I don't remember the book being this bad

Rating: 2/10 (22 December 2005)

I read this book about 20 years ago, liked it, but wasn't crazed. Shortly into the movie, I cringed, and tried to remember if the book really was this bad.
Let's start with Tilda. She carried on, and did wonders with what she was given. Unfortunately, she wasn't given very much. The White Witch really wasn't that scary. Villains these days are much more complex and at least somewhat sympathetic. The White Witch was just a bitchy dictator. Not scary. Voldemort would rip her to pieces, and any Sauron or even Saruman would turn her inside out.
The special effects: OK, Aslan was good. Everything else--not good. There's one scene where the three kids are standing on a hill looking out across Narnia, and the background looks horrible, like a blurry, hastily-painted backdrop, or a bad green screen drop-in. The rest of the effects are sub-par for 2005 to say the least.
Lastly, the whole sacrifice/resurrection bit. Was this how the book was written? Halfway through the story, CS realized he hadn't come up with a way to get a sacrifice and resurrection, so he just dropped in the whole "deep magic" rules and whatnot? Then why did I (or anyone else) actually like the book?
Unsympathetic characters, one-dimensional villain, amateurish plot device(s)--this movie just is nowhere near the hype. Go see King Kong again.