The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian

prince caspian

I just get the feeling I’ve seen all that before.  oh wait, i did.  it’s called lord of the rings.

did C. S. Lewis rip off J. R. R. Tolkien or the other way around?  either way, the lord of the rings is better.  at least the movie is.  I’ve not read the chronicles of Narnia so i can’t speak to the books.

don’t get me wrong, the movie is really good.  the landscapes are sweeping and gorgeous, the costumes are awesome, the characters are interesting and really well done.  the CG is the best out there right now.  it’s entertaining and good for the whole family.

you just saw it all before in lord of the rings.  like when the trees came in and kicked ass in lord of the rings, the trees come alive and kick ass in prince Caspian.

the chronicles movies so far have been good to see in the theater but I’ve not purchased the first one on dvd yet.  and i probably won’t.  as far as fantasy films go, the chronicles ranks behind lord of the rings, harry potter and the golden compass where I’m concerned.

two and a half minotaurs out of five.

Cal Reed

Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian

Good sequel. I can't compare it to the book as I never read past "The Lion, The Witch, and the Wardrobe". Come to think of it, I'm not totally sure if I read that. I think I read an excerpt for one of my English classes way back in middle school and then we watched the animated movie.

Simple plot summary: The two sons of Adam and two daughters of Eve are summoned back to Narnia. For them, it's been a year. For Narnia, it's been 1300. (Yikes!) They have to help Prince Caspian the 10th take back his throne from his power-hungry/mad uncle, who'd like nothing more than to see his nephew dead.

It was a good movie. I loved the sword-fighting scenes. Very well choreographed. I would have liked to have seen the centaurs do more, but I was pleased with what was offered. The effects were good, the acting was solid (I thought), and I'm looking forward to the next movie.

Once this movie finished (by the way, you don't have to stay until the end of the credits if you don't want to. There's nothing there) my husband and I had only one thought:

ASLAN IS AN ASSHOLE!

Now, if you go see the movie, you will realize that we came by this opinion honestly. I'm sure the later books explain his disappearance and lack of intervention in the Narnians' lives but based on this movie -- the story so far -- he's a complete jerk.

I don't say that to deter you from the movie. It's just my opinion of his character given the situations presented. 

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Recommendations: Star Trek (2009), Avatar, 300

D. Renee Bagby<br />
Building New Realms of Passion<br />
http://dreneebagby.com

The Chronicles of Narnia Prince Caspian

This book was my least favorite in the Narnia series.And The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe didn't leave much for me to expect. Prince Caspian really put the nail in the coffin for any hopes of me seeing a good adaptation of Narnia.



The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian is very much like Shakespeare's Hamlet. It's about Narnia hundreds of years from the last film being ruled by some evil king who has ordered the death of his son/nephew (I forgot) Prince Caspian played by Ben Barnes. Caspian escapes and accidentally summons the Pevensie children back to Narnia.



Now the reason why this was my least favorite Narnia book is because of all 7 books, this one had two stories instead of one main plot. And also because we only see Aslan for 3 seconds. We have this story of Prince Caspian forming a rebelion of Narnians to retake the land from the Telmarins. And we have the story of the Pevensie children trying to figure out what the hell they're doing back in Narnia.



The film bored me during the Pevensie children's side story. It's basically and hour long sequence of them walking through the jungle with a 70 year old pedophilia dwarf while constantly asking, "What are we doing here?" "What happened?" "Where's Aslan?" While I get that this was all in the book and was necessary, the director could have easily shaved of 30 minutes and focused on what was the real plot of the film, Prince Caspian.



I still feel that the Pevensie children were gravely miscast. Hardly any of these characters are memorable, I just didn't care about them. When you're making a series as big as Narnia, you gotta have good actors that can carry characters. Take Harry Potter for example. Radcliffe, Watson and Grint. Just by their surnames you can picture their HP characters. It's like the second film already and if people can't recognize the main characters, you're series is in deep shit.



But I think that Skandar Keynes and Georgie Henley are really coming into their own and they were the better half of the Pevensie kids in my opinion. Hopefully they'll have better material to work on when Dawn Treader comes around.



But what I did like was Ben Barnes as Prince Caspian. He was the only character I liked in the film and his scenes does make up huge ground that was lost developing the Pevensie children's plot. Horrible accent aside, he fits that image of young, strapping, medieval rebel.  Plus I love the hair, I wonder what shampoo he uses?



The CGI of the film is spectacular like in any fantasy film. My personal fav is what I call the 'sungaiman' scene. You know, the part where the river turns into a man and terrorizes a bunch of soldiers on the bridge. Yeah, that scene was pretty cool. And I felt the part with the trees were much better than the Ents in Lord of the Rings. The battle scenes have vastly improved since The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe. The editing is a whole lot better and it finally feels like an action battle instead of a Disney version of a battle.



But all the great visuals and battle scenes still couldn't redeem an hour long of the annoying Pevensie children walking and talking. This would have been a better film if it stayed with Prince Caspian for the most parts and ex that horrible use of Regina Spektor at the end. I was like... WTF? This is a fantasy medieval film. You can't have a pop song in this. Where the hell is you're orchestra God dammit!

RATING: 5/10

NicholasC

The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian

Yes, this is better than the first one. In cases of learning from past mistakes, Walden Media did it well but still, they could have been better. There are more VHS present. Not the video cassette, mind you, but violence, horror and sex. Ok, ok, there are more action this time around and some minor horror moments. As for the sex? The elder girl of the team has grown up a bit and Prince Caspian has a mug good enough to secure the female demographics. If you think you are going to go through a routine popcorn and coke at the cinema with this outing, yep, you have thought right. Everything goes according to the formula, destined for Hollywood blockbusters to succeed.

Sure there are some new little twists of story here and there as well as some clever ideas as well. Too bad there were none that could stay in my mind forever, to be good enough as classic moments. CGI is fantastic as usual, and the cast returns with better attitude and acting credibility. If you are a Beatles fan like me, you might feel the same way I felt about Skandar Keynes. His face REALLY resembles Paul McCartney's. If they are ever going to make that long awaited Beatles movie, this is the guy to look for. As for Narnia, he brings much weight to this sequel. What can I say about Ben Barnes, the guy who carries the subtitle for this film? Man, this guy's screen presence is so weak, he make Frodo looks so mighty in LOTR. This could almost be a carrier suicide for him, in my opinion. Anyway, watch this film if you fancy a total bloodless battle all the way from beginning til the end. Christians might try to spot some Biblical references towards the end of the film. Cute furry creatures! You can find them in other movies but definitely not here.

Rating: 6/10

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