I approached this movie with a sense of excitement, but also a healthy skepticism. Like many of the current Harry Potter fans, I was wild about the Narnia books as a child. I devoured the entire set over the course of about a month when I was eight or nine years old. So I was extremely excited when I found out that the land of Narnia was coming to the bigscreen at last. This excitement was tempered by an equal amount of worry, however, as I was very afraid that it wouldn't live up to my extremely high expectations.

My worry was completely unfounded.

This movie met and surpassed everything I had hoped it would be. The CGI that created the talking animals was seamless, believable, and--at times--a bit frightening in its realism. I was startled at how well-done the wolves were, and I don't know if I've ever seen CGI characters better-done than the Beaver Family. Aslan--one of my biggest worries with regards to how the CGI would be done--was also done very well. Liam Neeson was great as the voice of Aslan, and the characters who voiced the Beavers were also quite good. The CGI that created the battle sequences was almost perfect, as it conveyed the incredible intensity of battle, while implying the horrible violence, without actually SHOWING much blood and guts. It was during these sequences that the movie walked the fine line between PG and PG-13. I think the PG rating was correct.

As for the actors, I felt that the movie was well acted overall, and that three actors stood out from the rest. The performances of (in no particular order) Georgie Henley as Lucy, Skandar Keynes as Edmund, and Tilda Swinton as Jadis, the White Witch were spectacular. One drawback of the movie was that I would have liked to have seen more of the interaction between the White Witch and Edmund, as it would have better fleshed out the reasons behind Edmund's betrayal of his family. But I felt that Keynes did a good job of bringing to life the beastly nature of Edmund's character, while also not removing ALL sympathy we felt for his character so as to assure we were happy when he was saved by Aslan. I loved the opening sequence of the London bombings for that reason as well. It helped to flesh out all the characters a bit, but it especially did so with Edmund, providing a depth to his character's brutishness that I don't know that the book even captured as deeply.

Georgie Henley was able to portray Lucy in a way that completely captured the spirit of her character as delineated in the book. She was innocent, trusting, and honest. Brave and frightened in turns, Ms. Henley accurately portrayed Lucy's standing as something of a moral conscience of the Pevensie children while in Narnia. She delivered her lines with conviction, and she (along with Keynes) are two actors that I feel MUST be cast in the same roles in the upcoming Narnia movies. Mosely and Popplewell--while solid--are replaceable. Henley and Keynes are not.

William Mosely was very good as Peter, though the screenplay did not portray him as being as brave as I remember him in the book. That isn't necessarily a critism of Mosely, though, as he did a fine job as Peter. Anna Popplewell's role as Susan was well-done also, but again, I wasn't all that happy with how the character was written in the screenplay. In the story, she is very logical, and can come across as a bit "anal" you might say, but she is no coward. It almost appears in the movie as if the script writers wrote her as a bit cowardly. Again, this may not, in fact, be a criticism of Ms. Popplewell's acting. I felt she did a fine job, but that the part of Susan possibly could have been written better. Additionally, Mr. Mosely and Ms. Popplewell are old enough (18 and 17 respectively) that they may well end up playing the grown Peter and Susan before the series is completed.

I would be remiss if I didn't mention the beautiful cinematography on this film. Along with the outstanding musical score written for the film, the cinematography leaves you breathless at some points in the film. Purely on an aesthetic level, this is a gorgeous film to look at.

If there are drawbacks to this movie, one would probably be not fully fleshing out WHY Edmund would betray his family, especially regarding how he was bewitched by the Turkish Delight and his own selfishness. They brought in the Turkish Delight, but the scenes with the White Witch weren't really extensive enough to allow us to understand why he turned on his family. Another slight drawback would be how they portray Aslan's death. Though the girls (Henley and Popplewell) do a fine job of portraying Lucy and Susan's grief. The death sequence was not nearly so violent as I had always imagined it to be in the book. Maybe once again, the producers were trying to walk the fine line between PG and PG-13. Who knows? But that was a drawback in my opinion.

All in all, I would have to say this is the best film I've seen this year. I have watched nearly every major new release, and this one is right at the top of the list. Well worth the price of admission, and--in my opinion--worth seeing more than once on the big screen