Reviews of The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian

The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian review

Posted : 1 month, 2 weeks ago on 4 July 2008 10:14 (A review of The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian)

I had been looking forward to this movie for a long time. I loved The Lion, The Witch & the Wardrobe - the cast, the score, the cg animals, it was just as I had always imagined Narnia to be. And it’s unusual that I’m not angry at first by a movie adaptation of a book that I hold so dearly. Needless to say, I had high expectation for Caspian.

And coming away from the movie, I have to say that I loved it. Loved it. There were parts that made me angry, but overall, it was wonderful, and beautiful, and everything that I expected.

First, I need to get something off my chest about it. I did not like the casting choice of Caspian. I still have the image of Jean-Marc Perret’s Caspian in my head, and the Caspian in this adaptation was too old for my liking - he’s 13 in the books, and I prefer him that age. It gives the story more innocence. Also, I didn’t enjoy the whole Susan/Caspian thing going on. I can understand that they need to get the teenage girl audience into watching this movie, but still… Narnia does not need romance to make it good and exciting.

Susan and Peter are my least favourite characters in the Narnia series, and this movie certainly did not change that feeling towards them on the whole. Peter seemed more cocky than normal, and what was up with him leading the troops into Miraz’s castle? Anyone could see that it was a disaster waiting to happen. (People totally need to listen to what Lucy says more often.) In the movies I feel rather indifferent to Susan, which I suppose is better than the dislike I have towards her in the books. She had some beautiful scenes, but it wasn’t enough to make me really like her.

They changed the order of how things happened compared to the book; I can understand why they did it for the most part - wanted to get as many scenes as possible with our kids in them, and whatnot. But it was a little surprising at first. I wish that more of the kids had seen Aslan like they do in the books, on their journey to Aslan’s How… but I can understand that if they had done that, then they couldn’t have Peter storming the castle, and that would’ve taken away half the battle scenes in the movie. Wish Aslan was in it more. But with them taking away all the Christian message in the first movie, it was rather surprising that it felt very Christian when Lucy finally did meet up with Aslan… I don’t remember exactly what it was, but there was something about their conversation.

I love that Warwick Davis was Nikabrik this time around! Warwick Davis is brilliant, and I love how he played an evil character in this adaptation, when in the BBC adaptation he played Reepicheep. Quite the change, and he did evil so well!

I still love Skandar Keynes as Edmund. As one of my favourite Narnian characters, I am so happy that they made such a wonderful choice in actors. He’s a brilliant Edmund! I just hope their casting for Eustace Scrubb is as good as their casting for Edmund.

The score was still lovely, though they totally reused some songs from the first movie. Loved Switchfoot’s song during the credits. Will need to buy that at some point in time.

Overall, a fabulous movie. Again, some things really bothered me, but it was beautiful for the most part! Beautiful! Will be buying it as soon as it comes out on DVD.

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