good adaptation...not enough depth

Rating: 7/10 (18 December 2005)

i read the book (and was obsessed with it for many months) when i was 5 years old and have to commend the director for staying true to the original story.
where adamson fails is in his attempt to create an epic film. you could tell that he tried - using cinematographic elements you'd see in true epics like the lord of the rings (sweeping vistas, dramatic music, etc). he unfortunately did not succeed in this attempt.
with so many characters and so little time one never really gets an opportunity to really know any of the protagonists which left me lacking a strong connection to any of the good guys. we spent a lot of time with the white witch, though, and she is by far my favourite character.
in a truly epic film most, if not all, of the actors need to do a stunning job. in narnia, quality varied from actor to actor. the performances of the actors playing the four sibling protagonists are mediocre at best. tilda swinton (the white witch) and james mcavoy (mr. tumnus) are notably good performances. then again, the fabulous tilda swinton gets to play an evil bitch...? what better role could there be for her? i've read many comments about the special effects/cgi and how great it is. and it is indeed so on all the main characters (the beavers, the lion). i found the work on some of the more fantastical creatures to be lacking, however. the best example of this is with the general of the white witch's army. a few times it looked like they were using live actors in second-rate costumes instead of high quality cgi.
finally, the book is loved by kids and grownups worldwide but, because of some violent content, the movie is most certainly not meant for young children. so you've got a movie that doesn't have the substance/depth to appease adults but isn't suitable for children either. while it's mainstream and religious appeal will likely make this movie a commercial success, from a creative/artistic perspective it's clearly stuck in a strange twilight zone.