I remember back in 2005 when I first saw "The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe," and the hundreds of times I re-watched it on Disney Channel. I remember I used to love it, especially the third act with its big battle sequence, and the Witch being a real evil woman and Aslan being super awesome. If you've ever read any of my other articles on nostalgic content, you probably now where this is going.
After re-watching it in its entirety last night after at least seven years or so, I can say that a lot of the content from this movie does not hold up. Don't get me wrong; it's not a bad movie by any means, and it does have very good things going for it, but it's not the magical marvel I remember watching countless times when I was a kid. Neither the special effects, pacing or acting hold up very well, sadly, but the makeup and overall plot do, fantastically.
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This movie is a great example of why practical effects will always look better and hold up much longer than digital effects. Even though this was nominated for an Oscar back in the day, now the CGI animals look fake and unnatural, not really blending very well with the backgrounds and sometimes not even with the actors. They don't look monkey-from-"Lost in Space" bad – seriously, Google it – but they don't look great either.
The acting is all over the place at times. Tilda Swinton is an excellent actress, but the inconsistent tone of her performance took me out of the movie for half of her scene; sometimes too over-the-top, sometimes bored-looking. The kids aren't very good either, although the girl who plays Lucy seems to be the best actress of the bunch; though there was a scene where she was supposedly crying but the girl was actually laughing.
All the characters have personality, and that's actually pretty good. Edmund is one of the stupidest and most unlikeable characters I've ever seen, but at least he has a good arch to redeem himself from his imbecility. Peter, however, does not seem to have much of an arch, apart from eventually understanding that he needs to be kinder with his brother; Peter learns how to be a military leader and a knight in like two minutes, without any montages. Susan's a moral smart-ass and Lucy is sweet and kind, and that's pretty much it for them.
Fortunately, the makeup looks excellent. The creatures and prosthetics that create of the inhabitants of Narnia are great, like the combination of prosthetics and CGI to create Mr. Tumnus, or the different centaurs and minotaurs that populate the battlefield. The costumes also look nice, and so does the natural scenery.
I always remembered that before the battle and after the siblings meet Aslan, the movie was kind of boring. Now that I re-watched it, I remember why: it kind of is boring. The siblings are at the camp, and then the girls see Aslan die, and then comes the battle. The fast pacing the movie kept from the beginning disappears, and wastes precious minutes trying to develop characters, but missing the target in my opinion.
I'm about to start reading the books to see if I find them to be as underwhelming, although I really don't think I will. As I said before, this isn't a bad movie at all. It's perfectly enjoyable family-friendly entertainment that's a million times better that whatever the kids watch this days; probably having to do with preschool girls having iPhones and crying over boys.
Peace out.
