Ehhh it holds up alright I guess

Rating: 6/10 (17 September 2018)

Okay so this explains a bit of a backstory as to why I re-watched this in like 10 years. I took a class for my junior year of college about the writing of C.S. Lewis. This included essays, autobiographies, books, and one of Narnia books, Voyage of the Dawn Treader. When I took that class I never read any of the Narnia books until then, but I was hooked in reading them afterwards. However it took me a while until officially reading them. Then after one long road trip to and from Oklahoma I decided to read the first two Narnia books (chronologically speaking). And while it is written in a way for a more younger audience and some extremely on the nose Christian imagery, the books are pretty dang good, so far. So it was after I finished the Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe I was curious as to see how well the film adapted the book, as well as re-watching a movie I had somewhat fond memories of.
Needless to say...they hold up about as well as I expected. Not exactly great but not terrible as well. Certainly not as bad as some people made the films out to be.
So let's get the first thing out of the way first, the child acting, with one exception, is not very good. Even with bumping Peter and Susan's ages up in the books (both are about preteen age), William Moseley as Peter and Anna Popplewell as Susan are just not very good. None of the line delivery is believable and they have super dull expressions with the world around them, although to be fair on them director Andrew Adamson can be blamed for this too. William is the worst out of the four as so many of his super serious lines he is given comes off as super laughable. The only one out of the four that is the most tolerable is Georgie Henley as Lucy, but even then she does give a mixed performance. At worst she is wooden and over enunciating, but at best she does capture book Lucy very well, and at least she does feel like she's trying more than the other three. Skandar Keynes does an alright job at times as Edmund, but there are times where his delivery is just not good. Most of the other live action actors do a good job here, like Tilda Swinton, who does a great job at capturing the White Witch, James McAvoy and Jim Broadbent. The voice acting is also decent too, Ray Winstone and Dawn French are pretty great here. But Liam Neeson makes a disappointing Aslan, feeling rather cold and under performing as the voice.
The production is pretty great, as it does feel a lot like what Narnia is described in the book. I felt like I was transported in another world. The costumes were excellent, and even most of the visual effects hold up fairly well too for the animals, although there are a ton of bad green-screen composites here. As far as an adaptation goes, it's actually pretty good. While the movie never recaptures the way Lewis describes and narrates in the book, there is an attempt here that is worth praising. There are a few changes here and there, Peter and Susan do get more development than in the book as well as adding more family drama in here that's alright, they explained a lot better why Aslan sacrificed himself to the White Witch, a lot of the Christian imagery is made less ham-fisted like in the book. Although they did manage to beefen up the story with more action scenes and they never made it clear that Edmund was under an enchantment, which is why he betrayed his siblings. But overall it's not terrible of an adaptation. It's loyal and the concessions they did make to fit the screen.
The big problem with this movie besides the child acting is that it is VERY clear that the movie wants to be the next Lord of the Rings. So much of the movie dramatizes events from the books or add more stakes in translation, which isn't necessarily bad, but it is clear the intent of Disney wanting a franchise on their hands to compete with the Harry Potter films. And honestly Andrew Adamson, who most people know for co-directing the first two Shrek films (yes...really), he is no Peter Jackson. Which goes double especially for the action scenes that feel incredibly derivative (although having a PG action film certainly doesn't help that matter). I do feel that in terms of fantasy adaptations being released in the 2000s after Lord of the Rings and Harry Potter, Narnia does hold up far better compared to the likes of Eragon and the Golden Compass, far worse films. But I think that the movie would have been far better if they didn't try to copy another formula and just had a distinct voice for the film.
Regardless, it's not exactly a bad movie, but it is held back from far greatness. Still it was a trip watching this movie for the first time in years, so for a nostalgic trip to hold up fairly well, I couldn't ask for anything more.