Number 1 movie of the year hands down. That’s my opinion at least.
According to imdb.com the top movies for the year were (followed by my opinion):
$380,262,555 Star Wars: Episode III – Good, not great
$234,277,056 War of the Worlds – Really good
$209,021,798 Wedding Crashers – Wouldn’t touch it
$206,438,942 Charlie and the Chocolate Factory – Good, kinda wierd
$205,343,774 Batman Begins – Awesome, very good
$201,010,207 Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire – No thanks
$193,136,719 Madagascar – Good, not great
$186,330,528 Mr. & Mrs. Smith – Good, not great
$177,575,142 Hitch – Really good
$158,115,031 The Longest Yard – Avoid at all costs, too much cussing.
Not sure how well Chronicles will do in the box office, but in my opinion it beats all of these movies. The acting wasn’t top notch, then again the majority of the acting was kids and they did do a good job. I did think James McAvoy, Mr. Tumnus the faun, did really well. The White Witch, Tilda Swinton, was very believable and well done. I also enjoyed Liam Neeson as the voice of Aslan. From what I remember of the book the movie seems to have followed the story line exceptionally well. There were a couple of scenes that looked too fake. The animation of the animals and mythological creatures was wonderful. The battle at the end was on the size of some of the battles in the Lord of the Rings (my all time favorite movie by the way).
I went into the theater with fairly low expectations, not sure what to expect. I left impressed and wanting to see it again.
I’m curious to see whether they make any of the other Chronicles stories into movies. It’s a little unlike The Lord of the Rings in that the other 6 books don’t feature the same characters. I think the White Witch is in one of them, if I remember correctly. One last point…it’s good to see a well done captivating movie with no cussing and sex.