Okay I just saw the movie. I'll save the details of my theater going experience later and just tell everyone what they want to know. One thing I found interesting when I got there is that they said the film was not complete. It was only 112 minutes long, and the representative for Walden Media (he may be the creator of Walden) said that scenes may be added or removed from the film and that they are still adding effects for the 2D AND 3D verisons of the movie. I'm not going to go into specific scene details ,but I will try to cover the issues that have caused the most controversy.

Warning, some Spoilers May Follow
First of all, I will say as a movie I liked Prince Caspian better. Mainly because I am a 17 year old guy and Prince Caspian was more teen targeted. This film is more kid targeted. I'd consider LWW to be a family film (as in for everyone). I'm not saying this film isnt as good as PC, but for my particular age, PC has more appeal. I think kids would enjoy this one a lot better. Its not dark really. In fact I'd let about anyone watch it. The scenes that gave it the PG rating were those revolving around the Sea Serpant attack and the Green Mist (actually a bit creepy at times). Overall though, its a pretty tame movie.

I'll start with what I liked:

I LOVED WILL'S PERFORMANCE!!! He stole every scene he was in. His relationship with Reepicheep (who was also a scene stealer and the second best character in the movie) was probably the most touching and heartfelt elements of the movie.

Georgie, Skandar, and Ben do pretty good. Nothing spectacular about their performances. I do appreciate that Ben dropped his accent and was more of a leader. And I think his relationship with Edmund was well handled, though it could have been developed more. Laura was fine as Lilliandil during her brief screentime. And the Dufflepuds were also voiced well.

A lot of the scenes capture the spirit and the details of the novel really well. I thought the entire sequence with the Dufflepuds and the Magician's book were really well done. Even though they were condensed they brought back memories of what I felt when I read the book for the first time. Other great scenes include the kids being sucked into Narnia after the room gets flooded, the Bell Tower attack, every scene with Eustace and Reep, the end of the world, and the sea serpant.

Good news for some people. The White Witch, Peter, and Susan have extremely small roles. Honestly, the average moviegoer would have probably forgotten about the White Witch and Peter by the time the credits role. Jadis's scene is brief and its clear she is only a figment of Edmund's mind and that her spirit really is dead. However I felt her scene wasnt nearly as impactful as her cameo in Prince Caspian. She didnt seem that scary and her showing up to Edmund felt unecessary because she shows up as the sea serpant is attacking the ship.

The scene where Lucy imagines what life would be like if she was Susan and Lucy didnt exist was actually a positive for me. The scene was fairly short (I was worried it would take up 10 minutes of the movie), but very effective. I like how Will and Anna's cameos were used to help the story and how it didnt feel like they were just added so they could show up in the trailer (unlike the White Witch). I also appreciate that Lucy's jealousy of Susan is explored without consuming her character.

And to clarify a few lines, Reepicheep calls Eustace a "Hysterical Interloper" not "Sterile Interloper".

Also, Lilliandil does not say "The fate of Narnia depends on you." Granted, this is an unfinished movie and they may add that in.

From what I saw, the end credits looked terrific. To bad they cut the movie 10 seconds after the credits started rolling (so that the Walden Media guy could give everyone a survey).

Now for the stuff that doesnt categorize as positive or negative:
Gael. I honestly didnt have a problem with her because she doesnt say much. She is brought onto the ship, yet is always in the background. Her relationship with her mother wasnt well developed so I didnt feel much sympathy for her situation. But she wasnt even developed as Lucy's "cute little friend". She was just there. She occasionally said a few things, but she mostly just acted like a scared sad girl. When writing about how they could improve the film for the final version I said they should either add more scenes to develop her character or they could cut her character entirely (it wouldnt be too hard).

Lilliandil and Caspian's romance is only slightly hinted at. I don't care about this too much, but I know Caspiandil fans were hoping for a kiss and a wedding. Once again I saw an unfinished verison of the film and they may have filmed a kiss or more scenes with her that just ended up getting cut.

The Green Mist. Honestly I didnt hate nor like this plotline. I don't feel it consumed the theme of the movie, but I felt that because of this plotline, the islands felt more like pitstops in a race to save Narnia rather then important places that each have their own mini-plot within them.

The Negatives:
Aslan. He felt like he had a smaller role in this then in PC. While this movie teaches better morals and is overall more family friendly then PC, PC did have the theme of faith and trusting in what you cannot see that this lacked. IN Prince Caspian it was clear that without Aslan, the heroes were helpless in stopping Miraz. In this film the heroes go on with their quest and Aslan just seems to stop by briefly for encouragement or to provide exposition. The "There I have another name" line is there, but I felt it to be less impactful then it should have been because Aslan and his relationship with the kids wasnt developed too well. Particularly with Eustace, which brings me to...

The Undragoning. I'm not going to spoil it but it is a bit different from the book, though it is more than a mere roar. My biggest problem with this scene is that there was almost no lead up to it. Part of this is because it was intercut with the sea serpant battle. But it just felt like a really short scene. We never even got to see Aslan and Eustace talk to each other. My dad and I agreed that the scene where Aslan saves Eustace was the most moving part of the novel and probably the emotional climax for Eustace's character arc. What we get in the film is very anti climatic, not moving, and rushed. As a result, it harms later scenes with Aslan.

They screwed up the Lone Islands. Big time. It started out cool with the Bell Tower attack. But then they ruined the character of Lord Bern (you will see what I mean what you watch it). And the overthrowing of Gumpas is merely the Narnians turning against the slavers and kicking butt for 5 minutes. Seriously, we watch about 5 mintues of the Narnians showing how cool they are with their fight moves. I don't mind action, and even though I think the fight was well done I don't think its what the Lone Island's should have been reduced to.

For the longest time glumpuddle has complained about Coriaken's cheesy lines. For awhile I never understood what the big deal was. Until I had to watch him explain the Dark Island for about 3 entire minutes.

It was too short. Way too short. While there are no big scenes missing, it felt like the filmakers cut footage to shorten scenes or to shorten scenes of traveling or exploring islands to the point where it feels like you can never "absorb" the islands. Or even absorb the scene. The film moves at such a fast pace that you never can quite get into a particular scene. There are many scenes that would have been more moving if they slowed it down a few notches. I hope they add in a few more scenes to give the film room to breath. Cause out of all the problems with the movie, I felt lke the running time was the biggest issue.

Overall I thought it was a good movie. Like i said earlier it would probably appeal more to kids (12 and under) than the previous movies. I'm worried that the tone may be a bit too light for older audiences. I dont think the film should have been dark at all, but there is a point where the film tries come across as "too sweet". I also feel the morals about temptation were stated in too much of a Sunday School Fasion. But this is still a good movie to take your families with. Its pretty faithful to the overall spirit of the novel and it does have great performances from Will and whoever voiced Reepicheep.

Well that is rather encouraging, I wasn't really hoping for any better. So I'm happy
Simon Pegg voiced Reepicheep.

Thank you, Josh! I envy you so much, but this report only makes me want to see VDT even more, even if there might be some flaws. I am officially over the top extremely excited for this movie to FINALLY take sail!

I also attended a screening and mostly agree with the comments above by Josh. Eustace and Reep are excellent throughout the film, which did move along pretty quickly. There won't be any watch-checking during VDT, which I saw several times during PC.

My only disagreement with Josh's review regards Aslan. Aslan's scenes in VDT are very good. His "You wished yourself away..." scene with Lucy was touching, as was the related scene with Susan and Peter. And I liked how they handled the undragoning. It was absolutely one of those, "Oh, thats cool...never thought of it like that" moments.

The end of the film was great, including a large chunk of dialogue taken directly from the book. The end credits were cool, as was the made-me-smile reference to a non-VDT character after Edmund, Lucy, and Eustace return to Cambridge...a nice touch you'll have to "hear" yourself.

As I expected all along, the negativity around this forum and elsewhere was misplaced. This is a good film, probably the best of the three.

Thanks for the reviews spartan5 and Josh!!! Sounds AWESOME!!! I ran into this review.
http://www.thedailyaztec.com/entertainm ... -1.2410603

It has some major errors such as:

Edmund and Lucy are ecstatic to finally return to Narnia, they reunite with old friends and happily resume their roles as prince and princess, respectively.

So I won't pay it too much attention, but what do you guys think of it?

Thank you so much Josh and spartan5 for your reviews! It was great to hear your take on a few of the much debated issues around here.

I am more excited than ever to see this movie!

Thanks for the reviews! Anybody else want to chime in? This sounds great!

The reviews posted here are accurate. As I said earlier, if you check your expectations at the door, you will enjoy the movie, because there is a lot to like about it. Do I wish they had done some things differently? Yes. But overall, there is a lot of good stuff in the film.

I have avoided putting in specific parts of the film so as not to skew anyones opinions of any particular scenes. But I will say, I loved the Aslan/Lucy "you wished yourself away" scene. Thar was unexpected and great.

I think that it will be a good family film. The late teen and young adult demographic will want something "darker" unfortunately.

Thanks for the reviews spartan5 and Josh!!! Sounds AWESOME!!! I ran into this review.
http://www.thedailyaztec.com/entertainm ... -1.2410603

It has some major errors such as:

Edmund and Lucy are ecstatic to finally return to Narnia, they reunite with old friends and happily resume their roles as prince and princess, respectively.

So I won't pay it too much attention, but what do you guys think of it?

Its a typo.

Did someone delete all the previous page and rename the thread? my computer only shows 1 page now.

The posts you see here were moved out of the other thread. I just split the topic because I don't want people to get accidentally spoiled. No posts have been deleted; just moved.

So that's why I'm having dejavoo (sp fail) That's a great idea Gymfan

The reviews posted here are accurate. As I said earlier, if you check your expectations at the door, you will enjoy the movie, because there is a lot to like about it. Do I wish they had done some things differently? Yes. But overall, there is a lot of good stuff in the film.

I have avoided putting in specific parts of the film so as not to skew anyones opinions of any particular scenes. But I will say, I loved the Aslan/Lucy "you wished yourself away" scene. Thar was unexpected and great.

I think that it will be a good family film. The late teen and young adult demographic will want something "darker" unfortunately.

Yes - the more I think about it, the more I like how this came out on-screen. Very well done.

My thoughts are influenced slightly by my 'spoiler philosophy' - I've tried to avoid all but the highest-level spoilers (the ones in the trailers or that you just can't miss here on the forum).

Given that, those really big plot changes that have gotten so much attention aren't surprising when they show up. And it allowed me to focus on a number of small delights that, even if not spelled out in the source matter, are (in my opinion) consistent with its spirit. One example is mentioned by rjefvh above. Another is the external appearance of Coriakin's house (I'm being deliberately vague there; a spoiler might ruin the fun!). There were other things that we quite liked - and a few things taken right from the page.

The late teen and young adult demographic will want something "darker" unfortunately.

Interesting observation! I can certainly understand this, especially as this film isn't as dark as PC was. Still, the person I viewed it with (age 19) thought parts were still too dark.