by MATTHEW HAYS

Suffice to say, anticipation has been running high about director Andrew Adamson’s hugely ambitious big-screen rendering of the C.S. Lewis children’s book everyone keeps saying is beloved, The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe (hereafter referred to simply as TCONTLTWATW).

I am one of those people who was fascinated by the book as a child. It had a cool story about some kids slipping away into a wardrobe, into a magical snowy kingdom, run by an evil witch who, they would learn, they were destined to overthrow. As a child, it was charming and enticing.

The impossibility of bringing this tale to the big screen would daunt any sane filmmaker. That is, up until the past few years, when digital effects allow anyone with some cash to make human actors interact seamlessly with computer-generated critters. The new effects, of course, have been a mixed bag. Some digital effects are used magnificently, when filmmakers don’t forget their movies had better have some soul as well as all that visual glitter and glam. But the digital revolution sure can suck, and frankly, I’m getting pretty damn bored with the studio geeks who seem to think that placing effects-heavy visuals onscreen is in itself reason to cheer. I swear, the next time I throw up, it’s going to be digital.

Adamson has a number of things in his favour: This is, indeed, a beautifully shot and designed feature. He has cast very well indeed: The four plucky children at the centre of the action are pretty much perfect, and are thankfully free of most of the sickening depiction of children that Spielberg established in films like E.T. and Hook. Adamson, who directed both Shrek and Shrek 2, keeps things moving along at a fairly good clip; before we know it, we’re in Narnia, and are well aware that there’s a nasty battle going on between the ice witch who runs the place (played, as always, with finesse by Tilda Swinton) and the oppressed types who populate the land.

There has been some ideological question raised about Lewis’s book, with many arguing that it has a right-wing, Christian subtext that runs throughout. Funny, as I was looking at it, it seemed downright queer. Think about it: A bunch of impressionable kids disappear into a closet and go to a fabulous kingdom run by a wicked queen who wears glamorous outfits, hang out with a bunch of deviant, outcast creatures (one of them voiced by Rupert Everett), staging a revolution in the meantime. Christ, it sounds bent to me.

Questions about subtext aside, TCONTLTWATW isn’t half bad. It is a serviceable studio filmic adaptation of a classic book. However, I wonder about its demographic appeal—there is enough serious violence here that I wouldn’t venture to take my five-year-old nephew. And it’s shmarmy enough that I wouldn’t venture to take my cynical 14-year-old nephew either. As for parents—well, as the film wore on, for every time I saw a new digital effect on screen, I also checked my watch. TCONTLTWATW is undoubtedly competently handled, but hardly revolutionary.

The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe opens Friday, Dec. 9

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