Movie Reviews

Having previously read the first two Chronicles of Narnia books (The Magician's Nephew, which is the first one chronologically, and The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, which is second chronologically but was written first) I was a little bit concerned about how they would translate to film. The stories involve a whole bunch of talking animals, and most of the human characters are children -- two big hurdles towards creating a convincing and well-acted movie.

I was, however, pleasantly surprised. The new filmed version of The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe turned out to be as good as I might've reasonably expected. The special effects used to create the animal characters were very well done; I accepted the talking beavers, wolves, lions, and other creatures as characters, not just as computer-generated avatars. And more incredible than the animated animals were the young child actors, especially a little girl named Georgia Henly, who plays the youngest of the children, Lucy Pevensie.

Overall though, I think this is the sort of story that is better suited to the children's novel form from which it originated. The novel is so imaginative that any sort of filmed version of it simply can't stack up to the 'filmed' version in a reader's mind. I likely would've said the same things regarding the Lord of the Rings films, except that those films had Peter Jackson, and everything that he brought to the table.

The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe is a good movie, but it's hard not to think of it as "Lord of the Rings Lite".