Everything seemed to flow together so nicely. All the scenes fit perfectly (except the odd Narnia lullaby scene). The characters were all very likable. Deep Roy as the Queen's minion was fantastic. The visuals were stunning, and nothing seemed like green screen. The ending battle was amazing, as was all of the animal CGI. Top of the line.

Grade: B+

Awful and excruciating film to sit through. Direction was all over the place. The acting is very bad. And the overdone religious undertones are embarrasing. What's-her-face, who played the white witch is good.

Visuals are great, but please the fx made SERENITY look like a $200m movie. The war scene shouldn't of made it to print.

In other words, a 135 minute piece of shit about retarded children who fight British wolves.

This movie was exactly what I expected it to be, a bland children's fantasy film that has been stripped of anything interesting in order to appeal to as many people as possible. I'll be nice and do the good things first - Tilda Swinton, the girl who played Lucy, and some of the special effects by themselves. Now the negatives - the other kid actors, save the one who played Edmund perhaps, just weren't very good and pretty one-note. Tilda Swinton was pretty one-note as well now that I think about it but at least she tried. The CGI animals and the human characters did not mesh at all and it took me out of the film in most scenes. The greatest offenders were the irritating "comic-relief" beavers and those cheetahs that would randomly show up in most of the scenes at the state fair or Aslan's hometown or whatever that was with all the tents. The talking wolves also gave me a chuckle since they just looked ridiculous when they spoke. The scene that gave me the most laughs though was the Santa Claus scene. He appears out of nowhere and starts handing out weapons to the kids. Since when was Santa so irresponsible?

The storyline was fairly predictable as well. Having never read the book, going in all I knew about it was that there was a Jesus Lion, a magic wardrobe and an evil witch. Yet when the white witch was freezing people, I just knew that they were not dead or gone forever. And while I wasn't expecting graphic violence or anything, it was hard to care about a battle scene where the characters sorta just gently fall over after being poked and prodded. You can even see the white witch lying in the background looking peacefully asleep after Aslan has supposedly mauled her.

Anyway it can be a good time if you're under 13 but there's not much there otherwise.

Grade - C

Actually... that isn't Deep Roy. I myself thought it was at first, but I hadn't heard anything about him being in it, so I checked the credit list after I got home and found that Ginarrbrik was played by Kiran Shah.

Joy

Kiran Shah was the Frodo size double for the entire Lord of the Rings.

New Zealand ---> WETA ---> Kiran Shah

Tilda Swinton gave an Oscar-calibre performance, imo. The visual effects for Aslan were top-notch and makes up for the lack of groundbreaking visual effects for the rest of the movie. I've never read the book and thought this movie was around B range, not quite the level of Lemony Snicket's A Series of Unfortunate Events.

This movie is good, but not great. For that, it gets a B or B+.

WHAT?! It has to be him. I already totally convinced my family.

I know! I was totally convinced myself that it was him, but it wasn't... Too bad; he woulda maybe given the character a tad bit more dynamic.

Joy

couldve used a little less obvious a little more ambitious, but overall, not much to complain about.

though i dont think too incredibly high of it (b-range), for some reason, i wouldnt be surprised to see it stick around for some time...

It was good, but I wasn't too impressed. The effects kinda bad (the beavers... just awful) for an epic that cost $150 million to make and it felt really long. However, it was enjoyable for the most part. A good kid's flick.

B-

Tilda Swinton was perfect. I loved the movie and found it very moving. My grade: A.

THE CHRONICLES OF NARNIA - 6/10 (B-)

As far as me being entertained I'll admit I was and can't recall ever being truly bored, but the movie was just too kiddish for me. It plays it so safe. As soon as the little girl is given the potion to heal any wound or whatever from Santa Claus you just know one of her siblings, most likely one of her brothers, is going to get injured so bad that they could die, except you know they won't because she has this magic potion. It's so silly. No matter what happens you just know everything will turn out fine because it doesn't have the balls for them not to. And maybe that's how it is in the books, but I haven't read them so I don't know. Regardless, whether it be in a book or movie, if it's an adventure it would be nice to actually feel like something bad can happen, but here you know nothing will, and when it does it gets undone. They can't even have the oldest boy, Peter, kill a villainous wolf, and when he does kill one it's because the wolf jumped on his sword. How is this kid going to be a king when he doesn't have the balls to take care of business? The blatantly obvious religious aspect were also annoying and help bring it down. There are moments where it's so in-your-face wink-wink, nudge-nudge about it being religious that it's just cheesy and made me want to roll my eyes.

So basically, it's entertaining enough to watch, but annoying in its silliness. Still, I'll see the sequel(s) on DVD. It's definitely no Harry Potter, which many found to be the kiddie version of Lord of The Rings, but now I'd say Narnia is the kiddie version of Harry Potter, which seems really edgy in comparison. Narnia is a kiddie movie all the way, except for all of the adults that will love it because of the religious aspect of it. I swear they could have named it "The Passion of The Aslan."

Hmm...

Doesn't hold up too well on repeat viewings. The actors shine much less, the effects just aren't as good, and the story drags too much.

Its still a decent fantasy film, but not anywhere near as magical as others in the past. B

That is pretty much it.

Bleh. Boring, safe, predictable.

*1/2

I got to see the DVD on a 52" widescreen HDTV, with surround sound speakers, subwoofer and DTS sound.

WOW.

Came out of the movie, as always, with a cryache (headache caused from crying). I just can't watch this movie without crying. I love this movie so much.

Current Grade: A+

Joy

Nice to read your positive review, after a string of people who didn't enjoy it. I loved it to...

Noooo!! That's the second one Bradley.. First Date Movie and now this one... What are you doing to me??

I did not enjoy this movie, but on the plus side I really liked Poseidon. So you're like at 96% on the Neometer.

Wait, huh? Exactly what in this movie brought on the tears?

The love of the lord.

I really, really enjoyed this film. It's remarkably faithful to the spirit of the book and at key moments e.g., Aslan's sacrifice, pleasingly understated. The movie has fine performances from all concerned, a satisfying villain, gorgeous production values, plenty of humour and some really corking action sequences. Nice music as well and there's a thoroughly laudable message about the necessity of standing up to evil that's clearly understood without feeling preachy. All in all I enjoyed this a helluva lot more than either of the Rings movies or that self-indulgent three hours about a giant ape.

I have tendency to tear up when there's a good combo of visuals plus music. Music *really* has a tendency to move me easily.

I of course cry my eyes out when Aslan dies.

I really can't explain it all fully. This movie just really makes me emotional for some odd reason. And no, it's not the "love of the Lord". Yeah, I'm Christian, but I watched this movie with intentions of enjoying a fantasy film, not an allegory. That I actually picked up on all the allegory probably did help in the emotional department, but it was mainly just a response of visuals + score.

Joy

I am far, far, far from religious - as a matter of fact, I was very skeptical going into the movie because of that, yet I still ended up loving this movie. It's on my 2005 top ten list...

Fairly bland and sanitized attempt at an epic, which has some beautiful landscapes and interesting characters, but not much else. Some pretty terrible performances from the kid actors, and some truly crappy CGI for the various woodland creatures. Some scenes are kinda cool, but, for the most part, they're far too childish and boring. I mean, Santa Claus giving them weapons? You've gotta be kidding me. And the final battle scene is so poorly executed that's it's barely exciting or even interesting. Still, the production design is top-notch, and it never feels boring or overtly preachy (though I could clearly make out the thinly veiled Christian symbolism). Overall, simply mediocre.