Think twice-the never ending story... - The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe Reviews

...This movie made it onto my top 5 list of worst movies during the course of my life (35 years). The movie was truly awful. No let me rephrase that; it sucked. It sucked harder than my vacuum cleaner, or my dog when she is looking for food, or a fish without water sucking for its last breath. When I was in the movie theatre I wished I was that fish without water; my sister and I were at each others throats trying to bring the life back into one another. Now for the few positives: this movie makes you think. You can't ever tell whether the actors are crying or laughing. You never know whether or not they are scared or confused, or just constipated. You can really relate with the characters because while watching the movie I could not decide if I was scared or confused. There were many mixed emotions; I was juggling between depression, agony, and towards the end euphoria. There was an applaud once the movie ended and we knew there was someone else sharing our (my sister and I) joy that the movie had finally ended, and we could move one with our lives. Another thing that was positive during the movie was you didn't feel rushed to go anywhere; you could take your time--2 and 1/2 hrs of my life, which I can never reclaim. The movie definitely closed in on details--minor details, even pointless ones. Apparently the director and producers of this film had a vision that was SLOWLY developing--a vision which they missed completely. Right out of the ball park. Sad, but true. The moral of this is, THINK TWICE (unless you would like to experience what it feels like to be deprived of action and joy).

For children - The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe Reviews

This movie isn't so bad if you keep in context that this movie should of been created for children. C.S Lewis's orginal intent was to symbolize Jesus's death/resurrection to his grandchildren by using characters his grandchildren could understand. The story was never meant for anyone older than the age of ten.(my opinion) However, Disney and the media protrayed this movie as a must see for everyone. Storyline - Gave the story a B, because the director supposedly took the story line out of the book. Story line is predictable, no novel plot. Still kind of confused as to why this book was famous in the first place... Story line is so unorginal, can't imagine reading this book unless I was a child. There are so many better fantasy books that actually stretch the imagination. I don't see what makes the four human children special in terms of their ability to save Narnia? They seemed pretty useless to me. And why the heck did santa clause show up? Acting - Gave the acting a F, Hated the actors in this movie - no acting abilities whatsoever. Who are these actors? I have never seen them in another film before. Peter - passable, but nothing special Edmund - Really annoying, reminded me of a crying coward Older sister - Didn't know her name, but wow what a complainer/blamer. She was supposedly smart? All she seemed to do was to critize the other characters during the decision making process, without coming up with an alternative solution, and then after - if something went wrong - started yelling at the other characters. I could not stand her at all. I feel sorry for whichever of C.S Lewis's grandchildren she symbolizes. She couldn't act whatsoever, and she was mad busted. Lucy - She was alright Direction - not much to say. Visuals - pretty good, LOTResque. Don't watch this movie unless you are a child, and it is a pretty lame children's movie at that. Can't believe I "bought" into the hype. Waste of time and money.

A great disappointment - The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe Reviews

This movie was not the classic, memorable film that it was trying to be. It was flawed in too many ways to live up to the novel by C.S. Lewis. The acting in it was not so great (were the children picked because they looked slightly similar?), and coupled with the most painfully obvious and silly lines, the movie was already ruined. The visuals varied from scene to scene. The battle scene was fantastic, despite being too short. There were, as well, a few beautiful vistas in the movie that had some great work done into them. And yet, there were scenes where the green screen behind our characters was so horribly obvious that it was all i could stare at during the whole of those scenes. Not the funniest movie either, with its dry comedy throughout random parts of it. Probably more funny, but not meant to be, was the fact several wild pigs were going to war against odd-looking half-sized high-pitched chittering dwarfs. It was overly dramatic in nearly every scene as well, which grew very tiresome. The storyline was just about the one thing that could be even considered excellent in the movie, and it just so happens to be the one thing the movie stole (and could steal) from another source. Sadly, you might have to be eating lunch out of a Spiderman lunchbox and watching Saturday morning cartoons at 6 to enjoy this movie.

Chronic yawnia - The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe Reviews

Having never read the books, I went in with an indifferent view hoping to see a great story. Instead I walked out feeling it was a bland juvenile concept. Hollywood had obviously rushed to pump out another Harry Potter/Lord of the Rings formula type movie for the Holidays. I was slightly entertained and this is far from a franchise movie classic. In the beginning, we are taken to an air raid in England. After a close call, the mother decides it is not safe for the children to stay and ships them off to live with the nutty but rarely seen professor in his mansion which happens to be run by a mean old lady. The movie quickly moves you along through this. Whether this is a plus or not as it helps speed the movie along little character development takes place - obviously to make room for the more interesting visuals later in the film. While playing hide-and-seek the youngest girl discovers a giant armoire in a barren room covered by only a sheet. She hides in it. As she moves further back through the closet, she finds her self outside in the snowy woods far from home where she befriends one of Narnia's citizens. When she returns through the cabinet, it appears time stood still on the other side. Her brothers and sister don't believe her at first but eventually discover it for themselves. The sons and daughters of Adam and Eve - a term in the movie that made me realize why Churches across America promoted a fantasy world of magic and mythical creatures - are to rid Narnia of the evil queen and rule the talking animals and mythical creatures. Santa Clause makes a visit and gives the good children weapons to fight with. ?!? In the story the youngest brother sells his brother and sisters out but his guilt overcomes him. Trust me it?s a very weak conflict in the story. Each new scene of the movie brings nothing more to the story and does nothing for the climatic battle where children battle it out in mediocre battle scenes with larger and more experienced soldier beasts. We know who wins and apparently from age progression in the next scene, the children had lived out the next 10 years or so of their lives in Narnia until one day they come upon the Armoire they entered from. They enter it with mystery not remembering much about it only to come through on the other side as children again. And there stands the nutty professor...The End. This movie has been compared to Harry Potter and the Lord of the Rings. That is like comparing generic cola to Coke or Pepsi. While is does quench a thirst, the knockoff formula doesn't compare in taste. The visuals were good as it should be now. As I said earlier it?s a bland juvenile concept and must be better as a children's book as they have more of an imagination to fill in the story blanks of this movie.

Predictable - The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe Reviews

This movie was very predictable and in some ways very foolish. The movie resembled such movies as lord of the rings, harry potter, and even the lion king at some points. I belive the movie, like the book, is meant for children at the ages of 12 and under. But for people older than that, the movie can feel boring, predictable, and dragged out. The reason I am even giving this movie in the B's is because it is possible for people to enjoy the movie, however most adults and teenagers may find it once again boring and predictable and with noticable resemblences to previous movies.

Going through the door of the wardrobe... - The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe Reviews

Going through the door of the wardrobe was by far one of the best movie going experiences of my life! Spectacular visual effects, a great story (which we already knew going in), terrific acting on behalf of the entire cast, and a magnificent score! The movie does what any good movie should, it takes you on an emoitional roller coaster with the characters...you laugh with them, cry with them, and celebrate in the triumphant end all the glory that the Chronicles bring to the screen! Be sure to enter the world of Narnia for yourself, but beware because you may never see this world the same ever again!

Narnia - no don't go! - The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe Reviews

I've never felt so compelled to write a review about a film, but had to discuss the failings of Narnia! As a huge film fan, a Disney nut. and someone who has worked in the entertainment industry...to say this film was a total dissapointment is truly an understatement! I was looking forward to it for weeks and prepurchased our tickets in advance to see it at Disney's Pleasure Island in Orlando. The film was horribly slow and I was actually nodding off for the first hour. The problems with this film were many and made me feel that it was thrown together to meet a deadline. Peter Jackson's WETA, basically the Lucasfilm of New Zealand worked on this film. It looked like it, as the many creatures looked similar in design to the Lord of The Rings films. That bothered me for obvious reasons. Also, Disney passed on Lord of The Rings and since the announcement of Narnia, I have felt it was a lame attempt to play catchup and say they produced a similar epic. It didn't work for me at all! I will make comparisons to LOTR because Narnia is a film blatantly done to respond to Eisner's failure to produce LOTR and capitalize on it's commercial success. Also, because LOTR did so much right and the box office success are proof positive. First, the script for Narnia was weak. Things were not explained! Why were these kids sent to some professor's house beyond the fact that it was World War II and their mother didn't want them being bombed? They are greeted by some crabby woman at a train stop and suddenly in this huge mansion and told not to bother the professor. Why?! It moved at a slugs pace. Characters were not developed! A critical aspect of movie success is to have your audience empathize with, and connect with the characters. This was totally void for me! I couldn't stand the bland kids who were in this film. On the other hand, I felt for characters such as Frodo, Sam, Gandolf and Aragon in LOTR! They were BELIEVABLE even in light of the story being a fantasy! The actors in Narnia weren't. I blame the director and the casting for that. About the only believable thing was they certainly had the stereotypical poor English teeth. These kids were not passionate, they didn't exude confidence, and then the characters were suddenly knife-throwing, archery wielding, sword fighting combatants! One scene shows the older girl practicing by shooting ONE arrow and the little girl whipping out her knife and throwing it like she'd done it a million times! Bah! It was totally out of context! Nothing about this film was explained! It was just "The Prophecy" told to us by a beaver! What was the prophecy beyond 4 kids showing up? Why did this professor have the Wardrobe? Why did it lead to Narnia? The story wasn't developed! Why was Narnia in a War? What were the origins of the Snow Queen? What were the origins of Aslan? None of this was explained or setup for strong interesting story. The blame for this film's lackings lie squarely on Adamson's shoulders because he wrote and directed it. He may have had commercial success with Shrek, but I personally hated Shrek because I felt it was stupid! Another strong criticism of mine was the over exposure of Liam Neeson. This guy is suddenly in every big film and quite frankly, I'm sick of him! He was in Phantom Menace, He was in Kingdom of Heaven, He was in Batman Begins, and now he's the voice of the Lion! Liam stay home for a while! You are over exposed and becoming annoying! Less is more Liam! The only positive comment I can make about Narnia is that the snow covered set in the mountains was beautiful. To sum up, the writing and direction were extremely poorly done, the casting was poor, and the actors were passionless and weak. The story was terribly inadequate and the film literally put me to sleep. I give this film a grade of an D and have no interest in seeing more of this cast, director or story. From a business and stock standpoint, I believe the movie will open with around $40 million in ticket sales due to the hype, but once people hear about and see the things I point out, I believe it will stall badly. I feel it is another Disney flop and will lose money. On the bright side, I saw the first trailer for the new Pirates film and it was certainly enticing. It looks to be ready to challenge the box office success of the first! As for Narnia, Don't Go! Ken