Prince Caspian
May. 24th, 2008 09:18 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
sanalithI may be the last person on LJ to see Prince Caspian, but see it I did! There be spoilers under the cut, just in case, but I'll just say that I liked it all right. There were some WTF moments, and some completely unnecessary alterations, but in the grand scheme of things, I'd say they kept things close to the spirit of the book. Plus, Caspian himself was hot.
I definitely liked the first part of the movie better than the second, (not including the superfluous scenes with Lucy meeting the potential boyfriend and Peter getting into brawls). I thought they did a decent job of introducing Caspian and Miraz, and Mike, who hasn't read the book yet, said he was able to follow things fairly well. They might have done a better job introducing Miraz's men, but otherwise, I thought it was done well. I also enjoyed watching the Pevensie children interact. Lucy and Edmund were especially lovely for me throughout the entire movie. The actors definitely had a good chemistry going on, and I thought they did well. The Dear Little Friend was adorable, and I *loved* the centaurs! Caspian himself was portrayed very well - an excellent mix of young, confused child and bold, revenge-driven prince. I must also put in a good word for my dear Trufflehunter, who, as a badger, can clearly do no wrong in my book. I was glad they didn't cut out his line of being of the earth and having long memories. But my heart now belongs to Reepicheep, the most valiant mouse in the world! (Did he remind anyone else of Sir Didymus from Labyrinth??) The scene where his fellow mice were willing to cut off their own tails in his honor was just priceless!
As I mentioned before, Lucy and Edmund were definitely my favorite of the children. Lucy had clearly grown up but also lost none of her childlike innocence and wonder. I also thought she showed remarkable examples of courage and bravery. I think Edmund had some of the best lines and scenes, though. I loved how he stood up for Lucy when she first said she saw Aslan, and how he was the one to beat down the reflection of the White Witch. He was confident in his skills but not overly cocky. He knew what was right and wrong and was determined to prove it. I thought he had the most character development between the two movies.
As for Peter and Susan... *sigh* For the most part, Susan didn't do anything to really annoy me, other than her fake love affair with Caspian. It almost might have worked, except that it was poorly executed. Apparently all movies must have romance in them now for ratings or something, but it just didn't work. There was no connection between them at all, and the scenes where they were making eyes at each other just seemed forced. As for Peter, I wanted to slap him within the first ten minutes. I went back to the book when I got home, just because I couldn't remember him being such an egotistical bastard, and I was right - he wasn't. He and Caspian got on just fine, thank you, and Mr. High and Mighty High King didn't need to put on nearly so many airs. He was quite annoying and I ended up disliking a lot of the scenes where we was in the limelight.
I wasn't incredibly happy with the scene where they attacked Miraz's castle. It wasn't in the book and it showed. Nothing important really happened, except Peter was given yet another chance to be a douche and we got to see some special effects. All I could think of was "Have fun storming the castle!" the entire time. Except when Caspian confronted his uncle in bed after finding out that Miraz killed his father. Then I was all like, "Hello, my name is Inigo Montouya, you killed my father, prepare to die!"
Yeah. Not so much was I all that impressed. Especially when Peter was such a bastard about it.
The final battle was ok. I honestly loved the river god fx, and as much as it was a bit of an excuse to push the all the biblical messages of the movie into ten minutes, I was all right with it. I loved at the end when everyone knelt to Aslan (except for Lucy, which was sort of a "Ha! See I told you he was real!" moment, and then Aslan told the kings and queens to rise, and when Caspain didn't Aslan corrected him. THAt was done very well indeed. The one thing I didn't like about the manner in which Aslan was introduced was that it eliminated the gradual stages the children saw him. Like, Lucy saw him first, then Edmund, then Peter and Susan. I thought that was a really good way of showing the stages the children themselves were in, and set it up for learning that Peter and Susan couldn't come back. Ah well.
All in all, the movie was enjoyable, though I don't think it was as good an adaptation as the first movie. I think the *feel* of it was similar to the novel, but they changed a whole lot and added the useless romance and made Petter a right bastard, and that kind of ruined some of the scenes for me. Still, I did love Lucy and Edmund and Caspian - and all the animals and the DLF - and that made the movie worthwhile. I'll be interested to see which books they do next. I'm still crossing my fingers for The Magician's Nephew at some point, though I rather doubt it'll happen.
I definitely liked the first part of the movie better than the second, (not including the superfluous scenes with Lucy meeting the potential boyfriend and Peter getting into brawls). I thought they did a decent job of introducing Caspian and Miraz, and Mike, who hasn't read the book yet, said he was able to follow things fairly well. They might have done a better job introducing Miraz's men, but otherwise, I thought it was done well. I also enjoyed watching the Pevensie children interact. Lucy and Edmund were especially lovely for me throughout the entire movie. The actors definitely had a good chemistry going on, and I thought they did well. The Dear Little Friend was adorable, and I *loved* the centaurs! Caspian himself was portrayed very well - an excellent mix of young, confused child and bold, revenge-driven prince. I must also put in a good word for my dear Trufflehunter, who, as a badger, can clearly do no wrong in my book. I was glad they didn't cut out his line of being of the earth and having long memories. But my heart now belongs to Reepicheep, the most valiant mouse in the world! (Did he remind anyone else of Sir Didymus from Labyrinth??) The scene where his fellow mice were willing to cut off their own tails in his honor was just priceless!
As I mentioned before, Lucy and Edmund were definitely my favorite of the children. Lucy had clearly grown up but also lost none of her childlike innocence and wonder. I also thought she showed remarkable examples of courage and bravery. I think Edmund had some of the best lines and scenes, though. I loved how he stood up for Lucy when she first said she saw Aslan, and how he was the one to beat down the reflection of the White Witch. He was confident in his skills but not overly cocky. He knew what was right and wrong and was determined to prove it. I thought he had the most character development between the two movies.
As for Peter and Susan... *sigh* For the most part, Susan didn't do anything to really annoy me, other than her fake love affair with Caspian. It almost might have worked, except that it was poorly executed. Apparently all movies must have romance in them now for ratings or something, but it just didn't work. There was no connection between them at all, and the scenes where they were making eyes at each other just seemed forced. As for Peter, I wanted to slap him within the first ten minutes. I went back to the book when I got home, just because I couldn't remember him being such an egotistical bastard, and I was right - he wasn't. He and Caspian got on just fine, thank you, and Mr. High and Mighty High King didn't need to put on nearly so many airs. He was quite annoying and I ended up disliking a lot of the scenes where we was in the limelight.
I wasn't incredibly happy with the scene where they attacked Miraz's castle. It wasn't in the book and it showed. Nothing important really happened, except Peter was given yet another chance to be a douche and we got to see some special effects. All I could think of was "Have fun storming the castle!" the entire time. Except when Caspian confronted his uncle in bed after finding out that Miraz killed his father. Then I was all like, "Hello, my name is Inigo Montouya, you killed my father, prepare to die!"
Yeah. Not so much was I all that impressed. Especially when Peter was such a bastard about it.
The final battle was ok. I honestly loved the river god fx, and as much as it was a bit of an excuse to push the all the biblical messages of the movie into ten minutes, I was all right with it. I loved at the end when everyone knelt to Aslan (except for Lucy, which was sort of a "Ha! See I told you he was real!" moment, and then Aslan told the kings and queens to rise, and when Caspain didn't Aslan corrected him. THAt was done very well indeed. The one thing I didn't like about the manner in which Aslan was introduced was that it eliminated the gradual stages the children saw him. Like, Lucy saw him first, then Edmund, then Peter and Susan. I thought that was a really good way of showing the stages the children themselves were in, and set it up for learning that Peter and Susan couldn't come back. Ah well.
All in all, the movie was enjoyable, though I don't think it was as good an adaptation as the first movie. I think the *feel* of it was similar to the novel, but they changed a whole lot and added the useless romance and made Petter a right bastard, and that kind of ruined some of the scenes for me. Still, I did love Lucy and Edmund and Caspian - and all the animals and the DLF - and that made the movie worthwhile. I'll be interested to see which books they do next. I'm still crossing my fingers for The Magician's Nephew at some point, though I rather doubt it'll happen.