Review: The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe
Posted on February 16, 2008
Filed Under Reviews | 1 Comment
Year: 2005
Director: Andrew Adamson
Starring: William Moseley, Georgie Henley, Anna Popplewell, Skandar Keynes, Tilda Swinton, Liam Neeson
Kaboom Review Action Movie Rating: 46
Plot
Four children find themselves in a magical land that is imprisoned in winter by an evil witch.
Quick Review
Narnia is a disappointing film. Despite some impressive visual effects, Disney’s influence neuters any sense of realism to the ferocity of the film, the child actors lack force, and the film flows like mud.
Full Review
At a glance, The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe could be a remarkable action film. We’ve got a zoo’s worth of digital creatures filling the story, including a lion for a king and wolves for secret police. The sets are compelling. The story is sufficiently epic. Yet about halfway through this first film of Narnia, I was thoroughly bored. There are too many deadening flaws in this film.
First and foremost, Narnia drags interminably in places. In the film’s defense, I may have been more sensitive to this than others, because I had read the book before seeing the film. In the more important details, the film’s plot stays faithful to the book, so if you’ve read the book, you know what’s going to happen. And part of the problem is that the producers turned a short novel into a two-hour and fifteen-minute movie. There’s just not enough meat in the story to sustain this length of film.
But even with this in mind, Narnia lacks any sense of velocity and pace. Much of the sluggishness stems from scenes that simply go on a few seconds too long. I found myself waiting for the next scene, waiting for something to happen. This film would have been much better with crisp editing that lopped off 20% of the footage. By the halfway point, I was waiting for the damn thing to end.
And then we get to the acting. I’ve commented in other reviews how risky it is to have children attempt to carry an action film. While Narnia never totally flies into the crapper because of its young cast, the major actors lack punch and conviction. Their rawness reminds you again and again that you are watching a film, and it holds you back from any sense of immersion in the story.
The film’s Disney-esque action and violence adds more bricks to the wall that prevents viewer immersion. Nowhere is this more apparent than in the conclusion of the film: Narnia culminates in a long battle in which not a drop of blood is spilled. Now, I’m a big fan of escapist action, but Narnia takes this to a new level. I felt like I was watching and entire cast “play” war. On top of this, the action for the most part is generically choreographed. With the exception of a handful of fast, powerful sequences, the action is static and lifeless. Toss in the children actors and you’re left with a final confrontation that looks fake and has the emotional impact of a dress rehearsal. The shame of this is that the digitally created Minotaurs, Cyclops, and aerial creatures look fantastic. Aslan, the lion king, is a work of art. Used properly, these creatures could easily have created a memorable climax to the movie.
In other areas, the film is decidedly mediocre. The script works well enough, but contains nothing particularly memorable of 
moving. The White Witch makes for a potentially strong villain, but Tilda Swinton never quite convinced me of her utterly evil nature: perhaps we can blame this on a softening Disney influence as well?
As for babes and hunks ratings, Tilda Swinton has good enough looks and gets enough of an evil vibe going to get the film some points on the babe scale. From the hunk perspective, there are a few centaurs that turn heads, but it’s not a good sign when the hottest males in your film are half horse.
In conclusion, Narnia is a disappointing film. Despite some impressive visual effects, Disney’s influence neuters any sense of realism to the ferocity of the film, the child actors lack force, and the film flows like mud.
Fun Fact
No real lions were used in the film.
Score
Pace: 38
Plot: 41
Action: 54
Consistent Premise: 78
Script/Quotes: 44
Characters: 48
Acting: 42
Villain: 46
Body Count: 39
Time to First Dead Body: 1 hours, 26 minutes
Babes: 45
Hunks: 26
Explosions: 4
Special Effects: 60
Stunts: 20
Ending: 54
Overall: 46
Up Next: The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch, & the Wardrobe
Posted on February 7, 2008
Filed Under Communication | Leave a Comment
I was finally able to slow life down enough to watch The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe, which had been sitting in its red Netflix envelope for over two weeks. I’ll be posting this review on Tuesday.
Carnival Appearances
Posted on January 26, 2008
Filed Under Other Sites, Information | Leave a Comment
As always, I’d like to thank the sites that have included us in their recent carnivals.
First up, thanks to The Pensieve for including our recent review of the second Harry Potter movie, Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets. They have a wonderful site for keeping up with all things in the Potter world.
I’d also like to take a moment to doubly thank Scott Nehring over at Good News Film Reviews. He included our review of Flyboys in this week’s carnival, and included our The Spy Who Loved Me review in last week’s carnival. With the time that he puts into crafting his carnivals, it’s easy to see why Scott’s Carnival of Cinema is the current flagship of film carnivals on the internet.
Review: Flyboys
Posted on January 22, 2008
Filed Under Reviews | 6 Comments
Year: 2006
Director: Tony Bill
Starring: James Franco, Jean Reno, Martin Henderson, Jennifer Decker
Kaboom Review Action Movie Rating: 82 (Solid action keeps it airborne)
Plot
American men volunteer to become pilots and fight for France’s Lafayette Escadrille in World War I.
Quick Review
Flyboys is a remarkable showcase of riveting action in the air. Watch this film for its thrilling dogfights, which more than make up for the generic, clunky, and unfinished drama on the ground.
Full Review
Flyboys takes us back to World War I, an era that Hollywood rarely touches. Indeed, Hollywood was so reluctant to fund this movie that the producers had to scrounge together 
$60 million of their own money just to make the film. But the risk paid off. Flyboys sparkles in recapturing the honor and brutality of World War I aerial combat. As an action film and as a war film, Flyboys is a gem.
In many ways Flyboys is a throwback to the old-fashioned, traditional war films of fifty years ago. John Wayne could have played the main role of Rawlings, an American rancher who volunteers to fight for France’s Lafayette Escadrille. The generic plot is straightforward and often predictable as it drives home the horror of the war in the air, and the courage and the cowardice of the men that flew as the world’s first fighter pilots. There are plenty of grimaces and steely glares, and the obligatory romantic interest.
Yet what the film lacks in originality of plot, it makes up for with its dynamic action sequences. The twisting, close-range dogfights of World War I are captured with a deft combination of digital and real aircraft. Using motion-captured acrobatic plane footage as 
the basis for the movements of its digital aircraft, Flyboys is a collage of impeccably crafted battles in the air. There is nothing in film history that comes close to capturing the gripping violence in the skies of World War I like this film. The producers string these scenes together with a nice balance of chaos and flow. Although at times I got confused as to who was who in the air, for the most part the action is remarkably easy to follow.
The producers also did a wonderful job in mixing up the action. This film could have easily become a redundant series of identical dogfights, but instead we’ve got a wide range of scenes. There are duels, mass dogfights, zeppelin attacks, bomber runs, and even a thrilling rescue scene on the ground in no-man’s land.
While the action is clearly the strongpoint of Flyboys, it gets help from decent acting and a passable script. James Franco is adequate yet undistinguished in his lead role, but gets help from Jennifer Decker, as Rawlings’ French love interest. Decker positively shines in her role,
and lends a remarkable charm to her character. Tyler Labine and Abdul Salis also deserve praise in their roles as American pilots. All in all, they engage us just enough for us to care about what happens in the air. Elsewhere, the cast is average.
While Flyboys shines in the air, however, it struggles on the ground, and this keeps the film from rising to any level of greatness. The movie toggles between action in the air and drama on the ground, but the drama on the ground feels incomplete and unfinished. As a matter of fact, in some ways the film itself feels somewhat unfinished. A significant element of the story on the ground is the convincing and charming romance between Rawlings and Lucienne, a local French girl played by Decker. Yet, while the action in the air reaches a satisfying conclusion, this romance inexcusably gets concluded with one sentence flashed on screen as the movie ends. Huh? Many of the sub-plots as well ultimately go nowhere and end in dead-ends. You could argue that this is a nature of war—lives cut short and all—but even for a war film the drama on the 
ground in Flyboys is more of an interlude to the action in the air than it is a strength of the film. While the weak sub-plots and two-dimensional characters don’t impact the action in the air, they do lessen the amount we end up caring for the pilots when they fly and die.
As for our babes and hunks rating, Jennifer Decker is in essence the only woman of note in the film, and she does give the babe rating a nice nudge up with her mellifluous French. The hunk rating is sky high, with Martin Henderson leading the way in a handsome cast.
In the end, Flyboys is a remarkable showcase of riveting action in the air. This film is worth watching for its thrilling dogfights alone, which more than make up for the generic and clunky drama on the ground.
Fun Facts
Remarkably, the film includes 850 digital scenes yet cost only $60 million to make.
Score
Pace: 80
Plot: 55
Action: 95
Consistent Premise: 90
Script/Quotes: 58
Characters: 66
Acting: 68
Villain: 73
Body Count: 65
Time to First Dead Body: 38 minutes, 39 seconds
Babes: 55
Hunks: 93
Explosions: 82
Special Effects: 95
Stunts: 61
Ending: 37
Overall: 82
Technorati Tags: Flyboys, World War I movie, action movie, movie review, Tony Bill, James Franco, Jean Reno, Martin Henderson, Jennifer Decker
Up Next: Flyboys
Posted on January 19, 2008
Filed Under Communication | Leave a Comment
Our next review will be of the 2006 movie Flyboys, which pretty much has this century’s World War I aerial combat genre to itself. The movie features drama on the ground and action in the air, but does it stay airborne?
Tune in next Tuesday to see!
-
Advertisers
-
Subscribe to...
Entertainment Links
-
Advertisement
Our Posts
-
Blogging Resources
