Utterly disgusting, a shameful mockery of the beloved fantasy classic

Rating: 1/10 (8 March 2009)

Many years ago a great literary genius captured children's imaginations with an astonishing fantastical masterpiece inspired an old vision of his in which a faun was standing in the snow holding an umbrella.
In 2005, Disney  after watching for years the excitement and wonder that the Harry Potter adaptations had conjured up - became jealous of Warner Brothers for their incredible ability to create such an incredible fantasy series that people of all ages could enjoy and used this novel to try and do the same.
The results are ghastly, clearly all these people are interested in is making just another depthless action blockbuster and since they can't be bothered coming up with their own story they've borrowed someone else'. Here we see that in chasing this nightmarish dream the director  Andrew Adamson  has abandoned the story, the richness, the warmth and the characters and left them to rot while he tries to cook up an entire film based purely on special effects and stunt work. Well I must say he's failed at that, the cheaply done CG animals are so lifeless and fake that they make plastic figurines look like the real thing. The same can be said for the painfully numerous action scenes which are slow, irritating, completely unnecessary and appear to be merely dodgy tricks to fill in time.
The cast is almost no help at all; most of them give such bland performances that the marvellous array of different characters just becomes one big tedious mess. I doubt any of them have even read the book let alone understood it, and they seem to have just gone with the obvious stereotype. The best example of this is the clueless Tilda Swinton, who gives such a revolting performance that she should have her Oscar confiscated. Jardis is a tyrannical monster of a woman that seeks to control all of Narnia no matter the cost, Swinton turns her into a harmless ditsy little fairy princess.
Though that said there are a few exceptions: Georgie Henley is just perfect as Lucy, the young actress portrays the character with all the sweetness, innocence and vulnerability that she deserves; James McAvoy does show the tentative, emotional and brave sides of Mr Tumnus very well; and Jim Broadbent does a fair job in the role of the professor.
But all in all this is nothing short of pathetic, aside from those three actors there is not a smidgeon of talent to be seen in any areas of this film and it is a terrible adaptation of C.S.Lewis' treasured rare gem.
However, devoted fans of the book do not despair: there is a splendidly done 1988 BBC television adaptation directed by Marilyn Fox and starring Sophie Wilcox, Jonathan.R.Scott, Richard Dempsey, Sophie Cook, Barbara Kellerman and William Todd Jones.