Prince Caspian
Here follows a review of the the Narnia movie: Prince Caspian.
Of course, there will be spoilers... You have been warned! But I seriously doubt that anyone who's old enough to read this blog could have gotten through life without hearing the plot of most of these books anyway... And if you are, by chance, someone who has never read the Chronicles of Narnia? Shame on you!
Let me say right now, before I get into anything else, that you should stop what you're doing and go see this movie right now, and no excuses. I know there's going to be some people out there who are going to balk at the idea of watching a movie steeped with religious overtones, but, Christian doctrine aside, it's a good family-friendly fantasy movie that needs support to encourage more movies like it! Plus, we all want to see if they can get past The Silver Chair like the BBC movies were unable to do. That being said, here's the review:
It is vastly different from the book. I can hear the groans and cries of disappointment already, but hear me out. I'm not usually tolerant of changes, but I realize why they had to do it. Even in the first movie, when Edmund was heading toward the Witch's castle, they had the beavers and the rest of the kids follow him to pretty near the doorstep. That didn't happen in the book, but I could see why they did it: They needed to get the point across that no matter how angry they were with him, they still wanted him safe, and I think they managed that when Peter tried running down the hill and Mister Beaver stopped him.
That being said, the Prince Caspian movie was very nearly completely out of order with a major battle scene inserted that simply wasn't there in the book. It starts off with Caspian being whisked out of his castle with the birth of his uncle's son, not with the kids sitting on the bench at the train station heading back to school. Caspian is chased through the forest and is knocked off his horse. The commotion pulls a couple of dwarves from their tree who are then forced to fight the people chasing Caspian. One dwarf is taken, and Caspian somehow winds up inside the tree. (I'm going on memory from last week, so some details might be sketchy.) He wakes up, he learns he's in a tree with a dwarf (Nikabrik) and a badger... They present him with Susan's horn, leave the tree, and are pursued by more Telmarines who are quickly dispatched by a gang of mice! Somewhere around this time, Caspian blows the horn and then the movie cuts to the kids at the train station. It is worthy to note that Caspian never blew the horn until they were deeply entrenched in Aslan's How and about to be defeated by Miraz's troops. The dwarf, Trumpkin, was NOT captured by Miraz's forces and then taken to the castle... He was sent to find the kids after Caspian blew the horn and was captured only right before he met the kids.
Very neat scene then follows where the train station is torn apart and the kids are left standing in a cave on a beach... Before this, however, Peter was deep in a fight with other guys of his school and were only broken up when some British soldiers showed up. This was also not in the book in the least bit, BUT... I think it provided some... Background? Imagine... They were kings and queens of greatest renown in Narnia and are suddenly thrown back into the real world. There are going to be some problems adjusting to life, and I think Peter's fight and the reasons for the fight helped show that. It gave an ounce of believability.
They learn the beach they showed up on was the beach below their ruined castle Cair Paravel. They find the treasure room... This part is accurate! And it was incredibly chilling how they filmed this part. Very quiet music... A sense of desolation and ruin mixed with the life of overgrown trees and plants. It gave the clear sense that, to them, they'd just left, and now here's their home for 30 years completely destroyed and abandoned. It would be sad and just plain CREEPY, but somehow awesome at the same time. Very nicely handled! But then they meet Trumpkin and are led directly to Caspian who has not yet reached Aslan's How. In the book, they first met Caspian when he was watching them attempt to revive the White Witch. Very departed from the book here... A little disappointing, but I understand the need to inject some excitement into the film. Honestly, in my opinion, Prince Caspian was the least of all seven books. It was sparse, the story was light, and it just felt like a sequel. I don't think it would have been a good movie if WAS accurate and all you did was watch Caspian be beaten repeatedly by Miraz's forces.
Along the way, the movie kept the parts where Lucy kept claiming to see Aslan and nobody would believe her, except Edmund. (Who still didn't believe enough to follow her.) Except they made her dream about the trees, when, in the book, it was real. Also, in the book, the kids found Aslan before they met Caspian. There was a huge party in the forest and the trees woke up and all that... Left out in the movie. Well, not entirely. They met Aslan only after the dual with Miraz when they sent Susan and Lucy to look for him. Entirely wrong, but, eh... It worked, I think.
So after they meet Caspian and reach Aslan's How, Peter assumes control of the army and organizes a force to raid Miraz's castle. Here follows a MASSIVE part of the movie that was not at all in the book, period. I would have been incredibly upset, but, again, I think it worked. The mood of the book was that nobody believed in Aslan anymore and only Lucy was the one who could see him at first. I think the whole castle invasion worked in the sense that it showed that nobody was willing to look for Aslan FIRST and that they were going to do things their way, because they didn't want to wait for Aslan's own time. They send an invading force that breaches the perimeter by using griffons (VERY awesome). Of course, it doesn't at all go well and they lose half of their army in the process... They retreat back to Aslan's How and only then decide to try the whole duel approach to solving the problem. In the book, it was really only Susan who didn't believe in Aslan anymore (which becomes a recurring event in later books). Edmund and Peter seemed to acknowledge that Aslan MIGHT be nearby, but weren't ready to trust him, and the dwarf was just plain anti-Aslan to the extreme. I think the movie made it far more clear that nobody (except Lucy) was willing to trust Aslan with their lives without some sort of proof, and decided to take things into their own hands and were dealt some pretty nasty blows.
Things start getting a little more on track from here on out. Duel happens, Miraz is murdered by his own men and they accuse the Narnians and a battle ensues. Aslan and the trees come to the rescue and the army is defeated and Caspian is crowned king in Miraz's old castle. Aslan offers the Telmarines a return to Earth through a portal nobody could see through, and the Telmarines were too afraid to go through, save for a handful, who were promised a good life for being the first to trust Aslan. When none of the others would attempt passage, Peter said it was time for them to go, and they departed through the portal.
As you can see... Major departure from the book's progression, but, as a whole, I think it conveyed the same points as the book while keeping it interesting for the film medium. They kept the important themes of the book, so I have no complaints. They didn't want to wait on Aslan, so they tried to do things themselves and failed. Still no sign of Aslan, they decided to revive the White Witch, because she would give results, but that ended in near disaster, with Edmund coming to the rescue to stop the process. Finally, only when all hope had faded, they sent Lucy to look for Aslan and they came back to finish the war. I think it's obvious that this was the theme of both the book and the movie.
I'm not going to mention a lot of the special effects or the music or anything... That's not really my department of expertise. Story and canon is where I notice differences. While Prince Caspian is only loosely based on the events of the book, it still portrays characters, moods and themes just as well as the book did. I think this movie is less epic than the first, but I think that also holds true for the book. What I can't wait for is The Voyage of the Dawn Treader. I think it's one of my favorite books, so I'll have high expectations. (I think Magician's Nephew is my top favorite, followed by The Last Battle, then The Voyage of the Dawn Treader, A Horse and His Boy, The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, The Silver Chair and finally Prince Caspian.)
Anyway, regardless of the shortcomings, this is definitely a movie worth seeing!