Bear with me, I know it's kinda long....and anyone who hasn't seen the movie, you can read it if you want to, but please be warned it DOES have spoilers. And I'm warmly welcoming discussion on it...and I want to see if there's anyone else who feels like I do regarding the movie vs the book.

Bear with me, I know it's kinda long....and anyone who hasn't seen the movie, you can read it if you want to, but please be warned it DOES have spoilers. And I'm warmly welcoming discussion on it...and I want to see if there's anyone else who feels like I do regarding the movie vs the book.



The movie starts out interesting. As the queen gives birth to a son, Doctor Cornelius (never actually named in the movie) hurries Caspian out of the castle. We get a cool shot of Caspian galloping over the drawbridge with fireworks exploding over the castle behind him. And we also get a few tense moments as he’s chased across a plain and through a forest by some of Miraz’s guards (in a LOTR-esque sequence). His rescue by Nikabrik, Trumpkin, and Trufflehunter is less than exciting, ending as it does with Trumpkin running to fight the guards and Nikabrik knocking Caspian out. Then we’re transported to London. The first scene in which we see all four Pevensie children together, Peter and Edmund are fighting with other schoolboys in a subway station. When Susan afterwards asks him why he was fighting, Peter justifies it by saying, “After he pushed me, he demanded that I apologize. That’s when I hit him.” My brother tells me I don’t understand the “guy mindset” when I criticize Peter for doing this. I’ll come back to it later. In the conversation, Peter expresses his desire to go back to Narnia. “It’s been a year!” he says. And within a few moments, as a train is rushing past, that wish is granted. Once the children are actually in Narnia, we see a little excitement. They splash and play in the water, discover the ruins of Cair Paravel, and find their old belongings. We get a little of the old Narnian majesty as High King Peter draws his sword Wolfsbane and he and Lucy recite an old Narnia verse together. Then comes the rescuing of the crusty DLF, or “dear little friend” Trumpkin. We get a bit of funny lines and an interesting swordfight between Trumpkin and Edmund before our heroes start on their quest to find Caspian. This is where the movie starts rolling downhill. However, there are a couple of redeeming scenes. One is where Lucy dreams that she’s in the old Narnia, where trees move and animals talk, and Aslan is bigger and more real than ever. When it shows her awaking in the “savage” Narnia, you almost want to cry as she walks to one of the trees and whispers, “Wake up!” It really defines the film, the contrast between it and The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe. After a coincidental meeting in the woods where Caspian and Peter try to cut each other’s heads off, the army heads to Aslan’s How. Aslan’s How is actually quite well done, down to pictures on the wall telling the story of The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe, complete with a few seconds devoted to a picture of Tumnus and Lantern Waste, and a room containing the broken Stone Table and carvings commemorating Aslan’s sacrifice. Things happen quickly after this, almost too quickly. Caspian and Peter go head to head several times over a raid on Miraz’s castle, which is not in the book. The raid fails miserably, though it gives Edmund some good fighting shots. You really can’t tell who the movie tries to blame for the raid’s failure (and a consequent slaughtering of Narnians). Both Peter and Caspian seem to be blamed, whereas Peter really should take it all for initiating something without Aslan. The best scene in the movie, strange though it sounds, is the scene of calling back the White Witch from the dead. Caspian is properly appalled, then interested, as Nikabrik, the hag, and the werewolf create the evil magic, build an ice screen, and summon an image of the Witch. She pleads for “one drop of human blood” and Caspian tries to resist as the werewolf and hag cut his hand. Once his hand is cut, Caspian seems completely under the spell. Then when Peter comes barging in, he too is taken under the Witch’s spell as Trumpkin and Lucy fight off Nikabrik, someone dispatches the hag, and Edmund fights the werewolf. “Peter, dear,” the Witch says, smiling. “I’ve missed you.” Then she gasps, convulses, and the ice screen crumbles to show Edmund in his crowning moment, having broken the screen and the spell. The rest of the movie focuses on the final duel and battle scene, with a bit thrown in about Lucy and Susan trying to get away to find Aslan. Of course, they’re spotted by soldiers, and Suan stays behind to kill them. And who would come galloping in to rescue the queen but the enamored Prince Caspian? Aslan plays a bit in the final battle of Beruna, where the bridge is destroyed. And he is also present at Caspian’s coronation and the part where he sends the children back to London. However, here there is really some emotion brought out between Caspian and Susan. She smiles and tells him, “It wouldn’t have worked anyway. I’m thirteen hundred years older than you.” But as she turns to walk away, she impulsively spins and runs back to him for a kiss and a lingering hug. My thoughts on this scene? Excuse me, but if it’s not going to work, don’t turn around and kiss him already! As for the characters: Caspian is a good-looking, dark-haired prince with a Spanish accent that switches on and off throughout the movie. Understandably, he’s irritated when Peter barges in and takes over. And he’s only human as he threatens to kill his uncle for murdering his father, the part Caspian plays in the failure of the castle raid. He also does very well when given to the chance to run his uncle through after the duel, by stabbing the sword in the ground and telling Miraz that he will not be a “Telmarine king like you.” Thankfully, though, he was left his line when Aslan tells him to rise as a king of Narnia. “I don’t know if I’m ready,” he says quietly. “That answer tells me you are,” Aslan says. Altogether, Ben Barnes doesn’t make a half-bad Caspian, though his character would’ve been better if there hadn’t been any attraction between him and Susan. Peter’s character was utterly ruined. Even from the start, he is not the High King of Narnia as he should be. The High King in my mind would never stoop to fighting with schoolboys who push him around. My brother says that’s the natural reaction of any male. I think Peter should’ve known better. And once he returns to Narnia, he dissolves into an egomaniac eager to prove he still is the High King. At least there are consequences for the raid, though he tries to blame it on Caspian. Peter is a little noble at the duel, telling Miraz that he won’t kill him because he doesn’t deserve to, then handing the sword to Caspian. Even at the end, when he gives up his kingship and his sword to Caspian, there is almost no regret that he acted the way he did. He isn’t High King Peter the Magnificent any more. Susan’s character is generally sulky. We get the idea that she’s not too pleased to be back in Narnia. She once tells Lucy, “I was just getting used to being in England.” Her outfits needed a new designer and her attitude needed a slap. She is given far too much fighting, as she participates in the raid and the final battle. And the way she often agrees with Caspian, then kisses and hugs him in the end, is disgusting if nothing else. Edmund, as I mentioned earlier, has a couple of well-done scenes. In fact, this is Edmund’s movie. I think his crowning moment of glory is when the ice screen of the White Witch crumbles, revealing Edmund with his sword poised for another strike. He handles his brother’s criticism well as Peter lambasts him for jumping into the fight at the subway station, and handles another chewing out for breaking the ice screen by recalling Peter’s words at the subway station: “I know, I know, you had it figured.” Other good moments include his quick thinking and fighting during the castle raid, and as he acts as emissary to King Miraz when Peter challenges him to a duel. When Miraz calls him Prince Edmund, Edmund politely replies, with a smile, “It’s King Edmund. Just king. Peter’s the High King.” During a break in the duel, Edmund tells his moaning brother to “save it for later” as he pops Peter’s shoulder back in place and cheers him on for the finish. He even provides the last funny line of the movie as they go back to London and board the train: “I left my electric torch in Narnia!” Lucy is a quiet, sweet little girl once again. But for some reason, Georgie Henley doesn’t ring as true as Lucy in this movie. Though she struggles against the others, insisting that they follow Aslan at the gorge, she really doesn’t struggle much. She never seeks Aslan out until the very end, when Peter tells her to. There’s really not much to say, other than this Lucy falls rather flat. I have to mourn for the loss of the real Lucy. Reepicheep and company are the best part in the movie. They cut up, literally and figuratively, cracking jokes and smiles as they take down Telmarine soldiers and scamper up and down ropes. My favorite was when Reepicheep is sitting on Caspian’s chest, holding a sword to his throat. He demands, “Any last words?” “You’re a mouse!” Caspian stammers. “You people are so original,” Reepicheep comments sarcastically. And when he’s poised to kill a Telmarine soldier, the soldier exclaims: “You’re a mouse!” “Can’t you people be any more imaginative?” Reepicheep yells. And whoever decided to make Reep and his buddies tie up the cat in the castle is a genius. That generated the biggest laugh in the entire theater. Nikabrik is well done, Trufflehunter is all right, and Trumpkin is well done. Miraz looks good but really doesn’t act like an evil, usurping king. The centaurs have changed. One of my friends put it, “They looked just like this new Narnia; more savage, less noble.” The fauns still look good, and we get to see more of their neat fighting moves as they climb, jump, and flip through battle. But we really can’t get close to any of the creatures except Reep. But the biggest disappointment (if you break the movie down into sub-disappointments) is Aslan. His animation wasn’t great, he isn’t beautiful and golden like he used to be, and though he is bigger, he also doesn’t appear that much in the movie, contrary to the book. Because Aslan is lacking, the entire movie is missing some of its magic and beauty and awe. I walked away from the movie going, “OK, I could go to this Narnia, I think.” Whereas the last movie made me jump up and down and yell, “I want to be in Narnia!” In Trumpkin’s words, “Narnia may be a more savage place than you remember.” It is very true, and describes the whole war-glorifying movie. I think Lucy is the only one who doesn’t kill someone, though she does get in the fight with Nikabrik. We can only hope that the directors take the hint of move-goers and do better on The Voyage of the Dawn Treader. Maybe if Andrew Adamson had concentrated more on making Prince Caspian instead of a blockbuster movie, he would’ve succeeded in both. Footnote: I know that this is kinda a hard book to translate into a movie, and that adding some action was needed. I'm also not saying that I don't enjoy war movies or action-packed movies...in fact I happen to really really like the Bourne trilogy of movies, not to mention others such as Sahara and LOTR (though I know they're in different categories). I just think that the movie could've been with the Narnians going to war b/c Aslan said so, not on their own decision. That's what I gather from the book. Thank you to anyone who read this...I know it was kinda long! :0)

copyright 2008 by Magical Ink (magical-ink.blogspot.com)