So, if you haven't seen it yet and don't want to hear me talk about the good, the bad and the ugly of this movie, but would prefer to read a short review that will still leave you anticipating Narnia in all it's glory, read this one instead.
Okay, for those of you still with me, it's a pretty good movie that you should go see. We have a friend who works at the local MegaChurch and their children's ministry rented out a theater for a private screening, and he called us to let us in on buying some tickets... So Amy and I, along with the Alpernardos (Mike and Katie, and Chris and Karli) went to a 6:30pm showing last night. We were in a theater full of kids, which surprisingly was quieter than most theaters full of adults. Go figure.
At any rate, the best way to describe this film is as "Lord of the Rings Jr." The filmaker would have had to go to some lengths to avoid this comparison, and it strikes me that they didn't, and probably purposefully. Many of the shots from the air, the battle scenes, etc seemed to borrow intentionally from the visual style of those films.
The Good:
The two best actors in this movie (we'll talk more about this in a minute) are without a doubt the person who played Mr. Tumnus (James McAvoy) and Tilda Swinton who played the White Witch.
Great performances from both of them.
I knew going in that Liam Neeson would be providing the voice of Aslan (I also knew that they wouldn't pronouce the name "Aslan" the same way I've been doing so in my head since childhood, but since Lewis' stepson was co-producer, I suppose it really is "Ass-Lan." damn.) I thought Neeson would end up being distracting, but he wasn't. At least for me. Others who didn't know going in that it was his voice reported spending half the movie trying to puzzle it out and ended up being distracted. Lesson: tell your friends up front it's Liam Neeson's voice and let them get over it. Also, the Oompa Loompa from the most recent Charlie and the Chocolate Factory plays the White Witch's dwarf... just so you know.
The winter scenes are beautiful, and while the Professor's English countryside house is more of a castle, it's still great.
The Bad:
Okay... are you sure you don't want to stop reading here?
If you haven't seen it, you probably should.
Seriously...
Okay- I did my best.
There are a couple of problems.
First, they took the "Lord of the Rings Jr" thing a couple of steps too far. I realize that this movie was targeted at below the age range for a lot of fantasy movies, including LOTR, but...
The costumes, particularly the armor, were ridiculously childish.
I don't know, perhaps that's just the perception because they were actual children who wore them, but the costumes seemed to reproduce the absolute worst part of the BBC kind of medium budget live-action Narnia stuff that's been done before. It seems like with the budget that went into this, they could have come up with stuff for the Pevensie kids to carry around that didn't look as though they picked it up at the Dollar Store. This is just the first of a couple of things that with a little more effort, could have been done right... better at least.
In fact, that right there is the problem with the film in a nutshell. With 10% more effort, they could have improved the film 100%. For instance, Aslan was the size of a large adult lion. But anyone who's read the books knows that He's not a lion. He's a Lion. And since this Aslan (sorry, "Ass-lan") is computer generated, making him 25-30% bigger would have been no problem technically, and would have solved a load of problems emotionally with the film. The problem is, Aslan was cool when He needed to be more than cool. He needed to be kick ass, if you'll pardon the phrase. Kick Ass-lan...
More to say about this in "The Ugly."
The Ugly:
This film suffers from what many "iconic" movies do... let's call it the "Batman" syndrome after that movie which caused this issue to be discussed widely for the first time in my experience.
The Batman syndrome is this: it's easy to make evil interesting, it's hard to make good captivating (on screen, in images). Therefore, many films run the risk that the villian will be more interesting than the hero. This is what happened in the original Batman movie when Jack Nicholson as the Joker stole the film scene by scene from Michael Keaton/Batman.
And this is what happens in this movie. The White Witch absolutely rocks. She rocks so incredibly much, she is so stinking arresting, and Tilda Swinton's acting is so head-and-shoulders above everyone else around her (with the possible exception of Tumnus... and maybe the Oompa Loompa...err, Dwarf) that she steals the show. When she rides into battle in a chariot towed by two huge white Polar Bears, she is the very picture of dread. She's awe-inspiring.
Aslan, however, is just a lion... and that's kind of a tragedy, particularly in the way that this movie is being pushed to Christian parents for their Christian kids.
The fact is, in the books, there's no issue whatsoever of being more captivated with evil than with good. The evil is bad, but the Good is Best. And anyone who can meet Aslan in the books and think he's just a lion is a fool.
But a lot of moviegoers will do just that, and it's sad, because with a tiny bit more effort, a tiny bit more mystery and build-up to Aslan and his scenes/parts, this could have been an unqualified home run. Yeah, they needed some less childish looking prop armor/weapons for the kids, and Father Christmas was considerably less Father Christmas-ish than he needed to be as well, but all that would be forgiveable if they hadn't undersold the Hero of the film. One line about Aslan coming from across the ocean... about the Emperor Beyond The Sea (that's how it goes, isn't it? It's been too long) would have added greatly to the mystery and mythos about Aslan. A bit more reverential awe around Aslan, particularly by the Animals (Yes, the most famous line of the book was included: "No, Lucy, he's not tame." "But he is good." Slightly wrong wording, wrong place in the movie (the end) and wrong impact...) would have made this movie... just a bit more talk of Him coming, a couple more hushed whispers about Aslan on the move, a bit more dread on the witch's part at the thought of and the propect of meeting the Lion... The tiniest bit more effort placed into the "resurrection." All those things, making up so little effort on the part of the filmakers would have had amazing results.
All in all, a good movie about a lion who seems to be a very courageous king of the beasts. But as Maxwell Smart used to say... "Missed it by that much!"
So, go see it... and then read the books with your kids. Don't do it the other way around if you can help it. I think that's the order we'll go with in our family.
: Now why exactly did I watch this movie? Some great actors, some groundbreaking animation techniques, a storyline by Philip K. Dick... and still I'm wondering. Eh. 
: The two shows I BUY on dvd are Everybody Loves Raymond and the King of Queens (and Mad About You, whenever they get around to it). So, I'm walking through Blockbuster and see a movie with both Ray Romano from ELR and Kevin James from TKoQ on it. Pushing past my inherent squeemishness for under-advertised movies I've never heard of, I pick this one up and bring 'er home. 
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