m not sure how they would’ve in the first place, but I admire the filmmakers from not shying away from the Christian symbolism. Aslan has done no wrong, but he gives himself up to be humiliated and killed in a terrible fashion for the sake of someone who admittedly does not deserve such a sacrifice. C. S. Lewis is many things, but he is not subtle. And that’s fine, because this is still a great story.
This movie is longer than I remembered (2 hours and 20 minutes), but it moves at a great pace. Fans of the original and fantasy enthusiasts alike will love this, and there’s something about the childlike wonder of Lucy entering Narnia for the first time that never gets old. This is a classic!
Prince Caspian (***1/2)
In which four siblings share a hallucination while waiting for a subway
Though this film couldn't possibly hope to eclipse the greatness of its predecessor, it still shines as a star all on its own.
C. S. Lewis originally titled his second book in the series "The Return to Narnia", and the film definitely succeeds at making you feel like you've come back. The laughter on the Pevensie's faces as they realize they're again in the realm where they were once Kings and Queens is a magical moment, and there are plenty of other little tidbits of magic as they rediscover their fantastical otherworld. What I especially loved were the little throw-away lines of dialogue that focused on how Narnia had changed. When Lucy looks up at the trees sullenly and says "they used to dance", you FEEL that. And when Trumpkin (played by the great Peter Dinklage) tells the Pevensies "You may find Narnia a more savage place than you remember", you FEEL that. Narnia is a world that's outside of time in many ways, but it is a changing world nonetheless - and that's very cool. Lewis' whole idea about how time passes differently in our world and in theirs is terrific, and it allows for crazy stories like this one.
I re-read Prince Caspian earlier this year a few months before re-watching this film, and I noticed that there were some significant differences between the two. Whereas the first Narnian film followed the book very closely, this film added an extended battle scene, a power struggle dynamic between Peter and Caspian, and a bit of romantic tension between Caspian and Susan. Most interestingly, they also brought back the White Witch. Lewis' book had the scene where they DISCUSSED bringing her back, but in the film, she was mere inches from returning to Narnia. I actually really liked this change. We got to see her tempt Caspian and then Peter - and seeing Peter's hesitation was very cool. Further, seeing Edmund jump in and save the day was an awesome moment. Edmund knows better than anyone the evil that the Witch is capable of. I loved that.
The change that I didn't like so much was that aforementioned power struggle between Caspian and Peter. In the books, the Pevensies return to their childlike selves as soon as they've returned to England. Though they did not forget their experiences in Narnia, it wasn't like they were grown-ups stuck in kid's bodies. In this film, they took a slightly different approach. It seemed that Peter was fed up with being treated like a kid. He felt himself deserving of far more than what he was getting, hence the little fight scene in the train station. And when Peter returned to Narnia, he felt this was his chance to become the man he once was. That's not a bad plotline in and of itself, but the way they did it, they made High King Peter look a lot like Anakin Skywalker from Episode II. He was annoying, conceited, and stubborn. That's not the Peter that I remember. And while I don't disagree that this was a sensible plotline to work through, I do think they executed it the wrong way.
Spoilers ahead for those who have not yet read the ENTIRE Narnian series. Susan's development as a character in this film was very interesting given her ultimate fate in "The Last Battle". To recap, Susan didn't end up making it to 'Narnia Heaven'. She became 'interested in nothing now-a-days except nylons and lipstick and invitations’. And here in the film, there's a brief exchange between Susan and Lucy that seems to foreshadow this eventual ending.
Susan: You always knew we'd be coming back here, didn't you? Lucy: I hoped so. Susan: I finally just got used to the idea of being in England. Lucy: But you're happy to be here, aren't you? Susan: While it lasts.
Susan seems to almost be fatigued with Narnia. It's like she's grown out of it. That's something that none of the other children - not even Peter, who's older than her - experienced. Even for the oldest Pevensie, Narnia is a place that they belong. But for Susan, it seems to be almost a distraction from her 'real life'. And I think this is a great connection to 'The Last Battle'. It seems that 'real life' became more important to Susan than Narnia. Make of that what you will.
To wrap things up, this film felt a bit longer than it needed to be. There were some scenes that just felt a little bloated - but on the whole, this was still a welcome entry in the Narnia franchise.
Voyage of the Dawn Treader (**)
In which a painting absolutely ruins the layout of a bedroom
The screenwriters may have had a harder book to work with this time around, but they still could’ve done better than this.
You may be surprised to learn that the guys responsible for penning the screenplay for this film were the same guys who gave us Infinity War and Endgame. Christopher Markus and Stephen McFeely were actually writers for the entire Narnia trilogy, and the first two films were more than competent as far as I’m concerned. This third entry unfortunately falls short, but some of the blame I think should actually be attributed to C. S. Lewis. The Dawn Treader certainly wasn’t the worst Narnian adventure that he wrote, but it was far from his best. The novel suffered from a lack of urgency – there didn’t seem to be much our characters had to lose if they didn’t make it to Aslan’s country. To be honest, I wasn’t even sure in the book why Edmund and Lucy had been called back to Narnia in the first place. Yes, they always learn something when they come, but they also help Narnia out in some way. If Edmund and Lucy hadn’t been around this time, I have a feeling Caspian would’ve been just fine without them.
Here’s what the writers did to try and give the plot greater stakes. First, they made this big dark fog play the role of a central antagonist more or less. As I recall, the fog was one chapter of the book, just acting as one of the many trials our characters had to face. Here, the fog was an ever-present enemy, although it was never made clear exactly what it was, how it worked, or what it wanted. To give this fog a sense of gravitas, the writers made the fog eat people. Now our characters have a goal of trying to rescue the people who have been eaten. The only problem is that we don’t really care about any of these devoured folks. Sure, they’re innocents, but innocent people die all the time in movies. No big deal. So what the writers did is put two characters on board our ship with an emotional attachment to one of the missing people. It’s a father and a daughter searching for the missing mother. That gives us a bit more reason to be happy when the fog is defeated, but there’s still a problem. We don’t really care about this father or daughter, either. Sure, they’re sweet, but they’re not our main characters. They’re just Narnian civilians at the end of the day.
Why didn’t the writers put a character we loved in peril? Why not have Reepicheep’s comrades be eaten by the fog, or maybe have Caspian be searching for – I don’t know – his long-lost father or something? There just wasn’t enough momentum to keep the narrative going. As a result, the movie ended up with much the same problem the novel had. We always say “the books are better than the movies”, but if the book wasn’t that great, it’s time to consider some re-writes.
Losing the composer of the first two film’s soundtracks was another blow to this film. The one thing that was fairly fun was Eustace Scrubb – he was super annoying but in a very entertaining way. But at the end of the day, there isn’t enough to make this film worth the watch. You’re better off concluding your Narnian adventure with Prince Caspian.