13. Dec, 2010 
The first thing that must said about The Chronicles of Narnia is that they are in fact made for
children. This is an epic series for young imaginative minds and I believe the author, C.S. Lewis did this with purpose. In my opinion Lewis had set out to present deep and timeless truths by using allegory that may or may not be timeless itself.
That being said, I will now do my best to review this movie as a movie….not a retelling of the book, but a retelling of the timeless truths that C.S. Lewis intended to convey. I will also briefly say, that I believe the voyages in the book were much richer and more meaningful than the movie portrayed. I think that the writers who transcript the novel to a screen play made some silly changes that didn’t need to be made. So if this were a review of how well the story was told, it would not get the same ratio of stars.
But this is a movie review, and alas, it is time to review the movie!!
The director was Michael Apted who’s other movies include Coal Minor’s Daughter, Gorillas in the Mist, The World is Not Enough, and a few other films that give him credibility. Apted and his team did a great job setting up the shots that included a slew of complicated CGi characters. The actors reacted well to those characters and you very quickly forgot that they were CGi.
Reepicheep is one of Narnia’s most noble characters who fervently seeks after adventure and honor. He has the heart of a lion and the stature of a mouse. As a matter of fact, he is a mouse! To truly fall in love with Reepicheep I would suggest reading the book or finding a radio drama of the chronicled stories. I was impressed that this fully CGi character wasn’t EVER distractingly CGi. Even in the Lord of the Rings, the amazingly constructed Gollum was many times obviously a CGi character. I have great respect for the 3D artists that made these characters come to life.
SHOULD YOU WATCH IT IN 3D???? No! Spend that extra money on a soda or candy! I’m not an anti-3D person. I think there is a time and a place. This movie did not benefit from 3D.
The acting was done well and you will either love to hate our new character Eustace Scrubb or you will just hate him! This was a GREAT cast! This little guy has a face that drips with bitterness and pride yet has the acting chops to make you feel like he’s “work in progress”. And you better get used to that face, because his character is the lead role in the next Chronicle.
This story is more about Lucy and Edmund making that transformation from children to young adults. Lucy gets most of the plot line in the movie and it is quite skewed from the true story from C.S. Lewis. However, these modern storytellers kept the same over all idea of our characters who are charged with making the right decisions under great temptations.
In short I believe that this movie was VERY well done and as a stand alone movie it is a great night at the cinema that your kids will enjoy as well as you adults! Just look past the subtle changes in the story line and quick moments of bad acting and you’ve got your self a 4 star movie!! Hope you go out and enjoy it. Please feel free to leave your thoughts about the movie below. Agree with me! Disagree with me!! As long as we’re still talking! 
I hated this film. But then again, i’ve read the book recently and have been a lewis fan for years. If i had seen it without ever reading the book, it would have been so-so. But I absolutely agree with your first statement that this review would have been different if it had been a review on close it was to the book. It was so blatent that is they didn’t bother to read the book. Ok so it has a ship and they are travelling to island, at least they got that right, oh and the characters are named correctly. I want to strangle the screen writers!!! Biggest waste of my time and money ever!
haha! Yeah, they certainly got most of the names right… technically they didn’t get Prince Caspian’s name correct. If I remember correctly, in The Voyage of the Dawn Treader, Prince Caspian had died generations ago and that THIS Prince Caspian was his tenth descendant!
Which was something I loved about the books….it brings a depth and weight to the children as they learn that their friend has died. Anyways…thanks for taking a moment to leave your comments!
I haven’t had a chance to see any of the Narnia movies but I have read the books, all of which are fantastic. I know that Voyage of the Dawn Treader comes out on DVD tomorrow, April 8th. I think I will check it out just to see for myself maybe even get it for my much younger brother, from your review I think he might enjoy it.
Thanks! I get inspiration from watching others and calling it like I see it. I’ll try and keep up the posts and you can request a topic, movie, or short film for me to review. Just let us know what you’d like to see on the blog. Thanks again!
Hi there! You’re comment is in a language I cannot understand.
I see a question mark and I’d love to try and answer that question. Can you translate it into english for me? Thanks!
Certainly!
Just Search for Storied Productions from Denton, TX or visit our website for the link. http://www.storiedproductions.com