The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion the Witch and the Wardrobe

This was a beautifully-made movie, and it is one that should be seen in theatres, because of the panoramic fight scenes.

It followed the book fairly well, and in fact I thought it enhanced the book better, especially since the first ten minutes actually was only the two beginning sentences of the book: that of London and the air raids. Cinemagraphically, this was also well done in that it helped to illustrate a little more of the individual personalities of the characters, (esp. Edmund) and laid the ground for what was to come, that of his betrayal of the siblings to the White Witch. Whereas in the book his betrayal was due to some enchanted Turkish Delight, and thus he was operating under a spell, the movie appears to present us with a character who bears more of the responsibility - that of his headstrong personality and his hunger for greater things. I like this aspect over the book in that it makes his familial reparations that much more "intense," if you will.

Other than that, and certain other little plot tweaks, the movie closely followed the book, which I had actually thought would be boring for the children, for I've never found CS Lewis to be the absolute greatest writer of plots - most of his stories tend to gloss over details or rush the action, or worse, occasionally draw out one scene over half the book. But instead, the movie was very entertaining, visually stimulating, very heroic.

And, of course, it will draw some comparisons to Peter Jackson's Lord of the Rings, because it follows so closely on its heels, and all I can say about any comparisons is that it has all of the heoric glamour byt not of the same "ponderousness" - again, a direct result of the differences between the books from which they were drawn.

Overall - watch it. And don't read any reviews, because they'll just colour your thinking and prevent you from fully enjoying the story, which is well-told in this particular medium.

And when I say don't read reviews, I, of course, include my own!

VG