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December 17, 2005

The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe - 7

Considering that this is another film based on a book, it is pretty good. And the CGI which they didn't have for the 1988 British TV version makes the story come alive all over again. It is important to recognize that C.S. Lewis wrote this story as an allegory (One of Tolkien's points of critique, The Lord of the Rings was not written as an allegory). This means that one can see the characters as archetypes that apply to the viewers own life. Hence, the appearance of Santa Clause, that most of the audience I saw it with seemed to miss. I think that if one does not understand the allegory the film will only be somewhat interesting, while I found the metaphor to be a powerful story. The White Witch, played by Tilda Swinton, acts well while the rest of the characters are somewhat underdeveloped. They extended the book by adding more at the beginning and an action scene in the middle but overall a good adaptation.

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