Saw it with my 12 and 14 year-old daughters on Saturday, doing our Christian duty to boost the opening box office. The older girl was enraged to tears with the liberties the movie took with the plot. I expected less — book and movies are different genres, with different requirements — but was still disappointed. It was a good movie, but not what one would expect give the excellence of the source material. The “McGuffins” — the mechanized magical element — may have been required for cinematic purposes, but really left us cold.
The one thing they did well, however, was expanding upon and developing the character of Eustace. Pity they scrubbed the “baptism” scene ...
We really enjoyed it, but get this. We saw it on Saturday night at the AMC theater in Downtown Disney. The theater wasn’t even half full. I was surprised, but maybe people don’t go to Downtown Disney to watch movies.
My favorite scene in the whole book was where Ramandu delivered the verbal smackdown to Eustace in their repartee over the essence of being. It was dropped from the film.
Apart from that, I enjoyed it, and as with the other Chronicles films to date, I truly appreciated that the CGI and effects were used to effectively enhance the storyline and acting rather than replace them.
I have not read the books (on my list of suggested presents this year).
Since, by your comments, you obviously have read them, may I ask if the absence of Peter and Susan (the older brother and sister) is part of the novels as well?
Thanks.