It's no Lord of the Rings, but still good

Rating: 7/10 (2 January 2006)

OK, so it's no Lord of the Rings, but is it good? I dare say yes. There are several strong performances, especially from Georgie Henley and William Moseley as the children Lucy and Peter and the magnificent Tilda Swinton as the White Witch. The effects are mostly of good quality, but there are some imperfections and logical flaws. When the movie reached its climax I begun thinking "Oh no, It's a lord of the rings rip-off, only in a lighter version..." But then, to my surprise, the final battle was a breath-taking, well-directed and well-played epic encounter which will rate among the top ten screen battles of all times for years to come! (of course below such battle scenes as we remember from Lord of the Rings: Two Towers and Saving Private Ryan but still...) Narnia is great fun and will probably be even more fun for children. The religious symbols are very strong however, and this makes me dislike some parts of the original story (which I consider to be inferior to this film) Especially the parts concerning "heavy magic" and "sacrifice" are hard to swallow for non-Christians, but still... it's a good movie!