It's a fine adaptation

Rating: Null/10 (17 December 2005)

In fact, I think in some ways it surpasses the original. Tilda Swinton's White Witch is, I think, a lot scarier than anything Lewis himself came up with, plus the final third of the movie has an oomph and push rather lacking from the over-schematic original. I also liked the early set-up which helps give us a sense of these characters before they enter Narnia, set the story in a place and time, and in a neat way foreshadows part of the climax.
There is a certain thinness which is inescapable, a fault of the source material itself. I respect Lewis, but don't consider him an especially good writer of fiction. Narnia is a hodgepodge of myths, folktales, Christian symbolism and talking animals straight out of The Wind in the Willows. It feels contrived, not especially "real".
But if you have any fond memories of the book at all you'll like this, it's a marvelously faithful adaptation. As for the Christian elements, they're there but it's not a dreary Sunday School lesson -- the movie's as Christian as you want it to be, essentially.