Reviews are coming in all over the place now. It seems most people are giving the Chronicles of Narnia about 4 out of 5 stars. So with reviews like that, it means to me that it is a good movie. Most people are going to love it, and a few won’t.
CrimsonLight.com has the fullroundup of reviews. Check back daily.

Ain’t It Cool News
The people over at AICN have given an early review for The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe. The reviewer is more than positive and admits he has only read one of the Narnia books. It seems like the only issue ‘Ed’ had was the arrival of Santa Claus [yes, he makes an appearance], something I had hoped would have been cut out in the movie. But heck, I guess the children needed to get their weapons from somebody; and who better than St. Nick?

You completely buy into the Narnia universe, mainly because of the fantastic Mr. Tumnus who really comes alive as a character and not just a hoofed cartoon. Also, the CGI work on his legs is amazing; I found myself almost distracted by it (somewhat disturbingly), trying to figure out how they did it. Another questionable element from the trailer, the Beavers, managed to be a pleasant surprise. They add some humor (not in the Gimli falling off the horse way though). Also, the CGI on them was very good too.

There’s a couple scenes added to the film that aren’t in the book. One is a fantastic battle with the wolves on a frozen waterfall that is among the most badass action sequences shot on film this year. I’ll say no more about that scene, other than that it added a lot to Peter’s journey towards using his sword, and made his transition from normal boy to swordsman much more believable and less abrupt.

In fact, it was clear to see that most of the additions to the story had a solid purpose in adapting the story to film. I’m sure some people will still complain about the new material just because it wasn’t in the book, but I think it helps the story work as a movie.

Since I have had a major fantasy hard-on ever since seeing the teaser trailer of The Chronicles of Narnia, something that first had me question how one turns a short book into a long movie, I cannot wait for this Disney flick to hit theatres.

This review is very funny and very real. Please be warned though, that as with most AICN reviews, there is some mild language scattered throughout the review and a big whammer

CinemaBlend.com (4/5 stars)
“What The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe really is, is a spectacular adaptation of a fairly nice fantasy tale. It doesn’t just live up to its source material, it surpasses it by finding nuances in the story that C.S. Lewis didn’t.” Read it here.

Ebert & Roeper have given the film two thumbs up. Click here to listen to their review (the review also has a few movie sound clips).

Finally, Rotten Tomatoes has some good review snippets listed on their website. Click here.

“Lord of the Rings and Passion of the Christ in one movie. Narnia (the film) exceeds LOTR (the film) in character expression and depth, but drags some in pace.”
– Ross Anthony, HOLLYWOOD REPORT CARD

http://spaces.msn.com/members/possom/Blog/cns!1phU_QKpOr4MA03Y62xN8IGg!493.entry has some stuff to day.

This entry was posted on Friday, December 9th, 2005 at 6:09 pm and is filed under Misc. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.