Disappointingly lacking a plot, et al. - The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe Reviews

Yes, I read the books when I was in 6th grade. The movie I saw last night was SO slow. They could have trimmed 30 minutes out of it without even noticing. It took 30 minutes just to GET to Narnia. Although the character development is acceptable up to that point, WOW is it slow. The plot is so incredibly shallow. For example, why is there a war? Why was Narnia frozen for 100 years, why can peter become a swordmaster in a day? Why are white tigers "bad" and rhinos "good"? Why does the Wardrobe sometimes work and sometimes not? What does the professor know about the Wardrobe and what is his role? There is no method to Lewis' madness whatsover. For example, when saint nick gives peter the sword, perhaps have him say, "put your faith in this sword and it shall protect you, it is the sword of kings and its power is based on faith". Was it really that hard to make that up as a viable explanation for his sword skills AND I also created another thinly veiled Christian reference in doing so (that's two birds with one stone!)?? The cryptic references to "the prophecy" does nothing to explain when and where it was created and why. Please! Lord of the Rings does this in the first 15 minutes of the movie by explaining the rings, and then showing the first battle against Sauron. This movie plot, has been reduced to something even weaker than the "gobbly-gookeley" Harry Potter series, which is designed for kids - and for that, its great. Furthermore, the thinly veiled Christian parody is rather sad. Visually, a well constructed world and a well animated movie that contains weak moments of obvious blue screens. Look, think back on it: Kids go to country, kids find wardrobe/narnia, kids enter a war (reason unknown), kids return home - that's about all we know. Who was the witch, where did she come from, how long has she lived, how did she rise to power, what is the ancient magic they speak of, what is the stone table for, JEEZ!! I could go on for pages... Take your kids, perhaps they'll enjoy it, but if you have anything more than a gradeschool education, you'll be bored to tears.