Narnia leaden and slow-moving says magazine

New Zealand director Andrew Adamson's Narnia film - premiered in London yesterday - is a "franchise killer" says a cinema magazine, Premiere.

"They've given us no reason to want to visit Narnia ever again," said reviewer Peter Debruge after the premiere. "Virtually every creative decision defies logic".

He said decisions such as the White Witch's impossibly awkward costume or the Bjork-sounding New Age score made it feel as if the book were adapted by someone who spent too much time attending science fiction conventions.

The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe was the most entertaining of the Narnia books and if handled correctly, the film could have enchanted audiences into returning repeatedly to adaptions of other books.

"Instead, the movie is a leaden, slow-moving beast".

Adamson was out of his depth with live action: though he clearly took enormous pleasure in designing centaurs and cyclopes, werewolves and fauns, "he captures none of the narrative charm or personality of (author CS) Lewis' source material".

"The Weta (Digital) effects that impressed us so in the Lord of the Rings trilogy ... have been downgraded to weak talking-animal animation from Rhythm & Hues.

"The mouths move funny, the fur looks fake and voices seem ill-suited to the animals they personify".

Adamson's epic battle sequence at the end of the film, was truly a visceral and rewarding experience, but it only showed Disney should have hired him to direct episode seven, The Last Battle, and given the first instalment to a more capable storyteller, Debruge said.

Another reviewer, Alistair Harkness of the Edinburgh-based The Scotsman newspaper, said Adamson was too in awe of the book and the film had been "constructed" in a conservative, risk-free way.

- NZPA