What We Think -- "Prince Caspian"

I feel highly qualified to write a review of Prince Caspian because I've seen it twice. As mentioned, Leah and I saw it Saturday. I couldn't stand it that Darren hadn't seen it yet, meaning that I couldn't talk about it... Wait, actually, what I meant to say is that I knew how much Darren wanted to see it so being the good wife I am I facilitated events to allow him to see it tonight. Also I went along. So now I can talk about it.

To begin with, I am absolutely in love with Edmund. Yes, the younger brother. Not Peter the hot-head. Not even Caspian the hottie. Edmund has my heart. He strolls into the scene, does whatever is necessary, gives a wry comment, and then leaves Peter to go rushing off to have some other emotional crisis. He shows back up in time to rescue Peter from whatever mess he's gotten himself into. I love Edmund.

(Note: Not to say that Caspian is hard on the eyes or anything. Mmm, his eyes.)

But, moving on. Aside from Edmund and Caspian, there's also this movie. This is the method the filmmakers used to write the Caspian script: They took all the pages out of a copy of the book, rearranged all of them, and then scanned in the result. The result is, in my opinion... maybe I should whisper this... let me preface this remark by saying that I love C.S. Lewis' work and I grew up on the Narnia books... the result of this scriptwriting method is An Improved Story. They made it better. There. I said it.

There were a few major changes: Prince Caspian himself is much older than in the book, and Peter is way more modern teenager than he is ancient high king. It works well onscreen, especially tension between Peter and Caspian. The script rearranged the way the story is told, so the pacing is better -- a lot less tromping through the woods and eating apples. Onscreen, Susan is promoted to captain of the archers and a warrior queen, but hey, she's an ancient queen called out to save her country. A few deadly arrows becomes her. Trumpkin, although altered slightly from his character in the book, is good fun. Miraz is excellent as both a tyrant and a coward.

Of course, those of us who know the story well could fill in gaps that I think non-readers will be puzzled over. They don't make a big enough deal out of the Telmarine fear of the woods, so the grand arrival of the Trees is sort of anti-climactic. Aslan is given his usual cryptic lines that, if I weren't faithfully devoted to him, would make me want to pull his mane out one hair at a time. The grand climax with the River God is pretty random, too, unless you know the story.

I'm going to make a momentous statement here. You'll want to print it out and highlight it. Here goes: I liked the action scenes. Normally I'm all done with action scenes about thirty seconds in, but these weren't so bad. They showed imagination and very little blood (apparently nobody bleeds in Narnia). Darren, on the other hand, was criticizing the Narnian archers for going after the cavalry, and he figures he could have taken Aslan's Howe with a lot fewer casualties. Not that he said any of this during the movie, of course. He is famous (between the two of us) for saying one measly thing during the first Narnia movie: "Cool."

(Leah and I, on the other hand, kept up a running commentary, which can be pretty much condensed to: "They did that character very well!" "I wish I had a dress like Susan's." "Prince Caspian just isn't too bad looking, is he?")

How much do you want to know about the movie, if you haven't seen it? I'll just be cryptic. Although Susan's final farewell to Narnia is a shocking departure from her Lewis days, I liked it. I'm actually a little worried about myself: I've become soft in my oldish age. I've seen several beloved books made into movies, and I make all kinds of allowances for the sake of a good viewing experience.

Still, we didn't have to make too many allowances to enjoy Prince Caspian. I liked it, think it was a good adaptation, and of course if somebody gave me a poster of Edmund or Caspian, I'd probably be civil and keep it.

-- SJ