Overall Rating: *****
The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe @ IMDB
Synopsis:
When four young children are sent away during the bombing of London, an eccentric professor takes them in at his countryside mansion. One rainy day, a simple game of hide and seak helps a young Lucy Pevensie (Georgie Henley) discover a mysterious wardrobe. Soon Lucy leads her siblings Edmund (Skandar Keynes), Susan (Anna Popplewell), and Peter (William Moseley) through the wardrobe and in to the magical land of Narnia. But all is not as it seems in the enchanting world. A never ending winter has fallen upon the land and the evil White Witch (Tilda Swinton) has driven everyone to live in fear. The children must struggle across Narnia to fulfill an ancient prophecy and learn what their destinies hold.
Review:
This movie was amazing! I read (or possibly listened to) this book when I was a kid. I honestly don’t remember any of it. I was thoroughly impressed by this movie. I will start this one off with my final recommendation: GO SEE THIS MOVIE! I highly recommend you go see this movie while its in the theatre. Its definitely a cinematic experience and I would go so far as to say that its worth a primetime ticket. I must impress upon you that, that is high praise (at least in my book).
Ok, now to the nitty-gritty. Unlike some recent movie series, Harry Potter & Lord of the Rings, I don’t remember the book so I had nothing invested when I went to the theater. The story was really interesting. Now, I can’t say this is all because of the writers. The author of the book, C.S. Lewis, is probably to blame for such an engaging plot and fun characters. The movie was about two and a half hours and I wasn’t bored for a single bit of it.
Now the money and effort poured in to this movie is pretty impressive. They pulled out the stops like they did for LOTR. Unfortunately, some scenes looked a just a little sloppy. Now nothing is ever perfect and I don’t think the few scenes that could have been better really hurt this movie. I liked the costumes and different creatures that populated the land of Narnia. But I do agree with a friend of mine who said that the White Witch’s minotaur general seemed a bit corny.
The actors were pretty good. I liked the kids, they were solid. Lucy and Edmund were by far the best. I was pleasantly surprised to hear Liam Neeson’s voice behind Aslan. The White Witch wasn’t bad, but here character didn’t really require that much. Acting cold and uncare is probably not the most difficult character to pull off. The Beavers (Ray Winstone & Dawn French) were great. Mr. Beaver was hilarious truly added the comedic relief for this movie.
All in all, awesome movie. Go out and see it.