Solid, but unremarkable

Rating: 7/10 (18 April 2006)

Finally got to watch this last night and, while I enjoyed it, I was underwhelmed. I will admit, right off the top, that I enjoy the LOTR and Harry Potter books more than Narnia. Narnia is aimed at a younger audience, which I am no longer a part of, and are much preachier, which is to be expected.
The story was presented quite well, from what I remember from the book. The talking animals work well, although I felt that the beavers looked a bit cartoonish. The wolves were excellent.
Overall I was surprised at the lack of a WOW factor. There were no scenes that I looked back on as visually impressive. The CGI'd creatures were beautiful, and the flying ones I liked particularly, but good CGI is now a basic expectation of a big budget movie.
The characters are very two dimensional, although well played by the actors. Lucy's grin was annoying at times, but many 6 year olds are annoying at times, in real life. The Snow Queen was striking, the dwarfs were cool, but, in the end, I was left wanting more.
I will watch this again, I am sure, and I will go to the sequel(s), but this will never be a movie that I put into the DVD player myself. If I am in the mood for some epic fantasy, it will be The Two Towers. If I am in the mood for a fantasy aimed at children, I will put in Harry Potter.