The Wonder of Narnia

Rating: 8/10 (5 January 2015)

Let me say right up front that I am an atheist and a secularist and such do not care about any religious allegory or undertones this movie may possess. I am reviewing it from the point of view of the book to movie transition and how good it is as a fantasy film.
The Lion the Witch and the Wardrobe is a fantastic fantasy film. The Lion the Witch and the Wardrobe has an awesome feel of magic and wonder to it. This movie is reasonably faithful to the book and even makes some improvements on it. I really appreciated that the filmmakers actually showed the kids being evacuated from the wartime air raids. In the book this is mentioned once in passing at the start of the first paragraph. But in the book I never got the sense of children who had been truly affected by the war. The movie, by actually showing the evacuations and making them a decent length scene, and by showing some of the kids emotions in the midst and aftermath of this scene, better capture the fact that the kids are sent away during wartime and how this has affected them emotionally. After that the movie pretty much follows the book and is generally quite faithful to it with one exception. The Deeper Magic From Before the Dawn of Time is eliminated and replaced by Aslan having a "different interpretation" of the Deep Magic From the Dawn of Time. This eliminates a major plot point and alters another. This is not a good thing. Everything else is mostly as you'd expect. The visual work on this movie is fantastic. The outstanding visual work both help capture the sense of wonder and magic of Narnia and make the story feel more realistic. My personal favorite scene was when Lucy first entered Narnia through the Wardrobe. The pure joy and wonder of discovering Narnia is a beautiful thing to behold. And it feels so genuine. The filmmakers had Georgie enter the set of the wintry Narnia blindfolded so that her very first reaction to seeing the set could be used in the film as an authentic first reaction. What a brilliant move! The CGI animals, especially Aslan, look pretty realistic to me. Now the casting and acting were fairly good. Goergie was a PERFECT Lucy and Liam Neeson was an outstanding choice for the voice of Aslan. William Mosley just fit right into the role of Peter. An underrated role is Jim Broadbent's portrayal of Professor Kirke. The only weakness here is that the character of Edmund seems a bit forced and phony but overall the casting and acting are good. The pacing is a bit slow in the first half hour or so but picks up when the children have all gotten into Narnia and is pretty good from there on. To address a common complaint, a number of people have complained about the "bloodless" battle. First of all, remember that this is fantasy. More importantly, it should be noted that the filmmakers were contractually required by the studio to attain a rating of no higher than PG. Thus, we wind up with battle scenes that are violent and intense but not bloody or gory. Now, this movie should not be viewed by toddlers, preschoolers, or kindergarteners due to intense and intensely sad scenes, especially the evacuation scene, the Aslan sacrifice plot, and the epic final battle. This movie is okay for kids in grades 3 and up. For kids in grades 1-2 it depends on the individual. I don't think this movie is as good as the Harry Potter series or the Middle Earth trilogies but it is a worthy part of the fantasy genre and is well worth seeing.
Faithfulness to the book: 8 out of 10. Casting/acting: 8 out of 10. Special effects/visuals: 9 out of 10. Pacing: 7 out of 10. Overall: 8 out of 10.