Terrible

Rating: 1/10 (26 February 2007)

I was really looking forward to this film, considering I was a big fan of the book series as well as a huge fan of the original BBC production. So after seeing "The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe (2005)" I was more than a little disappointed.
This is honestly one of the worst films I have ever seen. The acting is terrible, especially on the part of the two eldest children. I usually love Tilda Swinton, yet I was severely disappointed with her lackluster performance as the White Witch. The pacing of this film is the worst part. The entire movie is extremely rushed in order to reach a major epic battle scene that in the book was a mere afterthought. Though there are a few elements of war and violence, that is not what the story is about. While some of the computer generated effects look okay, most of them are way overdone and instead of serving the story, they overpower it. I'm not a book purist or anything, so I don't mind if a story is changed in order to fit more appropriately on screen, but I do have an issue with filmmakers creating entire sequences that do not appear in the book solely to showcase their supposedly superior computer effects especially when these sequences do nothing to advance the plot.
This movie is bad. Plain and simple, it is one of the worst films I have ever seen, and I've seen a lot. Not good, not even for children.
Check out the 1988 BBC production and its sequels instead. While they may lack something visually, the story is much richer and more worthwhile.