Hazy Shade of Winter

A number of people were shocked to learn I had never read The Chronicles of Narnia when I was a child. I can't recall what I was reading, but it was probably Stephen King. At this point, knowing all about the alleged allegory (try saying that five times fast) I can't bother with the books. Luckily I have Hollywood for such things. They'll make a movie out of anything as long as they think they can sell the tickets for it. So I am now able to experience The Chronicles of Narnia: the Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe on the big screen and no doubt countless sequels are on the way in the future.

Unfortunately, the movie just isn't very interesting. I've heard it debated whether C.S. Lewis intended for his books to be allegorical for Christianity or meant something else, but it seems clear that the director of the film fell firmly in the allegory category. Its blatant and unavoidable, which makes it quite dull. The White Witch (Tilda Swinton) was not particularly menacing and I found Swinton's performance in Constantine (2005) more intriguing than her performance in this movie. There are epic battles, but after seeing such things in the Lord of the Rings movies they fall short.

The creatures of the film were manufactured well. Liam Neeson's Aslan was real enough, but neither performance nor imagery rose above and beyond. Nor did I feel the threat all that menacing. I have read that Lewis and J.R.R. Tolkien, who were friends, had a bit of a rivalry about their respective works. Tolkien seems to have had the better books and thanks to Peter Jackson, he also has the better movies.