narnia
So, I randomly saw Prince Caspian today. I originally set out to troll all the thrift shops in Chicago in search of a certain prop for my show, but discovered very quickly that, of course, all such shops are closed for the holiday weekend. Which is immensely frustrating because I need this prop by Tuesday, and this long empty holiday weekend was the only time I had to try to hunt it down. I'm not sure what I'm going to do now, since I have work all day Tuesday and can't go prop-hunting again until, y'know, NEXT weekend. Fuck. Anyway. Trudging away discouraged from a closed Salvation Army, I stumbled across a movie theater, and they had a Narnia showing starting literally right at that moment. I figured, this is clearly fate.
I liked it. Caspian and Dawn Treader were far and away my favorite Narnia books as a kid, and I adored the BBC miniseries to bits back then, too. This was a good updating, I think. I've always liked the relative darkness of Caspian vs. Lion, Witch, Wardrobe, and the movie handled that well enough. I thought Miraz and his council/general were well played here. I love the moral ambiguity of the general, and how he gets a second chance at life outside of Narnia at the end.
And, yeah, Caspian is kind of hot. As is Susan. I was all over the Caspian/Susan here, guys. I know some people didn't like it much, but it totally worked for me. If they're already going to make those characters older than their book counterparts, they may as well acknowledge some older themes to go along with it. I'm sorry, Susan getting her warrior maiden on? HOT.
I also like that the movie acknowledged that the REAL hero of Caspian (and Dawn Treader) is, of course, Reepicheep. Which is only further emphasized by the voice talents of Eddie Izzard. Seriously, Reepicheep is made of win.
Not enough Edmund, although I love his bit smashing the White Witch, with its undertones of "guys, seriously, been there, done that, got the t-shirt, so not worth it." Edmund was my favorite Earth!kid from the books (not just Pevensie, I'm including Eustace, Jill, etc. in this) -- sure, he's a brat at the start of the first book, but he grows up and learns from his mistakes and becomes awesome. I love Edmund. I loved him here, too; just sucks that they didn't give him more to do. Well, at least there's still Dawn Treader.
Hate, hate, hate the religious themes. It's the great Narnia downfall for me, and why I can never revisit the books again. I'm not blaming the film for this one, because it's all right there in the books; it just brought it all back. "If you had trusted in Jesus from the start, YOUR FRIENDS WOULDN'T HAVE DIED." Sorry, no, not okay by me. Not at all.
Okay, I admit, I cried a little at the end. Because it really does hit home for me -- like Susan and Peter, I really can never go back to the Narnia of my childhood. I'm too grown up. I can't lose myself in that world anymore -- the flaws are too glaring, and my fundamental philosophical/theological differences with Lewis's creation are just too great for me to set aside. And it is sad, and it does hurt, because I loved Narnia once. And it broke my heart.
Although, points to the film here: I love the subtle change from the "you're too old" of the book to "you've learned all you can, there's nothing more for you here, it's time to move on" in the film. It's subtle, but powerful. In the book, it felt like a punishment: you've hit puberty and lost your innocence, and we are punishing you for it by forbidding you entry to the world you love the most. Here, it's honoring Susan and Peter's maturity, and acknowledging that they've got full, rich lives ahead of them in their own world. (Well, assuming we ignore the events of Last Battle, anyway.) I really like this. Of course, it will create a bit of canon incongruity -- I don't buy this Susan as one who will develop the Problem With Susan later on. I saw glimpses of that Susan at the start of the movie ("we live in England now, stop pretending otherwise"), but by the end, she really does seem to have grown up and come to terms with herself, in positive ways. Granted, like many others, I've always had massive, massive issues with Lewis's treatment of Susan in Last Battle (which, in my case, has come out in a couple of fics: Queen of Narnia, The Ivory Horn), so I much prefer this take on her. I just wonder how they'll explain it away if they do make it all the way to Last Battle in the films. Well, we'll see.
I liked it. Caspian and Dawn Treader were far and away my favorite Narnia books as a kid, and I adored the BBC miniseries to bits back then, too. This was a good updating, I think. I've always liked the relative darkness of Caspian vs. Lion, Witch, Wardrobe, and the movie handled that well enough. I thought Miraz and his council/general were well played here. I love the moral ambiguity of the general, and how he gets a second chance at life outside of Narnia at the end.
And, yeah, Caspian is kind of hot. As is Susan. I was all over the Caspian/Susan here, guys. I know some people didn't like it much, but it totally worked for me. If they're already going to make those characters older than their book counterparts, they may as well acknowledge some older themes to go along with it. I'm sorry, Susan getting her warrior maiden on? HOT.
I also like that the movie acknowledged that the REAL hero of Caspian (and Dawn Treader) is, of course, Reepicheep. Which is only further emphasized by the voice talents of Eddie Izzard. Seriously, Reepicheep is made of win.
Not enough Edmund, although I love his bit smashing the White Witch, with its undertones of "guys, seriously, been there, done that, got the t-shirt, so not worth it." Edmund was my favorite Earth!kid from the books (not just Pevensie, I'm including Eustace, Jill, etc. in this) -- sure, he's a brat at the start of the first book, but he grows up and learns from his mistakes and becomes awesome. I love Edmund. I loved him here, too; just sucks that they didn't give him more to do. Well, at least there's still Dawn Treader.
Hate, hate, hate the religious themes. It's the great Narnia downfall for me, and why I can never revisit the books again. I'm not blaming the film for this one, because it's all right there in the books; it just brought it all back. "If you had trusted in Jesus from the start, YOUR FRIENDS WOULDN'T HAVE DIED." Sorry, no, not okay by me. Not at all.
Okay, I admit, I cried a little at the end. Because it really does hit home for me -- like Susan and Peter, I really can never go back to the Narnia of my childhood. I'm too grown up. I can't lose myself in that world anymore -- the flaws are too glaring, and my fundamental philosophical/theological differences with Lewis's creation are just too great for me to set aside. And it is sad, and it does hurt, because I loved Narnia once. And it broke my heart.
Although, points to the film here: I love the subtle change from the "you're too old" of the book to "you've learned all you can, there's nothing more for you here, it's time to move on" in the film. It's subtle, but powerful. In the book, it felt like a punishment: you've hit puberty and lost your innocence, and we are punishing you for it by forbidding you entry to the world you love the most. Here, it's honoring Susan and Peter's maturity, and acknowledging that they've got full, rich lives ahead of them in their own world. (Well, assuming we ignore the events of Last Battle, anyway.) I really like this. Of course, it will create a bit of canon incongruity -- I don't buy this Susan as one who will develop the Problem With Susan later on. I saw glimpses of that Susan at the start of the movie ("we live in England now, stop pretending otherwise"), but by the end, she really does seem to have grown up and come to terms with herself, in positive ways. Granted, like many others, I've always had massive, massive issues with Lewis's treatment of Susan in Last Battle (which, in my case, has come out in a couple of fics: Queen of Narnia, The Ivory Horn), so I much prefer this take on her. I just wonder how they'll explain it away if they do make it all the way to Last Battle in the films. Well, we'll see.