Saturday, April 22, 2006

Narnia's not in the wardrobe, but in my family room!

As I sit here at my computer, my children, and their best friends, are all camped out in my family room, just about ten yeards away, watching The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, The Witch, and The Wardrobe on our large-screen tv.

I'm not sure why I point this out, other than that it's a conversation starter.

I didn't think much of this movie when I saw it in the theatre. It has great visuals, a good script adaptation, a moderately exciting fight scene, but as a whole, this film doesn't click for me. I've thought about this fairly often, trying to understand just what doesn't work.

The best that I can come up with is that it lacks a cohesive energy. I'm never really "attached" to any of the children, nor am I ever really "afraid" of the witch. And the pacing of the entire film seems too much the same, and so we lose the rhythm of highs and lows that is so essential to good drama.

It's not a bad film, it's a heck of a lot easier to watch than the BBC television version, but it's not nearly as exciting as it could or should be.

I'm curious what others thought of the film...?

1 comment:

Kootch said...

I pretty much concur with your comments. The acting is rather weak throughout -- I thought the two girls were the best in terms of acting. Kind of sad for the adults in the film. While it's a pretty accurate adaptation of the book, the story doesn't do much for me on film. The visual effects are good, but by no means breathtaking. C.S. Lewis might have had something when he said he never wanted there to be a film version of the books.