The Lion, The Witch And The Wardrobe probably was greenlit the moment The Fellowship of the Rings proved to be a great success. The series of Narnia is after all the friendly companion to that series as they both come from the minds of scholars J.R.R. Tolkien, and C.S. Lewis with a love for the classical fantastical stories of old. This story is a different beast than LOTR, in that it technically skews closer to the Hobbit, in that it is more overtly a children's fantasy tale, and where Tolkien rejected allegory Lewis embraced it. This film follows up the greatest fantasy trilogy ever put on film so it probably wasn't going to quite match it, perhaps the source material did not even allow for it. This film though suggests this series as attempting a recreation of that success than fully embracing its own. The film lacks a visionary director at the helm. What they do is instead rely on the strength of the source material, and of its various artist on and off screen. There isn't that same cohesion in the work though individual aspects are strong, but not everything has the right type of consistency. Thankfully most of it does work, and the source is strong enough to make for a good film even if this is not an extraordinary adaptation. It's a more than decent one but only just that.
3.5/5
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