Narnia: Prince Caspian

I saw the new Narnia movie, Prince Caspian, at the "World Premiere" at the Ziegfield Theater -- a friend won four tickets to this event. Among the highlights for those who (like me) skipped the after-party was a close near-encounter with Tilda Swanson. She walked by us, about two feet away from me, as our group snagged some popcorn. I can report one thing: she's tall.

I liked The Lion, the Witch & the Wardrobe, and I really wanted to like Prince Caspian as well. There were indeed some great moments, and fabulous scenery. Some of the characters (especially Reepicheep and Susan) were very appealing in their way, although Susan in particular was a little too modern in sensibility.

But I felt that the filmmakers were drawing too heavily on images from The Lord of the Rings and even to some extent Harry Potter. Even worse, I walked away from the film feeling like it was really pointless overall. I couldn't quite my finger on what was so unsatisfying about the movie, and it's been bugging me since then -- was the the source material? or the filmmakers' choices??

The Narnia books were part of my childhood, but only a few really moved me. (As a kid, I totally missed the unmistakable Christian allegory in The Lion, the Witch & the Wardrobe.) The Silver Chair is the one that I liked best; in fact, I bought a copy of it many years ago and I've re-read it numerous times. By contrast, my friend Tina loved The Horse and His Boy, whereas I seem to recall that I disliked it -- even if I opened the book, I'm quite sure I didn't get more than a few pages into it. (I tended to take Tina's book recommendations with a huge grain of salt; I'm not sure why, since the recommendations I did follow were good - e.g., The Westinghouse Game. Maybe I perceived that she had a real weakness for stories with animal protagonists, which I did not share.)

In any event, Prince Caspian was never a favorite of mine, and I really don't recall the story. So I had no idea what the filmmakers had changed, or whether the changes were for the better or for the worse.

I couldn't find a copy of the book at the local library, but they had "The Official Illustrated Movie Companion" by Ernie Malik. Now I think I've found the answer:

"There's very little interaction in the book between [the children] and Prince Caspian. ... They don't really meet the Telmarines, the bad guys, until the end. ... What we wanted to do was stretch the two halves so that they overlapped, which results in getting the kids to Prince Caspian earlier, thus generating some sparks."

TOIMC at 20 (quoting Chris Markus, one of the script writers). I do not in any way disagree with the writers' instinct that the original story needed some punching up. But I fear that the stretching process resulted in overlap that was justified only by the need for overlap -- it wasn't driven by the plot or even the theological message or themes, and didn't really assist with character development either. Particularly the character of Prince Caspian, who remains a cipher throughout. Because he is never really on his own, we don't necessarily see why he is the rightful leader, or even whether he is much of a leader at all. Yes, his uncle is a bad guy, but that doesn't necessarily make Prince Caspian the proper choice to govern the Telmarines and/or Narnia. So the entire effort on behalf of Prince Caspian seems a bit pointless.

Then there was also a scene that bugged me - the doomed assault on Miraz's castle. Don't get me wrong, I loved the castle itself. It was absolutely stunning, and incredibly cool. But I didn't really understand why this raid took place. There was some sort of reason given during the movie, it just didn't convince me. And, as it happens, director Andrew Adamson states in TOIMC:

There's a scene we've added that's not in the book - a great raid on Miraz's castle where we've taken griffins and Minotaurs and centaurs and had them fight against human soldiers within the confines of a castle. These are the kinds of images we haven't seen before, so it was fun to get a chance to play with those.

TOIMC at 21.

I have passed up two additional opportunities to watch the movie again - once for free at a "regular" sneak preview, and once on a pay-your-own-way basis with some friends from my fellowship group. The centaurs were amazing eye candy, the initial transition into Narnia is very cool and the beach is spectacular, and I loved the way the kids gradually realize that the gorgeous ruin they've discovered is really Cair Paravel. But so much of the rest of the movie feels forced, I couldn't quite bring myself to see it again.