Prince Caspian (Open Spoilers)

Cafe Society
21

I read the book long enough ago that I am comfortably far removed from remembering many details. I still hated the assault on the castle as it was just plain dumb and out of character.

Overall I enjoyed the movie and my kids both enjoyed it. My wife found it very boring.

The kids loved Reepicheep, but even they thought he was a copy of Puss-n-boots from Shrek.

I agree that Peter Dinklage was the best part of the movie, but I thought overall the kids did a great job. The imagery of Narnia was great.

Jim

22

My personal LOL moment was when Reepicheep opened his mouth and lo, he spoke with the voice of Eddie Izzard. My friend and I both laughed out loud, much to the confusement of the rest of the theater.

23

Yeah, I agree. It made them into aggressors, not just defenders of Narnia, which I didn’t care for much.

And what was with the stupid bear? Not the wild one, the dumb as rocks one. *That *was surely something from *Shrek *that wandered onto the wrong set.

But other than that, I liked it. The “romance” between Susan and Caspian totaled about five longing glances, one “call me” joke and one very chaste, very public kiss. I have no idea why there are bunched panties over that.

Although I find it kind of ironic that the movie which engendered so much controversy over the age of the main character had aging as one of its main themes. :stuck_out_tongue:

24

Disturbingly, I remember the bear from the book. It was named Bulgy and was indeed dumb. They were concerned it would suck it’s paws and ruin the effect in front of the Telmarines.

25

Yeah, the bear was in the book. Caving in Aslan’s How, however, was not! :dubious:

Overall, it was OK. Very pretty, not as good as the first one IMO. I disliked the plot changes, as listed above, though I didn’t care much about the romantic subplot.

In particular I was annoyed by all the scrapping between Peter and Caspian. I thought it was lame–but my husband, a male, liked it. Still, I’m annoyed. I also felt that the single combat was messily done. Edmund acted like a teenager, not a king and envoy for an army, and in the book they are very formal and serious about it. And using the stone area for the combat was just silly–they should have had a proper little arena on the grass.

I would have liked to have seen the castle invasion replaced by Lucy’s night-time walk in the woods, trying to awaken the trees.

26

Went and saw it yesterday with the husband and mini-Marli. A couple of random exchanges my husband and I had during the movie:

“Look! Little short velociraptors!” (When the Telmarines are being attacked by the unseen Mice in the tall grass.)

“Arwen’s just around the bend!” (When the river rises up and comes down on the Telmarines).

I enjoyed it very much. They did veer away from the book quite a bit, but the book really didn’t have very much action in it; it was mostly Caspian’s backstory and the children and Trumpkin blundering around lost in the woods. The actual dual, battle, and defeat of the Telmarines took up, what, about two chapters? I thought the presence of the White Witch would piss me off, but it was done quite well, and I liked how the Werewolf quoted his actual speech from the book.

Better than the first one, IMHO, and I’ll be picking it up on DVD when it comes out. I hope they continue to improve in Dawn Treader, that was always my favorite of the books.

And Caspian is quite the little hottie.

27

I got the sense the directors didn’t quite know what to do, so… SWORDFIGHT!!!

28

I love the books and I liked the movie - I am not a purist, I’m just happy to see Narnia on the big screen. I think it’s unfortunate that Reepicheep is being called a clone of Shrek’s puss, Reepicheep as an adorable, cute, swordfighting talking mouse existed WAY before Shrek’s puss was even a gleam in someone’s imagination. I loved Trufflehunter and Trumpkin and the golden chess piece and Cornelius as a half dwarf. It was close enough to the book to please me :slight_smile: I still think the guy that plays Edmund would have been a brilliant Eustace! He’s got perfect Eustace expressions :slight_smile:

Can’t wait for the Voyage of the Dawntreader! I hope this film does well so we’ll get a chacne to see it

29

It’s been almost 20 years since I read the books, and I only read them once so I apparently didn’t love them then, so I don’t recall enough of the book plots to be offended by the changes. I liked the movie well enough. It wasn’t spectacular, but then, neither was the first one. I like how Susan got more into the action this time around rather than hiding with Lucy every time things got dangerous. (of course, the one thing I do remember clearly from the series was being angry that Susan is turned into a twit by the end.)

The fake accents were bothersome, though - which romance language were they angling for? People said they were supposed to be “Spanish” they didn’t sound like the Spanish-accented English I’ve heard from native speakers…

Is this the darkest book? The fighting has gotten rather intense, what with all the human casualties this time around, for movies meant for all ages. I like it, but it seems scary for kids.

Did Caspian remind anyone else of a young Jonny Depp, back around 1990? Especially the eyes.

30

It’s certainly the most *martial *book. There’s a really interesting book (which I admit I’ve only read parts of) which posits that each Narnia book is inspired by one of the ancient seven planets. Prince Caspian is Mars. From wikipedia:

31

I got the Narnia paperback series (in the correct order) for Christmas in 1978 when I was 10 years old. I’ve read the series many, many times.

That being said, I loved the movie. I didn’t find any of the plot changes to be at all upsetting. Now that I reflect back on the movie, many more of the changes are apparent, but I understand why most of them were done.

It would have been difficult to have told the movie in flashback, as the book did. People unfamiliar with the books would have found this confusing, I think.

Putting in all of the little minor scenes (like the schoolteacher and the piggy children) would have been too much like the first Harry Potter movie where the director was more concerned about cramming in every last scene, rather than concentrating on telling the actual story at hand.

This movie was generally close enough to the book that it didn’t annoy the nitpicker in me, but more importantly, it told the story well. The attack on the castle was a bit hard to take, plot-wise, but the movie would have dragged if they had instead devoted the time to the Narnian defenders being holed up in Aslan’s How.

I thought that the actors portraying the Pevensies did a great job.

I thought that the depiction of the Telmarines being Spanish (with Spanish armor, etc.) was a great idea. The Telmarines were supposed to be descendants of brigands who shipwrecked on an island. This fits well, IMHO, with those ancestors possibly being Spaniards from the Age of Exploration.

Overall, I was very pleased with this movie. Personally, I liked it much better than the first, which was good mainly for the visuals, less so for the storytelling.

Everyone should go see this movie, so they continue the series. I can’t wait to see Voyage of the Dawn Treader!

32

I admit I was disappointed because I found parts of the movie dragged. I’m not all that interested in battles (I tend to skip over the battle scenes when watching LOTR).

I couldn’t remember the plot of the book very well (indeed, I found I had confused it with The Silver Chair). Things I liked:

Susan got more face time and lines and turned out to be an interesting young woman. She mumbles, though, and so I missed some of her lines. I like that she kissed him and that she was such a integral part of the battle.

Peter showed more vulnerability in this one, which was nice. Also, he showed his hubris. (I always pitied poor Edmund–such a petty crime to cause all that angst in LW&W). His one on one with Miza was quite good.

Lucy cannot act, I’m afraid.

I love wherever they filmed this–it’s gorgeous! But it did remind me of [del]middle earth[/del] New Zealand.

I liked the humor in the story (much of it added, except for Reepacheep–he is great in both book and film).

I think my “eh-ness” has more to do with the non-traditional story arc than anything else. God knows I am tired of boy meets girl etc or boy faces Great Challenges and Overcomes Them All in battle despite desperate odds etc, but I have to admit I’ve come to expect those plot lines. But I do like that Aslan is not explained away, that he is left mysterious and therefore somewhat anxiety producing. I liked Prince Caspian–to me it doesn’t matter if he’s older than Susan et al–after all, as they say, they’re actually 1300 years older than he is. He did have a bit of Johnny Depp going on.

The masks on the battlefield–what on earth? I kept expecting one of them to yell, “avada kadavra!”

The Poseidon guy was lame, IMO. But my 10 year old loved it. I do need to remember that these films are targeted for that audience. Could it be that we are approaching a fatigue in the fantasy film genre? They are starting to all resemble one another–hell, the Tube scenes look like they could be Harry Potter films as well (that might be because the Tube looks much the same now as it did then, but I digress); lord knows the school uniforms haven’t changed! :slight_smile:

One last complaint: the gait of the centaurs–it looked like junior high CG. The black leader was cool, but even he walked and cantered like a stuttering donkey. wth?

Edmund is by far my favorite–he is quite good (the actor) and I like his character.

33

I was a bit disappointed in the beginning, though I can see why they did it that way. I really wanted to see the scene in the upper tower with the tutor explaining things to him. But that would have slowed the action they were trying to build.

Overall I thought it was quite good, the assault on the castle was a bit unsettling but it was well executed. The scene where they attempt to bring back the White Witch was quite good and I’m pleased they left in the werewolfs speech. (though his CGI was meh)
The actor who played Miraz was amazing, he really brought that character to life. The four Pevensie actors have settled well into their roles, I was especially impressed with Susan and Edmund. Her standing against the soldiers in the woods was just too cool, as was Lucy facing the entire Telmarine army with just her knife. (well, and Aslan coming up behind her)

Overall I give it a 7.

34

Having never read the books (I know, Ruby The Heretic), we thoroughly enjoyed the movie. The Christianity slant was waaay more pronounced in this film. I’m sure it’s no accident that WaterSpoutMan looked a helluva like the Christian God. We enjoyed the duel scene with Peter and TheBadDude. The camera work was very very good. We liked that Edmond wasn’t such a douche this time around and Peter gained some well-needed perspective on life. Indeed Susan’s lips had a life all their own and Lucy was just trying too hard. Her acting is stiff and unnatural. Maybe her character is supposed to be that way?

35

A couple of people have said they thought the Christianity slant was way more pronounced in this film but I tend to disagree. I thought it was more subtle than in the first. It was a big obvious “how-do-you-do” in the first movie where Aslan dies for Edmund’s sins and is resurrected soon after.
I hope that if they continue to make these films they do not do The Last Battle because that was just C.S. Lewis saying “to hell with all the subterfuge!” … I wish I had stopped reading before I got to that one.

36

I agree, I thought he was very good.

I like Edmund a lot in these movies, I think they picked a great guy to play him. I would prefer it if they didn’t constantly give him sarcastic-teenager lines, but that’s modern blockbuster films for you.

My mom just got back from a special screening in San Francisco with the guy who wrote that Planet Narnia book; she was quite impressed with him. So I’m looking forward to reading the book now.

37

Ratting out your brother and sisters and their friends to the Evil Empress is a petty crime? :dubious:

38

Well, as we see in Caspian, The White Witch does have quite the siren’s hold over young males - both Caspian and even Peter were quite taken with her, as well. While Edmund *was a bit of a prat, I don’t think it was entirely unexpected that a young boy succumbed to the charms of a powerful grown woman with magical candy who had held an entire country in thrall for hundreds of years, eh? Peter might very well have done the same, based on his reaction to her in PC.
*Whoever said this Edmund actor would make a good Eustace (were he younger) is spot on. Edmund from *TLTWaTW *and Eustace from Dawn Treader are essentially the same character - bratty selfish Brit boys who Learn Their Lesson by the end of the story.

39

I only remember him being tempted by the Turkish Delight. He’s a kid–who is he to comprehend the consequences of such things? I know he regretted that giving in to temptation almost immediately. He chose immediate gratification: shocking. Edmund is the most human of them all. I liked Edmund in LW&TW and I like that he’s a more rounded character now. He isn’t given just snarky lines: he says to all of them that he has learned to listen to Lucy. Peter ignores him and no good comes of it. This is Peter’s test (more so than LW&TW), IMO. I liked the way Peter seemed suddenly vulnerable and under the WW’s spell–he wavers and I’d like to think suddenly understands Edmund’s choice more fully.

I’d say it was Susan’s test, too, but she seems to have just made up her mind and that’s that. I never liked the way Lewis treated Susan–he was so damned scared of sexuality and women, but I digress… I much prefer this “end” to Susan than the book’s.
The White Witch scene is probably my favorite one. Either that or the scene where Lucy is just standing there on the bridge (but that one goes too slowly. The water spirit took waaaay too long to dispense with the baddies). The joke with the dwarf (Rumpkin?) and Aslan was labored and forced as well.

I didn’t see the religiosity as being more prominent in this film at all. If anything, it was a confused jumble(which is what most religion really is, so I’m fine with that).

40

I really liked the moment when the bad guys see just Lucy on the other side of the bridge. There is a moment of the new head badguy first being stunned, then confused, then realizing that there is no way this could be good and that something very bad was about to happen to him and his army.