Sadly Disappointed

Rating: 4/10 (8 December 2005)

I went into this film as an avid fan of the book and having read some very promising reviews, I had high expectations. Unfortunately, these expectations were dashed by the film which pushed the biblical allegory a little hard in your face and fell short of providing visuals equal to the Lord of The Rings trilogy, to which so many comparisons could be made.
Character-wise Tilda Swinton was absolutely fantastic as the white witch. She came across so intensely and so mysteriously that you couldn't help but get drawn to her, and her eyes were so deep and hypnotic! For me, she swept the floor with the Aslan (voiced by Liam Neeson) who throughout never really convinced me that his was necessarily the right side to fight for...
The children in the 4 main roles all performed better than I had expected them too: The pick of the bunch was undoubtedly Georgie Henley, who's eyes captured Narnia's magic and it's fascination for children. I was a little disappointed with William Moseley as Peter, who didn't have as much physicality about him as i had imagined him to have, and at times seemed a little weak.
For me the films main failing was that for it's budget some things seemed to be rather strapped for cash. Costumes for example, there were several occasions where i cringed at the awfulness of what the children were wearing. And another example was that sitting side by side with some fantastic special effects, were some shoddy bits of costume and make up: This was most obvious amidst the white witch's army towards the end, who seemed to be more a bunch of misshapen plastic headed humans than mythical beasts.
And despite of some subtle and classy moments of humour, that pleasantly surprised me, although i should have known better seeing as Adamson was the director of Shrek (!) Adamson failed to deliver the scenic grandeur of Narnia that was so impressive in Peter Jackson's vision of Middle Earth and which set the benchmark of what to expect from a fantasy epic.
Undoubtedly I'm sure most people will love it, it's faithful to the book, the characters are in the most part believable and amiable, and children will love the sheer magic and imagination, and the talking animals; but for me it lacked some of the style and panache of Lord of The Rings, and it lacked the atmosphere I had imagined Narnia to have...