Prince Caspian Review!
[spoilers begin]I LOVED IT! It was really much darker and grittier this time, complete with angst on the part of Peter (William Moseley) and Prince Caspian (This guy who was in history boys). It's more depressing than the Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, obviously but there still runs a "Aslan saves the day" thread. The religious undertones in this one were quite evident, too, when Aslan only appears in front of Lucy but not the others, and when Aslan is represented as this disembodied voice. Also a carving of him is in the stone table chamber, and in the movie, he is represented as this huge foil to the white witch, which peter then is remorse in front of.
Gosh I sound like I haven't read the book yet, but the last time I read it it was when LWW came out, so I can't really remember. But the most significant images that left an impression on my first reading when I was quite young were the hag -werewolf- nikibrik fight, and that turned out to be really good. Though I really wanted to see bacchus and the naiads and dryads dancing in the streets at the end/ defeating the telmarines. I mean in the books there were 2 kinds of trees, right? The old ones, like ents, as featured in the movie and the dryads and nymph-like dancing women. The trees weren't that...alive in the movie than in the book. I think you know what I mean. Okay enough nitpicking.
Lucy's (Georgie Henley) performance was very believeable, in the Aslan scenes especially. I mean when you're a child it's easier for you to imagine and interact with something that isn't actually there, right? So her interactions with Aslan were more beliveable than say Moseley's or Anna Popplewell's (Susan). But they were all great as actors and they were very true to the spirit of the books. The chemistry between them is great, too, when they trust each other and the conversations now are geared more toward an adult audience, because there's some induction involved. I like the way they communicate; like they're not just spiteful to someone without a reason, and there are bits where they hint that peter and susan are getting too old for narnia and they need to be moving on.
Another thing I liked were the epic battle scenes, and grim mood throughout. and the way they illustrated the fauns, centures and minators. It was more lord of the rings, than, say, philosopher's stone, which is good. Something which I really really hate is the way the director tried to sneak in the susan/ CASPIAN pairing oh god that was the worst. I mean it's not evident in the book but if you read especially into it, it might be, but it made susan seem so... old. Oh but she is but the pairing is simply AWFUL because Ben Barnes (caspian) had to put on this really fake telmarine accent. And in the movie he is dark. has long hair. is repulsive. And in some ways he should be more of a monach than someone who fancies susan. [spoilers end]
