Even Captain Obvious, the mouth breathing, popcorn chomping 11 year old seated beside me couldn’t ruin Narnia, exclaiming such jems as “They’re young again!” and “She’s really bad!” I wasn’t expecting much, so I was pleasantly surprised by believable computer generated characters, no Jar Jars here. I was also pleased by the casting of mostly unknowns (the four poutiest children ever), which has always been a strength for Harry Potter. So, Liam Neeson as Aslan was a huge disruptive (edit: stupid) blow to the movie’s flow. Cramming the whole book into 2.5 hours didn’t exactly do wonders for character build-up either.
The shining star in this movie was by far and away Tilda Swinton as the white witch, I was almost hoping they’d ditch the book’s ending and let her behead Qui-gon Aslan. She was about a thousand times scarier than Ralph Feinnes’ cue-ball Voldemort. (HP producers, take note: no eyebrows = much scarier than no nose.) Tilda Swinton carried this movie, so unless someone as capable shows up in the sequels I won’t be impressed.
