Another Film Failure

Rating: 6/10 (29 December 2005)

How eagerly I awaited my viewing of this movie! I was excited that this story, which was so nicely crafted and developed my eager young mind. The chronicles of Narnia are a fantastic story. That being said, this movie is another example of how these horrible film writers have ruined every descent story there is.
First, the movie, being released after Thanksgiving, was clearly more concerned with Marketing for the Christmas season, what with the appearance of Santa Claus and the addition of Narnia having not had a Christmas in over 100 years. If Santa Claus had more to do with the plot (he does give the weapons) then perhaps this cameo would have been more productive, but once he leaves, there is no mention of Christmas or Santa for the rest of the movie. It seems as if this was just a last minute addition just to satisfy the whim of the producer.
Second, the characters were hardly developed at all. I suppose the viewer is supposed to pick-up on the tired motifs of (1) the child who always tells the truth but is never believed (2) the antagonizing, self-serving older brother (3) the bitchy (pardon the language) older sister and (4) the indecisive oldest sibling. Aside from all of these, we learn nothing about the characters that makes them unique to the story of Narnia. Honestly, this movie made me sick of British children all around. The gap-ridden smiles, the freckles (grr... ginger kids), and the terrible naivete of these children grates on every nerve as they stumble through fairly tame obstacles. And by the time you get to the end of the movie, all you know about the characters is the motifs, and as Aslan crowns each of the children, he assigns titles that are the complete opposite of what little we know about the children: the self-serving older brother is "the Just", the bitchy older sister (who just wants to go home the whole time) is "the Courageous", the indecisive Oldest sibling is "the Great".
Third, the special effects are clearly the only thing in the movie meant to capture your attention, and in that, I feel the movie is successful. The Lion is amazingly real-looking, the white witch really looks mean, and the centaur is really cool. Too bad the costumes suck, and the plot suffers because of all the graphics they try to add.
This movie was a let down. I'd prefer to watch the TV version because at least that version had half-way descent writing. When will the filmmakers learn that computer graphics cannot make-up for the lack of a good story and certainly shouldn't be exchanged for basic story tools (e.g. Characterization, mood, setting etc.).