The Chronicles of Narnia

How can a film be very good and just alright at the same time?

When watching a movie, if the blue (or green) screen is evident, if most of the acting is a bit over the top, if the plot is plodding at points, and if the director didn't take the time to help us see the characters connect while using techniques as if he were just taught them at film school, you could say a movie is just alright.

All this is true about The Chronicles of Narnia. I could hear my husband, who has much production experience, go crazy with muttering everytime the production was less than desired. The technical aspects of the movie are just so-so. He started with Mr. Tumnus' ears and didn't stop until the movie was done. Up until then, he was just bored. While the rest of us gasped a little when we saw poor Tumnus turned to stone, he laughed at the fake stone replication of said Tumnus. I could understand why he laughed, but the point was that he was stone.

But if that same movie, with all its faults, were to make you hold your breath with anticipation when the Pevensie children finally are all in Narnia, shiver to your bones in awe with the first look at Aslan or jump in your seat when he roared, or cry like a baby when you know (because you've read the books many times over) by his look that he has given himself to the White Witch, then I have to say it is a triumph. There were parts from which I expected more, like Aslan's scene at the Stone Table. I wish they had taken the time to show people who hadn't grown up with the books why Susan and Lucy would spend all night crying over a dead lion. But all in all, the moments that moved me in the story are the moments that moved me in the movie.

The best parts of the movie was Lucy and TheWhite Witch. Lucy was adorable, honorable, and made you believe that a rag-tag bunch of kids escaping WWII could really help lead Narnia out of forever winter. The White Witch was evil, to her core. She was so perfectly bad, pretending to be good to poor Edmund so that she could catch all four humans, kill them, and gain true control over Narnia, that you knew it really would take someone like Aslan to set her straight.

"And now a very curious thing happened. None of the children knew who Aslan was any more than you do; but the moment the Beaver had spoken these words everyone felt quite different. Perhaps it has sometimes happened to you in a dream that someone says something which you don't understand but in the dream it feels as if it has some enormous meaning - either a terrifying one which turns the whole dream into a nightmare or else a lovely meaning too lovely to put into words, which makes the dream so beautiful that you remember it all your life and are always wishing you could get into that dream again. It was like that now. At the name of Aslan each one fo the children felt something jump in its inside. Edmund felt a sensation of mysterious horror. Peter felt suddenly brave and adventurous. Susan felt as if some delicious smell or some delightful strain of music had just floated by her. And Lucy got the feeling you have when you wake up in the morning and realize that it is the beginning of the holidays or the beginning of summer." The Chronicle of Narnia: The Lion, The Witch, and the Wardrobe; A Day with the Beavers.

I hadn't heard of The Chronicles of Narnia until I saw a BBC production of The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe. I loved the story so much, some indefinable quality I don't know, that I immediately went about finding, and reading, all the books. I have looked so forward to seeing Aslan, Aslan done right, that I would forgive this movie anything if only it did him right. It did him right.