We need more movies like this, except even better ones.

Rating: 7/10 (10 July 2006)

What begins as a cheesy Disney movie rich in terrible one-liners and bad CGI (the beavers were unforgivable) turns into a great spectacle of fantasy cinema some 30-40 minutes into the film. While everything after Lord of the Rings in terms of epic battles feels half-assed and, frankly inadequate, The Chronicles of Narnia does a good job at establishing a true 'heroic' feeling with our main characters toward the end and the recipe for fantasy is accurately followed. I think we need much more fantasy movies out there and now that the 21th century has opened with blockbusters of its nature, there will hopefully be more like this.
My only big problem with the film was the little girl playing Lucy Pevensie. For those of you who aren't familiar with the story, Lucy is the youngest in the foursome of siblings that the plot centres on. They are the ones to enter the wardrobe that takes them to the world of Narnia; they are the heroes in a quest for Aslan. Lucy is made into some kind of prodigal heroine who dominates the course of events; she is rude, snappy and badly acted. This little brat is the most annoying character I've seen since Jar-Jar Binks. She shouldn't have been in Narnia at all - they should have left her the wardrobe and locked her up. Anna Popplewell who plays her older sister Susan, on the other hand, is excellent. It may well be that she is just average and that the rest of the cast are really poor (they are just kids, after all) - but whatever the reason, she is the one thing that kept me watching Narnia at the beginning when it was at its worst.
Visually, everything except the beavers were handled nicely and for a children's movie, this wasn't bad. Charismatic actors like Tilda Swinton and Liam Neeson certainly helped things along the way, making this into a worthile adventure. 7/10