prince caspian
I'm not even going to say that I'm rather annoyed, angry, frustrated, disappointed, etc. I won't do it. Instead I'll talk about the movie I saw today. =)
If you've spent any significant time around me you probably know that the Narnia books were an incredibly important part of my childhood and still are important to me. They are probably the books that made me what to become a writer. My grandfather's nickname for me was Lucy. If I ever use a pen name, it will somehow involve Lucy. I won't bore you with the details, but let be known that I love Narnia. And don't start about how C.S. Lewis was trying to indoctrinate children or make everyone Christian or whatever. Blah blah blah. Who fucking cares? Yes, The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe has some heavy biblical themes. That doesn't make it the Jesus story told another way. There is much more in these books than Jesus. The first time I read Narnia I was in third grade, and I had NO idea about the biblical themes until my mother explained it to me. Growing up Christian and "converting" to Wicca has certainly given me an interesting perspective on this. Especially in books that aren't LLW, Aslan fills the role of the wise old "guide" or wizard character we see so often in fantasy. Gandalf. Obi-Wan. I could go on. Both of those characters "die", at least symbolically in Gandalf's part, and are reborn as more powerful, wiser figures. Are you going to try and tell me Obi-Wan is Jesus? I didn't think so. And now that that's out of the way, onto my thoughts about the Caspian movie.
There are "spoilers" here so I'm putting this part behind a cut. If you don't want the movie ruined, don't read any further!
This probably comes as no surprise. The movie was WAY different from the book. Some of the differences were inconsequential, some were a little more... important. First change was Caspian's age. Mind you, I'm doing this all out of memory, but I think my memory's pretty damn good when it comes to these books considering I've read them.... 6 or 7 times, the most recent being early 2006 after LLW came out. As I recall, Caspian was much closer to Lucy and Edmund's ages than Susan and Peter's. Granted, all four of them were probably a little too old in LLW (Peter and Susan definitely were), but it didn't bother me much at all, and that didn't bother me here. Caspian's age here did bother me, because he shows the naivety of a young boy, when what we're seeing on screen is a young man. It kind of made him look like a dumb ass for not realizing his uncle wanted to kill him. Now, a ten year old boy? Sure, makes perfect sense. The whole Susan-Caspian mini-romance subplot stems from this. Now, of course, nothing like that ever happened in any of the books except A Horse and His Boy but of course the four had been ruling Narnia for quite awhile and were quite grown. Here, not so much. I didn't think it was obnoxious or excessive though, except a few stupid lines of dialog, so it didn't really bother me so much as made me roll my eyes.
My biggest problem with the movie was the time line. Boy, did they fuck that up. So, in the book, Caspian runs away, finds his peeps, gathers an army, takes them to Aslan's How, and his evil uncle besieges them. And that is where he blows Susan's horn. And then the kids get yanked back into Narnia. They spend there first night there in the ruins of Cair Paravel, and the nonsense with Trumpkin doesn't happen until the next day. I'm a little fuzzy on why/how Trumpkin gets there, because he does not get captured when Caspian runs away. I think he's sent to look for the help they were supposed to have called, and gets captured or something, I don't remember. Anyway, the testing of skills ensues (Edmund's swordsmanship and Susan's bowmanship, or should I saw bowomanship), and then they're all off on their merry way to join Caspian's army at the Stone Table. Caspian is getting twitchy because no one's shown up yet and he's besieged and running out of food etc. Meanwhile our heroes are making there way there. When they get to the gorge, Lucy sees Aslan, they don't follow him, she gets upset, they get lost, lose more time, etc. So Aslan then shows up and chastises them all for being silly children and not listening to Lucy/him and then leads them back to Aslan's How. At that very same moment (or close enough), Knickabrick (another dwarf) is trying to convince Caspian to let the hag and the werewolf to summon the White Witch. He's skeptical at best, when Peter and Edmund come charging in and kill both of them and Caspian is like yay! Help! Then the duel happens, Miraz is killed by his traitorous adviser guy, there's a big battle, Aslan wakes up the trees and the river, and he eventually sends some of the Telmarines and the Pevensies back to the real world.
In the movie..... Well thins diverge almost instantly. Caspian runs away, and then Trumpkin gets captured right away and thrown over the river where he's saved by the Pevensies. So, Caspian has to then outrun his uncle's men AGAIN. and meet up with all the Narnians and convince him he's there king, and then they start heading over to Aslan's How, which is never named by name. So at the same time, Trumpking and the Pevensies are making their way toward Caspian. Lucy sees Aslan, they don't follow him, but they also don't get lost and don't need his help getting to Caspian. So when they finally meet up, Caspian and Peter have the hottest sword fight EVER (it's way too short) and then everyone's like yay hurrah the kings and queens of old. So then Peter devises this horrible scheme to go attack Miraz's castle and kill him there. So they all attack the castle, but Caspian fucks it up so a lot of Narnians die and the mission is a failure. So then Caspian doesn't trust Peter anymore and lets Trumpkin talk him into bringing back the White Witch with the hag and the werewolf. They actually get to the point of summoning her, and Caspian is about to pull her through to Narnia when Peter and Edmund come bursting in, kill the hag and werewolf, and knock Caspian out of the way. But then Peter almost brings her over, until Edmund smashes the giant wall of ice that's she's suspended in. I have to admit, that was a pretty cool scene for Edmund, and the summoning thing was cool too. So actually was the castle attack/fight scene. It was very well done. It was just entirely unnecessary. But I digress. So now they all have to get ready for the big battle. So Peter challenges Miraz to a duel, and sends Lucy off to find Aslan and wake up the trees. There's some cheesy Susan-Caspian lines, the duel happens, Miraz gets stabbed, the battle ensues in a fashion completely different from the book , but the details aren't really all that important. The Narnians are about to die until Lucy finds Aslan and he implies that if she'd just followed him alone none of the castle-attack-related deaths would have ocured (I'm not sure how, but. Um. Okay.), and then he wakes up the trees and the river and they smash Miraz's army in a very Ent-like fashion. The end is wrapped up fairly neatly, Susan and Peter can't come back, everyone goes back where they belong, yay, happy.
Now. I think this is a very high-quality movie with some really great action/fight scenes and some very pretty boys. The acting is once again top-notch and the special effects are brilliant. I don't think it was quite as good as the first one, but I might think that because I cannot get over the RANDOM CASTLE ATTACK SCENE. I do no understand the reason behind this, except to cram more action into the movie that could have been spent on character development etc. I'm very attached to these characters! I want to see them explored and developed in the movies! Plus all four actors for the Pevensies are REALLY GOOD ACTORS. I think all the other changes I would have forgiven and not even cared about at all if not for the stupid castle attack scene. If I ignore it and shut it out, it's probably a really really really good movie. But it was just too much of a (random) diversion from the plot of the book that it hampers my enjoyment of the movie. Don't get me wrong, I still enjoyed it, but not as much as LLW. There were some changes in LLW that didn't make sense either, but the thing was, I was so wrapped up in the movie that I honestly didn't notice until I went back and looked closely. I mean and they are some pretty big time line changes, but the movie was just executed so well and they captured the essence and spirit of the book that I just didn't notice the first time I watched it. Caspian didn't do that, which is disappointing. So I guess you could say I have mixed feelings about the movie. I enjoyed it but at the same time I wish it had been just a little better.
P.S. I tried to find a good plot synopsis to check my facts, but I couldn't find a very detailed one. Since I don't have my books with me, you'll have to forgive me if I've made any mistakes. Also I'm sorry if there are spelling/grammar errors; I typed this really fast and now my fingers are cramping. I don't have typing stamina when I type this fast with no breaks.
Maybe I'll go ahead and post a Narnia-related memoir I wrote almost a year ago... If I decide to not be lazy. But really, I'll probably be on a Narnia-analysis kick for a while after this. It happens.
If you've spent any significant time around me you probably know that the Narnia books were an incredibly important part of my childhood and still are important to me. They are probably the books that made me what to become a writer. My grandfather's nickname for me was Lucy. If I ever use a pen name, it will somehow involve Lucy. I won't bore you with the details, but let be known that I love Narnia. And don't start about how C.S. Lewis was trying to indoctrinate children or make everyone Christian or whatever. Blah blah blah. Who fucking cares? Yes, The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe has some heavy biblical themes. That doesn't make it the Jesus story told another way. There is much more in these books than Jesus. The first time I read Narnia I was in third grade, and I had NO idea about the biblical themes until my mother explained it to me. Growing up Christian and "converting" to Wicca has certainly given me an interesting perspective on this. Especially in books that aren't LLW, Aslan fills the role of the wise old "guide" or wizard character we see so often in fantasy. Gandalf. Obi-Wan. I could go on. Both of those characters "die", at least symbolically in Gandalf's part, and are reborn as more powerful, wiser figures. Are you going to try and tell me Obi-Wan is Jesus? I didn't think so. And now that that's out of the way, onto my thoughts about the Caspian movie.
There are "spoilers" here so I'm putting this part behind a cut. If you don't want the movie ruined, don't read any further!
This probably comes as no surprise. The movie was WAY different from the book. Some of the differences were inconsequential, some were a little more... important. First change was Caspian's age. Mind you, I'm doing this all out of memory, but I think my memory's pretty damn good when it comes to these books considering I've read them.... 6 or 7 times, the most recent being early 2006 after LLW came out. As I recall, Caspian was much closer to Lucy and Edmund's ages than Susan and Peter's. Granted, all four of them were probably a little too old in LLW (Peter and Susan definitely were), but it didn't bother me much at all, and that didn't bother me here. Caspian's age here did bother me, because he shows the naivety of a young boy, when what we're seeing on screen is a young man. It kind of made him look like a dumb ass for not realizing his uncle wanted to kill him. Now, a ten year old boy? Sure, makes perfect sense. The whole Susan-Caspian mini-romance subplot stems from this. Now, of course, nothing like that ever happened in any of the books except A Horse and His Boy but of course the four had been ruling Narnia for quite awhile and were quite grown. Here, not so much. I didn't think it was obnoxious or excessive though, except a few stupid lines of dialog, so it didn't really bother me so much as made me roll my eyes.
My biggest problem with the movie was the time line. Boy, did they fuck that up. So, in the book, Caspian runs away, finds his peeps, gathers an army, takes them to Aslan's How, and his evil uncle besieges them. And that is where he blows Susan's horn. And then the kids get yanked back into Narnia. They spend there first night there in the ruins of Cair Paravel, and the nonsense with Trumpkin doesn't happen until the next day. I'm a little fuzzy on why/how Trumpkin gets there, because he does not get captured when Caspian runs away. I think he's sent to look for the help they were supposed to have called, and gets captured or something, I don't remember. Anyway, the testing of skills ensues (Edmund's swordsmanship and Susan's bowmanship, or should I saw bowomanship), and then they're all off on their merry way to join Caspian's army at the Stone Table. Caspian is getting twitchy because no one's shown up yet and he's besieged and running out of food etc. Meanwhile our heroes are making there way there. When they get to the gorge, Lucy sees Aslan, they don't follow him, she gets upset, they get lost, lose more time, etc. So Aslan then shows up and chastises them all for being silly children and not listening to Lucy/him and then leads them back to Aslan's How. At that very same moment (or close enough), Knickabrick (another dwarf) is trying to convince Caspian to let the hag and the werewolf to summon the White Witch. He's skeptical at best, when Peter and Edmund come charging in and kill both of them and Caspian is like yay! Help! Then the duel happens, Miraz is killed by his traitorous adviser guy, there's a big battle, Aslan wakes up the trees and the river, and he eventually sends some of the Telmarines and the Pevensies back to the real world.
In the movie..... Well thins diverge almost instantly. Caspian runs away, and then Trumpkin gets captured right away and thrown over the river where he's saved by the Pevensies. So, Caspian has to then outrun his uncle's men AGAIN. and meet up with all the Narnians and convince him he's there king, and then they start heading over to Aslan's How, which is never named by name. So at the same time, Trumpking and the Pevensies are making their way toward Caspian. Lucy sees Aslan, they don't follow him, but they also don't get lost and don't need his help getting to Caspian. So when they finally meet up, Caspian and Peter have the hottest sword fight EVER (it's way too short) and then everyone's like yay hurrah the kings and queens of old. So then Peter devises this horrible scheme to go attack Miraz's castle and kill him there. So they all attack the castle, but Caspian fucks it up so a lot of Narnians die and the mission is a failure. So then Caspian doesn't trust Peter anymore and lets Trumpkin talk him into bringing back the White Witch with the hag and the werewolf. They actually get to the point of summoning her, and Caspian is about to pull her through to Narnia when Peter and Edmund come bursting in, kill the hag and werewolf, and knock Caspian out of the way. But then Peter almost brings her over, until Edmund smashes the giant wall of ice that's she's suspended in. I have to admit, that was a pretty cool scene for Edmund, and the summoning thing was cool too. So actually was the castle attack/fight scene. It was very well done. It was just entirely unnecessary. But I digress. So now they all have to get ready for the big battle. So Peter challenges Miraz to a duel, and sends Lucy off to find Aslan and wake up the trees. There's some cheesy Susan-Caspian lines, the duel happens, Miraz gets stabbed, the battle ensues in a fashion completely different from the book , but the details aren't really all that important. The Narnians are about to die until Lucy finds Aslan and he implies that if she'd just followed him alone none of the castle-attack-related deaths would have ocured (I'm not sure how, but. Um. Okay.), and then he wakes up the trees and the river and they smash Miraz's army in a very Ent-like fashion. The end is wrapped up fairly neatly, Susan and Peter can't come back, everyone goes back where they belong, yay, happy.
Now. I think this is a very high-quality movie with some really great action/fight scenes and some very pretty boys. The acting is once again top-notch and the special effects are brilliant. I don't think it was quite as good as the first one, but I might think that because I cannot get over the RANDOM CASTLE ATTACK SCENE. I do no understand the reason behind this, except to cram more action into the movie that could have been spent on character development etc. I'm very attached to these characters! I want to see them explored and developed in the movies! Plus all four actors for the Pevensies are REALLY GOOD ACTORS. I think all the other changes I would have forgiven and not even cared about at all if not for the stupid castle attack scene. If I ignore it and shut it out, it's probably a really really really good movie. But it was just too much of a (random) diversion from the plot of the book that it hampers my enjoyment of the movie. Don't get me wrong, I still enjoyed it, but not as much as LLW. There were some changes in LLW that didn't make sense either, but the thing was, I was so wrapped up in the movie that I honestly didn't notice until I went back and looked closely. I mean and they are some pretty big time line changes, but the movie was just executed so well and they captured the essence and spirit of the book that I just didn't notice the first time I watched it. Caspian didn't do that, which is disappointing. So I guess you could say I have mixed feelings about the movie. I enjoyed it but at the same time I wish it had been just a little better.
P.S. I tried to find a good plot synopsis to check my facts, but I couldn't find a very detailed one. Since I don't have my books with me, you'll have to forgive me if I've made any mistakes. Also I'm sorry if there are spelling/grammar errors; I typed this really fast and now my fingers are cramping. I don't have typing stamina when I type this fast with no breaks.
Maybe I'll go ahead and post a Narnia-related memoir I wrote almost a year ago... If I decide to not be lazy. But really, I'll probably be on a Narnia-analysis kick for a while after this. It happens.