As a child, I watched Wonderworks' Chronicles of Narnia movies constantly, and read CS Lewis' books. As a child, I really enjoyed these adventures. They captivated my imagination for short periods of time.This new movie is actually quite good. Its not trying to be Harry Potter or Lord of the Rings like most current fantasy films. The best part is that there's no rush to get into Narnia, a lot of time is spent building up to it, and its not boring. Actually, the film kicks off with something exciting and unexpected that really pulls you in to the moviegoing experience - well worth the eight bucks!
I'm pretty jaded as far as movies go, it takes something special for me to really get into things. There really is magic to the land of Narnia, especially for someone like me having known the material since childhood. The landscapes make me want to walk into my closet and visit the place.
Of course there's some bad, but its easily looked past. The computer graphics look like they came from an unfinished cut, with some bad green screen, physics that sometimes seem too fluid, and even a few shots in which the background characters jump too quickly from one part of the screen to another. As is to be expected from a CS Lewis work, there is some religious mumbo-jumbo, but its kept to a nice minimum here. Aside from the metaphors all you have to listen to are a few references to sons of Adam and daughters of Eve.
Don't be dissuaded by the PG rating - it seems like the MPAA was highly forgiving, so while overly animated, the battle scenes are exciting and fast-moving, yet followable. I can only remember one scene with blood; you can tell they made sure to keep the gore out.
I will look forward to the next films in the series, especially The Voyage of the Dawn Treader and The Silver Chair.
