Film not as good as the trailer.

Rating: 5/10 (10 December 2005)

I have waited the better part of 6 months for.....this. I do want to see all of the books of the series come to the screen. This director, if he can be called that must be banned from doing further harm. The film simply doesn't work. Changes were made that were not needed, parts of the story were cut for the flop of a battle scene at the end. Which by the way was known as the battle of Beruna, though you won't find that out in this film. The Characters were not developed properly, the pace was rushed way too fast. If you had not read the book, I doubt you would have clue one as to what you were watching. Nothing is adequately explained. Nothing is shown with any real sense or purpose. Some parts were quite moving. The scenery and special effects are stunning. But not enough to carry the story. The portrayal of Aslan was indeed powerful. Liam Nielsn did a B+ performance, but I prefer the depth of emotion and deep base resonance that David Suchet gave in the Focus on the Family Radio theater production. It is not a total loss. The 10 minute clip shown on Stars is far better and much more majestically scored than the final full length production.It is not the spectacular epic that I was hoping for either. The buck stops with the director, he is responsible in the end. I sincerely hope that this is the end of his association with The Chronicles of Narnia. Let the epic series continue under fresh leadership. As far as comparison to the Lord of the Rings series and Harry Potter? Potter is just a waste of good film and I will give it no further discussion. Where Narnia is fast, the Lord of the Rings just plods along like an aged boxer who has no punch left and no good sense to quit. They are way too slow paced, very dark and depressing and much too long. I really felt that the entire story could have been told in one or at most two well edited faster paced films. The Lion the Witch and the Wardrobe could have easily had ten to fifteen minutes of good character development added and a better film would have been the result. Great special effects and a strong musical score may build a nice box office but the story is what makes it a classic, most of that unfortunately; was left behind on the cutting room floor.