The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion The Witch and the Wardrobe certainly doesn't lend itself well to a tidy and short review. With it's Lord of the Rings inspired CGI to it's author's religious symbolism, as well as a big robust metaphor about children forced to take a giant leap into adulthood - it's really hard to know where to start.

Taking it a bite at a time, we begin in World War II ravaged London as the German bombers crowd the night-time sky. We meet our family of heroes and heroines when, along with their mother they scramble into a makeshift shelter as bombs explode all around. As a bit of foreshadowing the youngest brother Edmund (Skandar "a good name for a character in Narnia" Keynes) cuts and runs from the shelter to retrieve a beloved photograph of their father from the house - and in the process, nearly gets his brother killed trying to retrieve him. In the next scene the children are packed off aboard a train along with hundreds of others - in order to take them out of harms way.

The Pevensie children - Peter the more sober and responsible older brother (William Moseley) bears a resemblance to a young Brad Pitt; Susan a few years his junior (Anna Poppelwell); Edmund the rebel; and the precocious young Lucy (Georgie Henley) who steals the film outright - are sent to stay with a well-to-do relative. Miles from the city, in a palatial country estate, the children are placed in the charge of a retired professor played by the always terrific Jim Broadbent. Sadly, he's given precious little screen time, but, as expected, makes the most of it, and shines as a mysterious recluse who's painted by his housekeeper as a holy tyrant, but who turns out to be a cuddly teddy bear and perhaps the most child-like of the lot.

After using her endearingly enormous eyes to lobby her siblings into a game of hide and seek, young Lucy finds herself in an empty room occupied only by the titular wardrobe - a monstrous piece of furniture big enough for the Minnesota Vikings to hide in. Once inside Lucy begins to explore its expanse and before her brother can count to twenty she has tumbled out the back of it into the snow-covered forest of Narnia. After wandering a short ways she comes upon a gas street-lamp, and as she inspects the curious landmark she hears the approach of footsteps. In the film's first glimpse into the magic to come, the footsteps belong to a hapless faun returning home with groceries and parcels. Lucy and the mythical creature strike up a friendship and after some tea and pan-flute symphony, we get a quick lesson - Narnia 101.

It seems that Narnia is in the grip of a hundred year winter, courtesy of the White Witch (an enthralling Tilda Swinton) who is the self-proclaimed Queen of the Land and has cast a spell on it's inhabitants who live in a regime of fear. It has also been prophesied that four human beings (the sons of Adam and the daughters of Eve) will herald the return of the King. A great Lion who will loose the bonds that enslave the kingdom and return Narnia to it's true paradisical nature. Soon all of the children will come to Narnia, but not before the White Witch has beguiled young Edmund into delivering his family to her. In order to stop the prophesy and secure her reign she conspires to murder the children before they can set these events in motion.

However, before the evil Queen can carry out her designs a married couple who happen to be talking beavers, warn them and protect them until they can be delivered into the hands of Azlan the Lion King who has already returned in preparation for the overthrow of the Witches tyrannical reign. Edmund, however, heeds the call of the seductress Witch and wanders off into her hands - spellbound by the promise of a throne and all the fancy pastries he can eat. Edmund gets a taste of the Witches true nature as he is cast into a dungeon along with the traitorous faun who failed to inform her of the arrival of the humans. The other three children must contend with a long and treacherous journey where they are pursued by the Witch's wolfen henchmen and the Witch herself. They even meet Santa Claus (or Father Christmas) according to which side of the pond your on. Santa bestows the gift of weaponry upon the kids - and sends them on their way with happy Holiday wishes. As absurd as this all sounds, it actually works quite effectively and even though the film suffers from pacing problems, you're not likely to find yourself bored and in the magical land of Narnia you never know whom or what might show up and start talking to you.

Once they have journeyed to where the opposition forces are gathering around Azlan - they are made fully aware that they are expected to play pivotal foreordained roles in the battle for control of Narnia, but even after meeting the impressive Azlan they express an interest only in recapturing their brother and returning to the world on the other side of the wardrobe. The Witch has taken her captive human with her in her pursuit of the others, only traveling with a small band of her mutant minions. Hence a rescue party of Azlanians succeeds easily in snatching Edmund from her grasp. After a happy reunion, however the witch marches right into the enemies camp and requests an audience with Azlan. Citing the law of the "Deep Magic" that governs Narnia, she demands that Edmund be returned to her custody and sacrificed in accordance with these long-standing laws. Azlan strikes a deal with her and she leaves camp riding a throne borne by four Cyclops. Whereupon the children make the decision to stay with Azlan and fulfill their destiny.

There won't be soul who sees this film who will not notice that the creatures who populate the Witch's minions are dead ringers for the evil creatures in the Lord of the Ring - they're the most motley collection of hob-goblins, freaks and mutants this side of Mordor. Which naturally begs the question as to which books appeared first. The answer to this isn't so cut and dried as the Hobbit was written before the Chronicles of Narnia, but the other two books in the LOTR trilogy were written after. The fact is that C.S. Lewis and J.R.R. Tolkien were good friends and both belonged to an informal group of writers and scholars known as "the Inklings." Lewis wrote his books of fanciful fantasy primarily for children, and the film is a notch more youngster-friendly than the LOTR films. Still I would recommend that parents exercise caution with younger children, there are a handful of "jump out of your seat" scares in Narnia, as well as a host of very spooky characters - not to mention a good bit of intense battle scene violence.

All of which makes the film much more adult-friendly - I would dare say that anyone who enjoyed the LOTR films will also enjoy this film, but it won't receive the critical straight A's that Peter Jackson's films received. Why? Mostly it has to do with the characters in the Lord of the Rings being better developed and I dare say more interesting, which is an element that seems a bit absent from the Chronicles of Narnia. Still a point that I made to Adam as we watched the film, is that one of the great blessings that will come from Peter Jackson's amazing success with LOTR, is that it will make it possible for other such books to be given the full Hollywood treatment, complete with staggering budgets and the special effects and CGI wizardry that will allow the characters from books such as the Chronicles of Narnia to leap off the page in a way that does justice to the imagination of their authors. As a story teller most scholars of such literature give the nod to Lewis over Tolkien, but the point here is that movie goers will now have the pleasure of seeing books such as these painted on the big screen as vividly as they could imagine them.

C.S. Lewis wrote his books as more of a hobby than a serious occupation and is better known in academic circles as celebrated historian and educator and even more so as one of the more popular theologians of the 20th century. He wrote three texts on religion and these themes spilled over into his children's books. In large part, The Chronicles of Narnia is underscored with Christian allegory and I should say that my discussion of this will probably end up being a bit of a spoiler, so if you wish to see the film with all of it's surprises in tact, you may want to leave off here - that is if you haven't already.

First of all the religious subtext does nothing to make the film any less breathtaking and obviously children and a good percentage of their parents probably won't even notice all this, but it bears discussion as it was Lewis' intention that the story serve as metaphor for more profound issues. As I mentioned the children's arrival in Narnia had long since been a matter of prophesy, heralding the arrival of a King who would restore the true nature of the land and "save" it's inhabitants from the bonds of enslavement. It's not hard to see the parallels here between Azlan and the prophesied arrival of Christ. Similarly Azlan willingly offers himself as a sacrifice to save the life of Edmund, whose character obviously represents not only Judas Iscariot, but the weakness and fallibility of mankind. Much like Christ, Azlan delivers himself into the hands of his enemy of his own volition, in order that he might be sacrificed to "save" Edmund as well as his followers. He is bound, tormented, shorn and then killed on a sacrificial altar, but is resurrected in order to protect his people from death. He also goes to the Witches castle and brings back to life hundreds of his people whom the Witch had killed by turning them to stone and ice.

As far as the narrative of the film, this mass resurrection serves to create an army that will attack the Witches forces from behind, just as it looks like they are on the cusp of victory. Earlier I mentioned the scene where the Witch rides into Azlan's camp, making her demands based upon law. An easy parallel here can be drawn to the Roman army who had no fear of riding among the Jews in the days that preceded the crucifixion and it is pretty obvious that Azlan's followers represent the Jews. Other more temporal metaphors abound in this film. I would dare say that Lewis was also using the Witch to represent Hitler and Azlan to mirror Churchill, or perhaps FDR or both. Also an overriding theme in the story is the Pevensie children who are forced to grow up in a hurry in order to meet the challenges of their destiny. All of which is a handy metaphor for children the world over who lose the innocence of childhood as a result of the grim realities of war.

Though the allegories are at times drawn with a bit of a heavy hand, the movie doesn't really suffer that much as a result and it adds an intellectual element for the grown ups to discuss afterward. All in all the Chronicles of Narnia is an impressive film - the battle sequence is crisp and imaginative (though a bit drawn out and implausible at times) the CGI characters (particularly Azlan) are seamlessly wondrous creations and though the themes of good Vs evil as well as the fiendish mutants that populate the Witches ranks may strike some as blatant theft from LOTR, I don't think too many movie goers are going to mind - however obvious it may be. Director Andrew Adamson (Shrek) makes his live action debut with this most challenging project, and considering he also co-wrote the screenplay - a tip of the hat is due. The film offers plenty of breathtaking moments, but all the CGI in the world can't hold a candle to the look of absolute wonder that spreads over the face of Lucy as she gets her first glimpse of this most marvelous world. The look in her eyes at that first encounter is truly what the film is all about and in that respect it is a real treat.