I enjoyed the film very much up until the "war". The actors who played the children were very good (Lucy and Edmund especially). The faun and other creatures were well done. The White Witch was meanacing, yet seductive (in a PG appropriate way). The film made it clear why Edumund would have betrayed the other children. The religious overtones were there, of course, but not in an obnoxious way. The story is a very nice retelling of the Passion and the essence of Christ's sacrifice.

I have a hard time putting my finger on why I did not enjoy the movie more, but it had something to do with Peter. Not with the actor, or even the character, really. I think I had my suspension of disbelief damaged a bit by the fact that these four children go from being just ordinary kids to great warriors and leaders of Narnia in about 36 hours. There was an attempt to show Peter's reluctance of taking up the leadership mantle, to approach the difficulty even a prophesized king would have taking a life for the first time, but that never really worked for me. Maybe it was the "clean your sword" comment from Aslan about a not-bloody sword (which I suppose was not bloody to keep the movie PG and kid friendly). If they would have held that scene a little longer, given us a shot of Peter wiping the blood of the foe from his blade with a look of sadness yet determination on his face, maybe things would have been fine for me, I don't know.

Maybe expecting character development from a two hour film that comes from a children's story is asking too much. Maybe it's the source material; the book probably just has the children assume their roles as Narnian royalty without batting an eyelash. Maybe that lack of character drama is why I have only read the Narnia books two or three times since that first time in the third grade and I have read Tolkien's stuff fifteen or twenty.

Good, yes. Definetly worth a viewing. A very good children's movie, but ultimately just and only that (for me at least).