CONTAINS MOVIE SPOILERS.
I suppose if we hadn’t been spoiled with LOTR for three years running most people would consider Narnia to be one of the better movies they’d seen in an age. As the Barfly muttered into his beer last night we do seem to be in a Golden Age of movies again. The kind of epics that need to be seen on the big screen to get the full effect; King Kong, Narnia, Flightplan… Er, forget that last one.
So while it is a good movie, it’s not what could be called a great movie.
I liked Lucy, I thought Aslan looked great, I even- god help me- liked Tumnus somewhat (although it should be noted that Tumnus is a fawn and NOT a satyr, the difference being er, the length of the horns and the uh, type of tail.) But what I couldn’t get over was the lack of blood in the movie.
Peter kills Maugrim.
No blood.
Edmund gets speared.
No blood.
Aslan dies (yeah, sorry kids, he does.)
No blood.
Now correct me if I’m wrong, but isn’t there a big deal made in the book about Aslan’s blood being spilled on the Stone Table which is what causes the damn thing to crack? I also seem to remember a section of prose which talks about Lucy untying the ropes that had cut into Aslan’s muzzle and wiping away the dried blood from around his mouth.
LOTR had the same ‘12′ rating and yet there was much more blood and gore, although, saying that I did feel there were certain scenes in Narnia that had been cut for or by the censor. Something for the DVD perhaps?

Yes, I know it’s a kids story, most people I know first read Narnia when they were about 7 or 8. But if I could read about and imagine a dead, de-maned Lion covered in blood at that age why then, can’t I see even a fraction of that imagining at the age of thirty-mumble? Not that I want to come across as some sort of bloody thirsty gore freak, but a little bit of realism would have been nice in a magical world. Surely with a budget of over 200 million dollars Adamson could have set aside a couple thou for a few bottles of ketchup? Although I see now it was a Walt Disney production. Nuff said, the Mouse is not for bleeding.