great story, bad pacing, uneven acting

Rating: 6/10 (19 April 2006)

Georgia Henley and Skandar Keynes were outstanding as Lucy and Edmund Pevensie respectively; if anything Georgia carried the rest of the cast, who acted as if their source material was commonplace rather than one of the most beloved children's fables in twentieth century English literature.
Tilda Swanton exuded some evil as the witch, but not enough to make me afraid, particularly during the Stone Table sequence. Her portrayal was not nearly as fearsome as other evil villains we have come to expect from this genre (like Sauron in Lord of the Rings).
The CG characters (particularly Beaver) were awesome though Liam Neeson, from whom we routinely expect brilliance, was flat as the messianic Aslan. James McAvoy put in a fantastic part-CG performance as the nervous Mr. Tumnus.
All that to say that the momentum waned a bit at the 110 minute mark; it did not have the breathless pacing and richly veined detail of Peter Jackson's rendering of the Tolkien epic, much more tedious material. And from the director of Shrek we expect a bit more pop and a bit of humour along the way as well. "Lion..." was very serious indeed.
Let's hope the actors and Director Adam Adamson kick it up a notch in the next one (Prince Caspian); the Narnia chronicles have so much more depth than the Harry Potter books, but the Potter movies have excelled in the book-to-screen transition. The first Narnia movie was only good, not excellent. There is a large fan base out there expecting a higher standard.