Of redemption, sacrifice and humanity...

Rating: 9/10 (27 February 2006)

With everyone stoning it as rip-offs of LOTR, Harry Potter etc, give CON a break yeah? I haven't read the book(s) but might just very well be starting on a hunt for the complete collection of C.S. Lewis' works, who has, while being steadfast to his faith, still managed to bring to everyone the essential quality of imagination.
Thanks to the director and the actors.
Did anyone not see the that in the course of this film, there was the coming round of Edmund "Judas" Pevensie? The boy who sold his family out for Turkish delights? Some might argue that he might've been racked with guilt - Aslan sacrificing himself at the altar to the White witch - that he threw himself to help Peter, the brother that he had previously resented, on the battlefield. But the way I saw it, and clichéd as it might sound, "blood is thicker than water" and when Peter finally dropped his aloof exterior to hug Edmund towards the end, it gave the audience a somewhat satisfying sigh, a reason to feel that there's still room for some love to go around in these cynical times we live in.
Interestingly, C.S. Lewis was also thought to be quite a stiff until he met his vivacious wife who encouraged him to express his emotions a little more outwardly. But I digress.
This film does have many precious a lesson to teach children and adults alike, with or without any religious doctrine. Then again, don't all faiths proclaim universal love and compassion, justice and integrity? The children learn the virtues of bravery and humility along the way from saving their brother to claiming Narnia for the righteous. More importantly they've also demonstrated the ability to rise above their "supposed" limitations.
Allow me to play God, and judge this flick as "essential" - as with LOTR - in the shaping of a future generation that will turn out to be fair, loving and with the guts enough to stand out to do and say the right things.