The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian (Theatre) - Both

I’m not really sure what to think of the Chronicles of Narnia. Are they going to make more movies? Are they going to complete the saga? Can they even try? If they do that will make for an awkward fifth and sixth movie (These two are substantially different to the other books as they don’t have any of the Pevensies children in them and jump backwards into the timeline of what has occurred in Narnia already). If not, why should I continue to follow the saga? These answers are not simple ones. They have much to do money and how the other films fare. But as history has taught us the Chronicles have fared much like the big screen adventures of Don Quixote, a book that is notorious for being impossible to bring to film. The BBC first attempted the chronicles in 1967, but they only made it four novels in. Then in 1984 London's Westminster Theatre attempted the run and again only made it four books in. So, I believe the feat of bringing the chronicles to film is an impossible one. This puts a damper on my desire to continue watching these movies. I can’t really figure out why though. I think it has something to do with knowing that I will not be able to complete the journey with these characters and thus I don’t care where they go.

With this underwhelming intro I hopefully put you in the mind frame I was in when watching this. The movie opens in the Telmarine’s capitol where a child is born to someone. This causes a flourish of activity including an assassination attempt of someone. Jennie and I were sort of lost at this point and I felt that way till about an hour in. I believe if they would have kept C.S. Lewis’ story telling device this confusion may have been avoided, he opened the novel with the Pevensies children coming to Narnia – the events of the past 1300 years were then summed up by a dwarf named Trumpkin including the movies opening scenes. But the way the movie opened caused Prince Caspian and much of his character’s motivations to seem confusing. Why would he be fine with talking animals when he has never seen a talking animal and knew of them only through fairy tales? Why would he join Narnia’s fight so readily? Why didn’t he have control of his kingdom? He certainly seemed old enough. I could go on, but I feel that would be boring.

To continue, I felt the film also felt compact. Much like the Harry Potter films, I feel the chronicles tried to have too much story crammed into the three hour run time. A particular scene I could have done without is the temptation of Caspian to revive the white witch. It simply didn’t need to be in the film. It didn’t advance anyone’s story nor did it cause any real character development. There was a reason Peter Jackson was successful while translating the Lord of the Rings to film, he knew where to cut the fat. Sure, Tom Bombadil was one of my favorite character’s in the trilogy, but he wasn’t necessary. This is a lesson I feel the Narnia crew could learn from.

I also feel that an epic battle sequence with no bloodshed is ridiculous. I know they had to contractually keep the film to a PG rating, but come on. If you swing a sword at a man and make contact I would think there should be some sort of blood. Or should children be misled into thinking violent swordplay has no consequence?
Oh, the other way gets them a better rating?
Screw the kids, they’ll figure it out.

Unlike the last film I reviewed I did buy the magic here. This is essential to the enjoyment of the film. If you can’t turn off your brain for a film about a magical world with talking lions then I fear this is not the film for you. I enjoyed the talking animals with their warrior abilities to kill a man without shedding a single drop of blood – this is a world I can believe in. This also lead to a fantastic discussion after the movie between my wife and I about whether or not we would like the ability to talk to animals. I was completely against it citing the fact that I enjoy eating animals too much and hearing them talk would put a damper on the situation. Jennifer on the other had declared that she would become a vegetarian if this fantasy were at all possible. To this I replied that she would have to become a vegan, because she couldn’t just go up to a talking cow and take her milk, nor could she take enough milk to make cheese with - let's not even discuss fried chicken babies with a side of pig flesh. To this Jennie replied that this was an incorrect assumption because she would be friends with the cow and she would ask it for some of the milk and it would readily give her its bounty. This, I assured her, would not solve the problem as obtaining milk would be too hard for the masses and the milk could not be processed properly thus distorting the taste of the milk. Jennie replied that she simply wanted a talking cow friend which I could not argue with.

5 out of 10: I will not remember this film experience after a month or two. Good thing I write these things.