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!
Well, I've really been going on about how amazing Sunshine is as a movie, and after doing some reading on it like one does when they like something, I've come across posts saying how anti-religion it is, or how anti-religion it's supposed to be and stuff like that... I guess I could see how it could be construed that way, and I want to explain what I believe. Of course, doing that, there will be major spoilers, so I will put that behind a link for those of you who plan on watching. And when I mean "major spoilers", I mean... I'm going to give away the entire story, so don't read if you want to be surprised!
It was storming lastnight, so I had to prematurely cut short my Elite Force game with TW. DSL works properly now, and as such, it's far more sensitive to noise than before, which kind of makes sense, but is incredibly annoying. Every flash of lightning strong enough to cause the faintest crackle of static would make it disconnect. So I decided to watch the long overdue obligatory werewolf movie viewing of Blood and Chocolate. (Freaky odd name, yes...) I would have to say... While it isn't a good movie in and of itself, it IS a very good werewolf movie. (Seeing as how they're ALL TERRIBLE except this, and the werewolf episode in the new Doctor Who series.)
However, I still can't help but feel it's a stereotypical movie. In just about every wolf-centric story, the wolves are either giant evil monsters bent on devouring all of mankind and must be stopped at all costs, or they're misunderstood creatures who everyone is afraid of for the wrong reasons and must be stopped at all costs and they kill humans in self-defense... In either case, wolves are hunted and they kill humans. Doesn't seem to matter how glorified they get or how monstrous they get. So I again ask, can there be a GOOD, original werewolf movie? One that doesn't just rehash everything ever done before? It's like the fantasy genre! It's so stagnant... Everything that's been done is going to be redone over and over. You might have a few stand-outs like Blood and Chocolate or the Doctor Who episode, but not usually!
What I would like to see is a flip-side to the generic werewolf blah-ness... Like, I don't know, has anyone ever thought that it would be a PRIVILEGE to see one? Hey, if I somehow learned that you could willingly change back and forth between human and wolf form, I'm going to be the last person to ever freak out. In fact, I'd probably give you a big hug. Barring, of course, you didn't turn out to be a "disease" werewolf that goes insane every full moon and wreaks havoc all night. (Which, I might add, I would prefer NOT to be the werewolf theory... I'd hope for sane wolf shifters who could pass on their powers.)
But back to the movie, I would suggest you at least check it out, especially if you're a wolf/werewolf buff like me. I thought it was rated R, but it's only PG-13... For violence (which wasn't really so bad compared to other PG-13 movies), sexuality (of which I didn't notice any... I mean, there was a bar scene, but never any... James Bond flagship scenes), and substance abuse...
Substance abuse? Okay... I didn't see any drugs. At all. The only thing I could EVER think they would be referring to? Probably the drinking of alcoholic beverages. But when has THAT ever been considered substance abuse? Okay, not that... Hmm. Well, there's the whole silver-thing... Silver is deadly to werewolves! (I think that's something that should remain stereotypical. Just seems... Somehow... Well, I wouldn't say NICE, but it seems... Normal.) So some guy threw silver dust in a human-form werewolf's face. Yep... Substance abuse. Werewolves getting high off silver dust. Then there's the silver-poisoning antidote... Is THAT substance abuse? If it is, you should stop taking your vitamins. That's substance abuse.
Needless to say, I think it deserves the PG-13 rating for violence and overall themes, but everything listed is a BIT of a reach... There might have been suggestive themes I didn't pick up on, but nothing explicit like that sort of description usually defines.