Prince Caspian: The Movie

I feel so bad for liking this movie. I feel bad that I nearly squeed out loud at the theatre at so many parts, and that even now I have warm fuzzies in my heart from certain parts—even worse, I never got such warm fuzzies from reading the book. Is Prince Caspian a bad adaptation? Yes. But it's a fun movie that only tweaked me in a few places, and as I thought the same about the book, I'm not disappointed.

No, I don't like the Chronicles of Narnia books. Yes, I know that makes me a heretic. And yes, that impacts this review.

Ah, I have so much love for some of this movie, and so much distaste for other parts of it. The distaste first, because bad things should always be drowned out by good. My biggest quibble was the attack on Miraz' castle, which was both stupid and out of place in Narnia. Never mind that it didn't happen in the book, it would never have happened, because that's not how Narnian battles take place. Plus it just made the characters look bad. I understand the need to have failure to amp up the tension, but this was poorly handled.

My more minor quibbles are these. Peter was too belligerent, especially towards a Caspian who was appropriately meek without being a pushover. I don't think the character of Peter worked in the books, as he felt far too unreal a creation, but there was no need to push him so far in the movie. Just plain over the top, making him even less attractive than his perfect cousin from the book. Secondly, the kiss—I could have handled the Susan/Caspian romance when it was limited to semi-subtle googoo eyes that teenagers are wont to indulge in, especially because Susan was supposed to be fond of boys and the most lovely woman in Narnia. However, while I thought Caspian's post-kiss hug was very sweet and appropriate, the kiss was, again, over the top and out of place.

A last quibble, though this is for adaptations in general, is how little of the dialogue from the book was used. This was true of LWW, and most adaptations unless they're something iconic like Jane Austen, but was only annoying when the dialogue was very bad. In general I didn't notice, but there were a few instances which were horribly cheesy, and I noticed with pleasure that Reepicheep's recovery was almost verbatim from the book.

But on to the good! The special effects (or more accurately, the visual effects) were unerringly good and well-used. The landscapes were gorgeous and could have been real or painted for all I cared—they looked epic and Narnian. I greatly appreciated how the living trees were separated from Weta's Ents so that only the slightest of comparisons could be made. And the river man? Simply amazing!

The characters were generally well-acted. I especially enjoyed Ben Barnes' Caspian, as he brought that adorable clueless bravery to light very well, and with a lovely accent to boot. His uncle Miraz was equally well done, and a very nice villain indeed. Edmund shined among the child actors, but then his character was always my favorite—I thought the others acted well, I just didn't like their characters. Reepicheep was as excellent as I had hoped, as were Trufflehunter, Trumpkin, and Nickabrick.

I must give props to the choreography, especially. That duel between Miraz and Peter was one of the most real I've ever seen on screen. Dramatic, long-lasting without being boring, and realistically draining—very nicely planned, acted, and filmed.

The rest of the movie ranged up and down the mediocre scale, as I'm not a big fan of this franchise and this simply wasn't a great movie regardless. Costumes—good; knocking out the columns—not so much. Ruins of Cair Paravel—okay; summoning of the White Witch—not quite. Flipping around the storyline—good; having Caspian confront Miraz in his chamber—not.

But I liked it, and I won't even qualify that. Like almost every movie, I had things I would have done differently, acting I would have rejected, scenes I would have trimmed, lines I would have changed, but that's just perfectionist me. And, as I said, any movie that leaves me with fuzzy warm feelings about it 18 hours later deserves credit. I'd even see it again in theatres, if I had gobs of money to spend.