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I'm gonna be honest here. If you're looking for a review of someone who's at least read the first book of this by C.S. Lewis, then you've come to the wrong place. I TRIED reading it a while ago but immediately dropped it once I saw that it seemed to be written solely for kids.
There's actually a lot to be said about this film, and a lot of that, at least in my arrogant opinion, isn't favorable. But I'm not a total hater. I definitely liked some parts of it, but I really was expecting more. It starts off strong as kids in a family are sent to evacuate their city in the UK due to the bombings carried out against it by Nazi forces in WWII. They are sent to an idyllic, if boring estate owned by a certain professor who happens to own this neat little cupboard. Family shenanigans ensue which, sooner or later, causes them all to step aside the wardrobe and into Narnia.
Comparisons to Lord of the Rings were common with this movie, and the comparison is actually surprisingly not too out of place. J.R.R. Tolkien was a friend of C.S. Lewis. Both of them were firm Christians and both Narnia and Lord of the Rings share Christian themes. Narnia probably much moreso than Lord of the Rings. But, unfortunately, it is here where we run into our first and probably biggest problem with The Chronicles of Narnia.
Lord of the Rings was written by an extremely competent author of fiction. Narnia was written by a man who, while very well celebrated in his field of Christian non-fiction (I know even LDS folk occasionally quote his works as well), his efforts in the fictional genre, well... I dunno. I mean, again, it's VERY clear Narnia was written for kids so I really don't want to step on it too hard, but in the end, the result with this movie is the same, no matter how you look at it. So, the biggest problem with this movie is that it is based on a book for kids. Pretty unstable foundation there for a fantastical two-hour theater blockbuster if you ask me.
Not to say that it couldn't be done. Shrek, after all, originated from a German fairy tale (I believe). But the producers of Shrek also did some HEAVY face-lifting there to that myth to get the movie to be fully suitable for adults. Chronicles of Narnia also definitely has done this, thankfully, but I really don't think they did enough of it. Now, if you're a Christian, you'll probably still be very pleased with this movie as long as you don't think too hard about the events in it, but for non-Christians who also aren't kids, this is a somewhat tough sell. And mind you, it's not the fact that it has Christian themes in it that is an issue at all. Lord of the Rings has them too, but nevertheless, the Lord of the Rings book and movies still resonate so well because there's so much else in them for others to enjoy, and also, the Christian themes that are in them are executed very well.
But you know what... I think I've ragged on this movie enough, so I'll leave it there and talk about what I did like about this movie. For one, I just love the premise of an ice queen ruling a realm of fantasy, and Chronicles of Narnia does (somewhat) deliver nicely on this. While the White Witch often makes some baffling decisions (kids book), just seeing her walk through a battlefield calmly destroying all was pretty fucking cool and gave me a glimpse of what this movie could have been, all around. We also got some beautiful scenery. New Zealand is on display once again, and boy, is it amazing, especially when mixed with the high fantasy setting. The acting is... Generally decent though not the best I've seen. A few actors either should have been written better or directed better or both. Nothing too noticeable though.
And lastly, at the end of it,
Having the kids age fifteen years living happily in Narnia, having almost forgotten their old lives on Earth only to accidentally return to said Earth and finding out no time had passed at all on Earth while they were in Narnia was a very intriguing way to end the film. Strangely enough, this seems to be an actual thing some people have experienced while on Salvia or DMT. Living years in an entirely separate life, then waking up from the high and seeing that only ten minutes have actually passed in this world. Even drugs aside, it's a fantastic thought to stumble upon this new world and let yourself get swallowed up in it. I mean, it's spawned an entire very popular genre in anime (Isekai for those who don't know). Though, perhaps it's just sad commentary in the end that this world we've made for ourselves is so, so shitty that a genre like this is so popular.
I know for sure anyway that I don't fucking belong here.
I know for sure anyway that I don't fucking belong here.
