I thought it was really good

Rating: 8/10 (10 December 2005)

Just saw the movie today. MUCH better than I expected it would be. I was dreading 2-1/2 hours of Hollywood "fantasy" piffle. But it appears the director took his cues from LOTR and Harry Potter. The effects serve the story, not the other way around. And the story is what REALLY sells this picture combined with the great cinematography. It's a very faithful rendition of what I remember from reading the book so long ago. The acting is the only weak part, largely because of the kids being relatively new. Tilda is fantastic as the White Witch. And the talking animals do not seem overtly silly as I feared. Aslan is wonderful. Even Mr. Tummus is quite good. So the kids' acting abilities are more are more than made up for by experienced cast members.
And anyone who has it in their head that this is a "Christian" movie and fear being evangelized by it, not to worry. The brilliance of Narnia is that it doesn't preach and doesn't hit you in the head with a sledgehammer in order to point out the Christian parallels. And you can read as much Christian allegory into it as you want. It's not hard (speaking as a non-Christian) to approach this movie with a deep liking for Aslan's spiritual nature and the common themes of love, good, evil, betrayal, redemption, and forgiveness in this film. In fact if all that wasn't there, it would be a visually pretty but ultimately empty piece of Hollywood fluff. Of course people will compare it to "The Lord of the Rings" which is a much more mature work. But as an adaptation of a children's story, I think they did a fine job.
Treat yourself and go see it. Fair warning though. The theater I went to was packed with little kids, many under age 7. I don't think kids that young are going to get that much from the film. I often heard young voices piping up asking questions and parents working to shush them. Fortunately I was sitting far enough away from most of the kids, so it wasn't too distracting.
P.S. -- It pays to linger a little bit after the credits start rolling. There's a nice little end scene that suddenly cuts in about a minute or so after the credits start. Don't rush for the exit.