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

Over all i was really let down - The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe Reviews

we have been wait5ing for this movie forever. eveything about it looked promising and it is a can't miss story. First this is a great movie for children. very gentle, gerat action scenes that were exciting but bloodless, fun fantasy characters for such an amazing story this movie was really sorta blah. The opening scene was very frightening and violent despite not even being mentioned in the book. on the other hand it would have given some insight into why the children would have assumed Lusy was not quite right mentally. not that they ever went there in the movie. They added a buch iof stuff that didn't add to the movie and glossed over some very important things. The father Christmas scene. The turning point of the story was realy non-significant in the movie. As spring arrived they failed to focus on the queens growing frustration as she realizes she is being beaten. that was dissapointing. There was no score. A movie such as this, a place such a narnia demands sweeping grand powerful muic. there was a very tiny bit of music that was barely noticable and certainly didn't add to the movie at all. I think that was the most obviously lacking thing of all. What music their was was bland and completely unexciting. We saw a really bad production of this with cartoon animals and a really unfortunate looking Lucy. We absolutely hated it. It was like they tried to stick as close to that as possible. why? There is so much story to be told and it was like they didn't really try. Aslan was great, the witch was perfect (although there was a creepy pedophile feel when she interacted with edmond. it is hard to describe but it kinda grosed me out). I do hope there are future narnia movies (althoguh I will hesitate before droping $50 on it in the theaters - definitely worth waiting for the video or cheap theater) and I hope they are much better than this one. I think they can still make something family friendly and grand at the same time. Ya know that is what it was mising. the over all grandness of narnia.

Too much hollywood formula - The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe Reviews

A new formula has entered Hollywood. Find a long time favorite fantasy classic, throw a bunch of CGI graphics at it, ensure there is a mass combat and ignore other aspect of film making. Except for Lucy, the other three children (Peter, Susan and Edmond) are honestly but uninspiring portrayed. Swinton gives a great visual as the White Witch but her lines lack flair or charisma. In short, no one will walk around after this movie quoting its characters. But of course, Hollywood does not assume that anything such as good lines or character development are what the paying audience attends the theatre for ? the new formula says we show up for CGI mass combat grand finales. And that the movie delivers. The graphics are smooth and highly creative and the ebb and flow of the battle easy to follow (unlike the battles of Alexander) and true to the book. The only aspect of the battle that rang false was the horrible matching of lines and visuals. In every scene Peter?s army is shown clobbering the evil minions of the White Witch, but every line spoken by indicates that the opposite is occurring. Only the White Witch and her minotaur general is capable of doing anything other than throwing themselves upon the blades of a noble Narnian defenders. In Narnia, there is a conscious effort to remain true to the novels, something entirely disregarded by Jackson?s portrayal of characters in the LOTR trilogy. This is highly appreciated. Unfortunately this also included the one cop-out of the book?.where Aslan agrees to sacrifice himself for Edmund and then uses a loop-hole to get out of his part of the bargain. In Last Temptation of Christ, Jesus (Whom Aslan symbolizes) is shown backing out of his sacrifice and the remainder of the movie shows consequence of his decision. Fortunately, Jesus is permitted to repent, bring himself back to the cross and salvation ?accomplished?. No such moment exist for Aslan. Instead, we get to watch him kill the subdued and helpless White Witch without a moment of forgiveness or mercy. Hardly a complimentary tribute to the King of Christianity. SappyOmegaGuppy

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

I felt this movie was a good movie, but flawed majorly. First of all the movie was very faced paced and there is very little suspension. Because of this, it was hard for me to relate/care for the characters. Also the music was pretty well done, but I feel a more centralized theme is needed like Lord of the Rings, People left the theatres whistling the theme to LOTR, yet for Narnia, if you asked anyone to hum the them, 9 out of 10 times i bet no body could do it. This movie was yet entertaining especially since i read the book, yet certainly not as magical as what it could be

Good, but could have been better- - The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe Reviews

It was better than I expected, and I think it stayed true to the book. That being said, a few of the characters were somewhat disappointing. It was as if they were either trying too hard, or just being fake. Peter was not believable as a king, but the rest of the cast portrayed their roles as expected. It is worth going to see, but does not measure up to other movies of this caliber.

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

This movie started slow, and if it wasn't for the cheesey comments by the talking beavers every few moments i would have dozed off! The fight scenes were weak at best, trying to keep this a kids action film and fantasy didn't work too well. Acting was ok, but it was just to hard to stay convinced by the "witch" who never seemed really evil enough, and the kids going into a war scene like "Braveheart" although the oldest could barely even hold up his sword! If you wanna watered down version of Harry Potter meets Troy, minus the magic and real action go spend 10 bucks and bring a pillow.