Review: The Chronicles of Narnia Prince Caspian - Jeffrey's Take
Filed under: Action, New Releases, Disney, Theatrical Reviews, Fandom, New in Theaters, Family Films
One thing I've noticed about most epic sci-fi/fantasy stories is that they're essentially about war, albeit disguised and softened with weird monsters, robots and other creatures with funny names. There's usually a bad guy (with a really sinister sounding name) who wants to take over the world or something similar, and a reluctant hero -- plucked from his comfortable, yet mundane home -- who has to stop him. The trick is to make it all fun. Because let's face it, we humans love war. If we didn't there wouldn't be so many movies and books about war, as well as -- you know -- real wars. (More specifically, I think, we love watching them, rather than fighting in them.) The Lord of the Rings trilogy worked so well because Peter Jackson projected his own twisted glee into every frame; he loved making those movies and it showed. The characters felt an anxious anticipation toward the battle, like a buildup, and the battles themselves were explosive releases. The new film The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian, the second in an unfortunately ongoing series, treats war as if it were already played out, rather than happening before our eyes. It's a dead dog dull bore of a movie, but that won't stop it from making a fortune. (See also Jette's review.)
When his treacherous uncle Miraz (Sergio Castellitto) tries to have him killed, Prince Caspian (Ben Barnes) escapes into the woods, and blows the conch that will summon the kings and queens of old. He also discovers that the Narnians -- consisting of little people, centaurs, talking mice and other beasties -- are not extinct, as he has been taught, and that his uncle actually killed his father. Our four kings and queens, Lucy Pevensie (Georgie Henley), Edmund Pevensie (Skandar Keynes), Peter Pevensie (William Moseley) and Susan Pevensie (Anna Popplewell), arrive, and even though very little time has passed in England, hundreds of years have passed in Narnia and things have changed drastically. Since Prince Caspian's people, the Telmarines, stole the throne, animals stopped talking, trees stopped moving and Aslan (voiced by Liam Neeson) seems to have disappeared. Since his family is a bunch of one-dimensional bad guys, Caspian decides to side with the slightly less one-dimensional good guys and start a war for the throne.
From there, it's all arguments, strategy discussions and long, boring battle sequences, written in stilted dialogue and filmed directly out of the current playbook. Director Andrew Adamson uses sweeping camera movements when he wants to show off some impressive CG sets or effects, but switches to jerky hand-held for the fights. In all this, the actors are lost. Peter gets the most character development, although his trouble seems to lie somewhere between controlling his temper and making tough wartime decisions. "Who are you doing this for?" asks Susan during one heated moment, but the answer never comes. Meanwhile, Lucy sees Aslan and no one else believes her. That's her big character development. Susan has nothing to do, and Edmund's biggest treat is that he gets to play with a flashlight.
In directing his actors, Adamson mainly shows them reacting, mouths agape, to special effects they obviously can't see. And when he gets really stuck, he simply lines them up and has them pose for the camera like a soccer team photo. In The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe (2005), Tilda Swinton stole the show as the White Witch, surveying everything around her as if profoundly disgusted by everyone else's sheer incompetence. Though she appears here for a few moments, there's no one to take her place. Eddie Izzard comes close, providing the voice for the eloquent, swashbuckling mouse Reepicheep, and Peter Dinklage is a wonderfully grumpy and sarcastic Trumpkin, but these characters get even less time than the heroes. Poor Caspian gets the shortest end of the stick; the film sets up a romance between he and Susan, but it goes nowhere (except for a tacked-on kiss). The filmmakers happily decided to make Caspian Latino, but unfortunately that means the rest of his family -- also Latino -- are the bad guys. (They're played by a range of Brits, Italians, etc. The more things change, the more they stay the same.)
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
5-17-2008 @ 2:03PM
Jason said...
I saw the film last night and enjoyed it. But the pacing and length of the film was poor. There is no reason for it to be almost 2.5 hours long. Way too much time spent on random fly overs of Narnia landscape. Time wasted on a conversation/scene ending and everyone just standing there looking at each other before a cut. And just as the pace starts to pick up, theres another scene with people standing around talking or another random scenery fly by.
I would have to agree with you in your fourth paragraph though. Random reaction shots or people looking around during a battle seemed to have been included to make up for a lack of the plot being moved along. Almost like during editing they realized the scene is too short, or they missed something and just stuck in a random reaction shot.
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5-17-2008 @ 9:43PM
James Hudnall said...
I totally disagree. I loved it. It was better than the first, though it could have been shorter.
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5-19-2008 @ 1:50AM
Thanh T. said...
I took the kids to see; The Chronicles of Narnia Prince Caspian this weekend. The theaters were full with movie goers.
The kids and I enjoyed it. The opening scene introduces that special vintage era feel. The mouse-keteers warriors were a nice touch throughout the film. Smiling!
I admired the production and musical developments. However, I thought it was missing that certain-special connection; the magical element.
I would agree, I thought this film was nicely done. I would have liked to have seen some more old characters (character and story developments-the White Witch, the story of the magic kingdoms, and perhaps a hint of an upcoming film; The Chronicles of Narnia 3…)
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5-19-2008 @ 2:38AM
sos said...
I like part 1 but part 2 I love.
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5-20-2008 @ 3:57PM
Jayne said...
I disagree too, I love the film and I think the battle scenes were the best part. I guess I'm just an action geek, so it was definitely my cup of tea. Anyway, I would recommend anyone to see the film, whether they're a book fan or not, it's a fun action film to see in the theater. Can't wait to see if they continue the series!
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5-21-2008 @ 10:52AM
sam said...
I couldn't disagree more, i thought the film was absolutely wonderful! The only thing wrong was that we didn't see enough of Caspian - they could've developed him further. Mabe i'm just saying that cause i love Ben Barnes! still it was a magical film, definately worth seeing!
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5-30-2008 @ 1:04AM
a said...
Aww... they totally changed it, they....disneytized it
i enjoyed the book better, it was a good movie but not as great as the lion, the witch, and the wardrobe. they had a alot of funny things in it but it changed to many things, like for a kid movie they just had to add the romance between susan and prince caspian, I mean it was cute but it just didn't look-feel right...
I'm fourteen and i could see that there was something odd and it just wasn't the same as it's predecessor...
i think they had waay to many battle scenes, it was just one after another, although all were great in graphics and all but they could have taken one or two out. such as the atempted castle takeover, that didn't even happen in the book (at least not to my memory..)
however, reepecheep was "so cute" and definately my favorite character
anyhow, it was a good movie but it could have been better
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6-01-2008 @ 12:20AM
all4jesus88 said...
I liked the film; I would buy it and see it again, but I always see the films as seperate entities to the books b/c they're never how I think they should be. For instance, in this movie, I think they could've cut out the scenes of the useless onslaught of the castle and put more in (as in the book) about old narnia and caspian talking to all the creatures, perhaps some happy scenes of merriment and partying with everybody (they still could've developed the caspian/susan thing better with this). It would help us get a real feel for why they are fighting these people, that it's worth it to restore old Narnia, the Narnia we loved in the first movie, for instance. To go from scenes of colors and fire and merriment with all the Narnias in the woods to the metal and grays of the Telmarines would've reminded us why we love Narnia so much and why we wouldn't blame them for wanting to keep it. That was almost entirely lacking! To show Caspian falling in love with Narnia and THEN decide to fight for it would've made the movie 10x better. Also, I thought at the end, instead of the kiss, they should have all hugged Aslan (as in the book) and made it about Aslan again, about Narnia, about the magic of the place. Why would the kids WANT to return to Narnia if all they did the last time they were there was fight? Come on! I think that was my biggest problem with it. Like I said, I like these movies as seperate intities, but I think the spirit of the books was lost in the blockbuster showiness. I think a lower-budget film, not so pressed to make the big bucks, would have been truer to the books and perhaps would have succeeded more. Plus, in trying to make these succeed in a video-game, action driven modern culture, I think they lost the quirkiness, the magic, the ORIGINALITY, and even the depth, of the books. I hope a new director will do better.
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