It might have been more prudent for the filmmakers to have eschewed Narnia altogether, since these stories don't lend themselves to this medium terribly well. Still, this may be the best of the three so far...but that's not saying much. The story outlines are there, and all the main episodes of the book survive, but reordered and refocused, to mixed effect. Whereas the book is a picaresque series of loosely connected adventures in which the principal conflicts are all matters of morality and character, the film opts for a central villain and sword-fights--with themes and images borrowed from other more successful fantasy films.
Harry Potter had Voldemort, so they move Lewis's Dark Isle of Dreams to the climax and transform it into the base of a wholly new, dementor-like green mist that envelops people, as well as showing up whenever one of the heroes is contemplating less-than-honorable behaviour. Its principal threat to the heroes, however, is not nightmares, but instead a Sea Serpent, which is to be thwarted somehow by gathering the seven silver swords of the missing Narnian lords (something like Rings of Power...).
This is all a bit silly, and turns a spiritual tale into something like Mighty Morphin Power Rangers, with the lesson that difficulties are best resolved by slugging things out. Struggles with conscience don't seem to have much of a role to play in between battles. Thus, the principal character development in the book, the transformation of Eustace from an insufferable prig into a decent guy, is delayed considerably, and the film's attention to this part of the story wanes and waxes disconcertingly. It may have been a good idea, cinematically, to allow him to remain as a dragon to help battle the Sea Serpent and even to help find the seventh sword...but the quietness of his transformation in the book is much more effective.
The acting is generally acceptable, if not brilliant or even particularly memorable. Georgie Henley has grown up nicely, and is starting to look like a young Drew Barrymore. (Lucy's fear of being plainer than her sister Susan does seem ludicrous, however, given her maturing beauty and the fact that the latter looks a thoroughly conventional débutante.) Skandar Keynes, as Edmund Pevensie, is also fine, though out-shown regularly by Will Poulter, as Eustace. Liam Neeson and Simon Pegg do creditable voice-over work for their important CG characters.
The script, not surprisingly, is wildly uneven. All the best lines are Lewis's. Expositions and rewrites designed to facilitate the narrative changes are uniformly dull and flat. Many small changes seem ill-considered--for example, why would anyone bring a minotaur (cattle on boats?!) on an ocean voyage? What's the point of having a second girl stowaway on board? And so on. I wish they'd found a way to leave more of Lewis in, and not meddle so much with the story...and leave out at least half of the battle scenes!
I haven't seen (and have no intention of seeing) the 3D version, but can't imagine that it adds much.
Harry Potter had Voldemort, so they move Lewis's Dark Isle of Dreams to the climax and transform it into the base of a wholly new, dementor-like green mist that envelops people, as well as showing up whenever one of the heroes is contemplating less-than-honorable behaviour. Its principal threat to the heroes, however, is not nightmares, but instead a Sea Serpent, which is to be thwarted somehow by gathering the seven silver swords of the missing Narnian lords (something like Rings of Power...).
This is all a bit silly, and turns a spiritual tale into something like Mighty Morphin Power Rangers, with the lesson that difficulties are best resolved by slugging things out. Struggles with conscience don't seem to have much of a role to play in between battles. Thus, the principal character development in the book, the transformation of Eustace from an insufferable prig into a decent guy, is delayed considerably, and the film's attention to this part of the story wanes and waxes disconcertingly. It may have been a good idea, cinematically, to allow him to remain as a dragon to help battle the Sea Serpent and even to help find the seventh sword...but the quietness of his transformation in the book is much more effective.
The acting is generally acceptable, if not brilliant or even particularly memorable. Georgie Henley has grown up nicely, and is starting to look like a young Drew Barrymore. (Lucy's fear of being plainer than her sister Susan does seem ludicrous, however, given her maturing beauty and the fact that the latter looks a thoroughly conventional débutante.) Skandar Keynes, as Edmund Pevensie, is also fine, though out-shown regularly by Will Poulter, as Eustace. Liam Neeson and Simon Pegg do creditable voice-over work for their important CG characters.
The script, not surprisingly, is wildly uneven. All the best lines are Lewis's. Expositions and rewrites designed to facilitate the narrative changes are uniformly dull and flat. Many small changes seem ill-considered--for example, why would anyone bring a minotaur (cattle on boats?!) on an ocean voyage? What's the point of having a second girl stowaway on board? And so on. I wish they'd found a way to leave more of Lewis in, and not meddle so much with the story...and leave out at least half of the battle scenes!
I haven't seen (and have no intention of seeing) the 3D version, but can't imagine that it adds much.