Review: Ambitious 'Narnia' Big On Effects, Short On Emotion

'The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe' (PG)(out of four)

There's a flip side to every coin, and the underwhelming "The Chronicles of Narnia" is the flip side to the ambitious scope and style of "The Lord of the Rings."

It's the latest film to follow in the footsteps of "Troy," "Kingdom of Heaven" and others that failed to mimic Peter Jackson's re-imagining of how epic warfare should look. And it is proof that, if used poorly, the same bravura that made "Rings" a trilogy for the ages can also mire an epic hopeful in an impersonal, run-of-the-mill formula.

Based on the famous C.S. Lewis series, "Narnia" has been adapted as part wondrous adventure, part fantastic fable and part adventure bloodbath. But what's been lost is more profound than what's been gained: humanity.

The best stories are the ones that give us a set of eyes and ears, not to mention a mind, to guide us through the most surreal of situations. Still, so many movies -- this one included -- gradually wrench us away from those who guide us in. Late into "Narnia" there is yet another one of those grandiose, panoramic shots of two armies colliding on the battlefield, one front line smashing into the other.

And we watch, but we don't really see. The bigger the scope gets, the less we really care.

Ironically, the tipping point of the film is an awkwardly brief and random introduction of Father Christmas, or Santa Claus, that stops the film dead in its tracks. The personal journey that has come before pauses for a few gifts, and as the reindeer pull away, the characters disappear into a sea of warriors.

But long before the swords and the fire, there is just snow and a lamppost, a most delightful entryway for Lucy (Georgie Henley) into a world of wonder. Crawling through a magical wardrobe, she emerges into this winter wonderland, only to learn that it's been winter for eons and a witch (Tilda Swinton) has taken charge of the land.

She knows this because she meets Mr. Tumnus (James McAvoy), half-man, half--goat, and rather than turn her over to the witch as he has been ordered to, he helps her back home.

When Lucy comes back, first with her brother Edmund (Skandar Keynes) and then with her more skeptical older siblings, Peter (William Moseley) and Susan (Anna Popplewell), she discovers that she has threatened Mr. Tumnus' life. They seek out to help their new friend but instead discover that this one missing goat man is only a scratch in the surface. This magical world is in the midst of an epic war, really a battle between God and the devil -- or, as director Andrew Adamson ("Shrek") helps us to see, between lion (voiced by Liam Neeson) and witch.

The two halves of the film, on either side of Santa's sleigh, could not be more different. The first is a personal search to redeem a misdeed, as the kids seek to save a man who helped them and is now paying the price. Edmund, however, is tempted by the forces of evil and draws his siblings further into an epic battle.

But in the second half, the wonder is gone. The snow is replaced by ordinary fields of battle. The issues of temptation and loyalty are replaced by a game of dress-up, as the kids learn to swing swords and scream at their compatriots.

Jackson always used special effects in the service of advancing his heroes along their quest, both physically and emotionally. Here, Adamson allows the same technique to overwhelm and obscure the heroes at the heart of his story.

The film opens to a scene of destruction -- a World War II bombing raid that results in the kids being sent away to the safe countryside. In some ways, this fantasy world gives them their opportunity to fight evil on their own terms. Yet there's something equally dark and grim about how the movie ends -- that they now have learned to wage the same war from which they were running. It's a perplexing moral message to a story that has lost its way and, sadly, its magic.