I went and saw Prince Caspian (PC) on Friday and now that I have had a couple of days to think it over I thought I would do a bit of post describing what I thought of the movie. For those of you who don’t know I’m a big fan of Lewis even driving long distances to go to nerdy Lewis conferences. I did read PC right before seeing the movie. That being said I’m going to start with a few thoughts about the MOVIE Prince Caspian completely separate from the book Prince Caspian. After that maybe I’ll mention a couple of “can’t believe they changed the book in this way” thoughts.
The MOVIE
It was good but not great.
The Good:
- Compared to the first movie (TLTW&TW) it had much better special effects, cinematography, score, makeup, and editing.
- The kid actors have matured a bit and so have their skills. I thought Peter and Edmond were particularly good.
- Miraz was an incredible bad guy. Honestly think he stole every scene he was in.
- Battle scenes were exciting enough.
- The first half of the movie Trumpkin was great. Loved the dry sarcasm.
- The hag/ware-wolf scene was terrific.
- I was entertained till the end (but never really inspired).
The Bad:
- The romance between Susan and Caspian was completely wasted. Either really develop it or don’t do it at all. Flirting with the idea and throwing in a lame kiss at the end was silly.
- Thought the Professor character and actor were weak.
- The kid actors still had plenty of dumb/befuddled looks on their faces where you knew the director was saying, “No really, I promise you, we’ll have the computer guys put a giant bird carrying a dwarf flying over you so just go ahead and pretend like it is there.”
- Caspian really needed to be developed more. For being the title character he was really flat and didn’t get much screen time.
can’t believe they changed the book in this way
I’m not a huge fan of judging a movie compared to book because it is just not fair. They are different mediums and book is almost always going to be better than the movie. With that being said, here are a couple of things that I wish wouldn’t have been changed so much.
1) In the hag/ware-wolf scene mentioned above, some really serious theological stuff was cut from the dialog between Nikabrik (the bad dwarf), the good Narnians and Caspian. Nikabrik, the hag and the ware-wolf are trying to convince them that they need to call up the White Which from TLTW&TW to save them from impending doom. Here is some dialog that was cut.
Nikabrik: The stories say the Witch defeated Aslan, and bound him, and killed him on that very stone which is over there, just beyond the light.
Badger: But they also say that he came to life again!
Nikabrik: Yes, they say, but you’ll notice that we hear precious little about anything he did afterward. He just fades out of the story. How do you explain that, if he really came to life? Isn’t it much more likely that he didn’t, and that the stories say nothing more about him because there was nothing more to say?
Caspian: He established the Kings and Queens?
Nikabrik: A King who has just won a great battle can usually establish himself without the help of a performing lion.”
I really like this interchange. You can just hear Lewis wrestling with the very real secular humanists of his day along with probably his own doubts. I think it would have been a bold and interesting choice to leave some dialogue like this in the movie.
2) And finally they really changed the “come to Jesus” moment for Trumpkin. In the book it is about 2/3’s of the way into the story and it is beautifully written. I cry every time I read it. In the movie it was put at the very end and Aslan doesn’t even play around with him like he did in the book (I realize this probably would have been hard to pull of on a CGI level as the book has it, but Lucy plays with Aslan effectively numerous times in both TLTW&TW and PC). I’ll end this long post with some of the original “come to Jesus” moment. I just can’t help but think that Lewis was thinking about his own conversion as he was writing the skeptical Trumpkin’s.
“And now!” said Aslan in a much louder voice with just a hint of roar in it, while his tail lashed his flanks, “And now, where is this little Dwarf, this famous swordsman and archer, who doesn’t believe in lions? Come here, son of Earth, come HERE!” -and the last word was no longer the hint of a roar but almost the real thing.
“Wraiths and wreckage!” gasped Trumpkin in the ghost of a voice. The children, who knew Aslan well enough to see that he liked the Dwarf very much, were not disturbed; but it was quite another thing for Trumpkin, who had never seen a lion before, let alone this Lion. He did the only sensible thing he could have done; that is, instead of bolting, he tottered toward Aslan.
Aslan punced. Have you ever seen a very young kitten being carried in the mother cat’s mouth? It was like that. The Dwarf, hunched up in a little, miserable ball, hung from Aslan’s mouth. The Lion gave him one shake and all his armor rattled like a tinker’s pack and then - hey - presto - the Dwarf flew up in the air. He was as safe as if he had been in bed, though he did not feel so. As he came down the huge velvety paws caught him as gently as a mother’s arms and set him (right way up, too) on the ground.
“Son of Earth, shall we be friends?” asked Aslan.
“Ye-he-he-hes,” panted the Dwarf, for it had not yet got its breath back.
