The first time I went to see the movie, I was with my family and one of our friends who had read the books but was not a "fan". She loved the movie and said it had a deep meaning. On Russian Narnia sites the movie rates quite high.

Anhun, I'm not De, but I could give my modest opinion. I would say both versions rate the same, except that the Russian one did not have the advantage of British accents. Hearing the Russian translation, I could pretty much tell what the lines were in English, and I was shocked at how miserably corny they must be in the movie's native language. As a translation, it was normal, but looking at it, you could tell how cheesy the lines must be in English. (My thoughts were confirmed after seeing the movie in English)

Today my teacher and I got in a discussion about the Narnia films. He thought the first two were bad but VDT was pretty good. I disagreed with him, not only because of the poor acting, cheesy dialogue, and plotholes, but also because it missed the central themes. (My teacher is a Christian and I go to a Christian school). I explained the themes of redemption and their reliance on Aslan and noted how the movie rarely acknowledged Aslan's power. He thought it was a better representation of Jesus than the book. ( He doesn't think the Narnia books are good except LWW and SC. He said he didn't like Lewis as a fictional author and I told him that was blasphemy )