Keith Devens .com

Well? What'd ya think of the movie?

Basically, it was better in my head.

While watching it I felt like there was no reason for me to be there. I was like, I've seen this already, and it was better the other time Don't get me wrong, it was definitely enjoyable, I'd still rather see it than not see it, and I wouldn't mind if they make movies out of the other books in the series.

One thing I didn't like is that they screwed up the part with the professor towards the beginning. Importantly, they left out the part about how if Lucy was pretending she would have stayed in the wardrobe for longer than a few seconds, and that that was what made her story most believable. I also thought they made the professor look foolish rather than wise. That initial scene bugged me for most of the rest of the movie. That interaction was one of my favorite parts of the book.

By far the coolest part was when Peter battles the witch. The interaction of Mr. and Mrs. Beaver was one of the more enjoyable aspects of the movie -- they captured well the spirit of their interaction in the book. They changed and added some minor things, and added some scenes that weren't in the book, in particular a scene where Edmund meets Mr. Tumnus that I found annoying and thought was poorly done. They also took some scenes out. But all in all, it's done pretty faithfully to the book, almost scene for scene IIRC, and overall it was very well done. But again, where it disappointed me was that it was basically a copy of the book in movie form. Not that it claimed to be anything different, but like I said, I felt like I'd seen all of it already. But to reiterate, I'd still recommend seeing it.

Over dinner, my friend said the movie felt like a poor-man's Lord of the Rings.

Here's an excellent review of the movie I'd recommend reading if you're interested.