Prince Caspian

[tamara_russo]

I came home quite thoughtful about this movie. As a long time fan of the series I've read "Prince Caspian" quite a few times, and I know the story very well, and they changed it almost to an unrecognizable state.

My biggest problem is that as much as I think about it, I believe that they did what they had to do - "Prince Caspian" is probably the book with the least plot and character development (if I think about it, none of the characters have a great development throughout the series, not even Edmond and Hustace), and it was just too thin to make a good movie out of.

So what do we have? We have Peter resenting being back in England, as a child. He's picking fights, treating people like he's still High King and basically pines for the days they were in Narnia. When they go back he's still the High King, and meeting Caspian he treats him like an inferior, and you can tell what he really wants to do is stay there and rule again. In the book he says to Caspian that he came there only to capture the thrown for him, and... There's the faith thing. Peter lost some of his faith in Aslan, and Aslan shows up very late in the movie, so he can lose it further still, when they lose battles and friends. It is only Edmond who keeps him from going down a very nasty path, and in the end he comes around, but, still, grudgingly. He can never come back to Narnia after this adventure is over, and it hurts like hell.

In this movie, the makers made him to what he is - a teenage boy with doubts, fears and flaws. If we're talking character development, we see a much less confident man (though he does his best to hide it), and his humanity makes him much easier to believe, if we consider the "blind faith" mode he's in in the book.

Then there's Susan. One must remember this is the last time we ever see her as th person she is now - "A friend to Narnia". We see her in "The Horse and His Boy" but as a queen during the golden age, and in "The Last Battle" they say she no longer believes on Narnia, that she no longer believes in Aslan, so she doesn't belong there with them anymore. I can't really tell if we could guess from this movie what will become of her, but we can see she, like Peter, resented being back in England, got confused from being back in Narnia, and became much a quieter person. And she's alone. We see her blow off some boy who was hitting on her on the train in England (which makes you wonder - if that's the only thing that interests her in the final book, how did she become it?), and Caspian and her develop an infatuation through the movie. In a series that did it's best to avoid almost all "couply" mentions, this is a big deal, with a kiss in the end (and "It'll never work between us, I'm 1300 years older than you are"). She's a sad character, with our future knowledge of her.

Edmond has become a grown up - he matured in his thoughts and his beliefs. He keeps his head through the entire thing, and saves Peter's ass more than once. He's become quite cool, and seems to understand his status in this new place/time. I quite liked the way they made him, but he hadn't a lot to say, so I move on to Lucy.

Lucy is Aslan's favorite, he calls her "dear one". She never loses her faith in him - not in the first book and movie and not here, book or movie. In that respect she is portrayed in the movie pretty much the same as in the book - as the stable believer, who always get her reward for her belief. She is also the most boring character to discuss then.

Caspian is a lot as he is in the book - insecure, frightened. He steps back when the four children come to his aid, and in the end says he doesn't know if he has the ability to rule Narnia, and Aslan says "This is why I know you have the ability". I keep remembering his infatuation with the daughter of the star in "The Voyage of the Dawn Treader" and I wonder how he came to overcome what he had with Susan in this movie. He also has a spanish accent - all Telmarins have it, it's quite funny.

Conclusion - still haven't decided if the movie is good enough for my taste (the music also pissed me off - as if they took the music from the first movie and recycled it to the last note), but I want to see it again, understand it better. I don't think depth can destroy this story, and maybe they did something good here.

Comments

[hagar-972.livejournal.com]

Thanks for the warning - may well save me from screeching at the screen -

- and next time, if i'm at home and you want to reach me, don't send an sms, call, and preferebly the ground line. I only saw your sms at ~23:00.