Laugh Out Loud Funny

Rating: 1/10 (12 December 2005)

The movie is seriously "laugh out loud funny." The sad thing is that it's not supposed to be a comedy. It's really unfortunate because I recall the book being excellent when I read it as a child.
When we saw the movie, there were several scenes that were supposed to be serious where we literally couldn't help but laugh. For instance, the moment in the battle where the white witch tries to cut Peter's neck with the two swords and he leans back just in time - DRAMA! - there's a pause in the scene to catch it in a quasi-matrix mode. So funny because it's so pathetic.
Also, I felt that the casting of the children was off, with the exception of William Moseley as Peter Pevensie. Look, I get that the littlest girl, Lucy, is supposed to be cute. Frankly, the girl who plays her isn't - she's being overly directed to try to come across as cute, which of course, kills it. Plus, it would be extremely helpful if each of these young actors learned that when you're supposed to be "crying" you probably shouldn't be "smiling." The feeling I was left with throughout the film was that I could sense the director speaking to the children and all of the extras from behind the camera. His entire direction would be something to the effect of telling his actors, "Okay now, look happy! Everyone be happy! Yay!!!" "Okay, now everybody be sad. Look sad... turn down the sides of your mouth and whimper a bit... Great!!!" The children and extras' acting styles were forced, which is an obvious result of the directors failings - it's clear that professionals like Tilda Swinton know how to carry a scene without the awful distraction of Andrew Adamson's direction. Previous to this movie, Adamson's directing has been kept to animated films like Shrek. He should have stuck with that.
This movie was so bad I would have much rather spent the 2+ hours actually reading Lewis' masterpiece. Disney, can I get my money AND my time back please? Thanks.