Prince Caspian Analysis
Mood: content
Listening to: BT - This Binary Universe
Reading: nada
Alright—this will be a long one!
Well, I apologize for briefly turning inquisitivity into a Prince Caspian blog. What can I say? Narnia has been part of my life for years now. :)
I saw the movie! And it appears that I was wrong about a couple things in my last post. The Caspian/Susan romance was not cut out of the movie. The kiss at the end was a glaring screenwriting glitch and a ridiculous Hollywoodization - it had no basis, because Caspian and Susan had not interacted very much before it! But I guess it wasn't that big of a deal. It can be shrugged off. (My friends thought it was cute. xD)
The theme of faith was not as strong as I would have liked. It seemed like the character of Peter really ruined things...thinking he could do everything without Aslan's help (until his night raid on Miraz's castle failed). And why would Peter be enticed by the White Witch, when he himself had watched Aslan defeat (or eat) the Witch in LWW? Besides, I thought the White Witch scene was really unnecessary and overdone, especially with the hag's incantation...it made me really cringe and sort of squish back in my seat, because I didn't like it at all...until Edmund saved the day of course. :)
I did like how Trufflehunter was always the loyal badger and the true Narnian. His character didn't meet my hopes of sort of embodying the faith theme, but they did a really good job of making him the same lovable character that he is in the book.
I loved the scene where Lucy was dreaming, and how the trees parted for her and she walked through them and talked with Aslan. It captured some of the emotion from the scene in the book, but not quite enough...partly because it was a dream! Which brings me to my next point...
I decided on what I think is the key difference between the book and the movie. Book: Pevensies see/speak with Aslan before the battles. Movie: Pevensies don't see Aslan until after the battles are over (except Lucy). I feel like that single change gave the second half of the movie a completely different dynamic: the characters were sort of at a loss, the conflict seemed unguided, Aslan wasn't important enough. It kind of mixed up the whole structure of the story.
But all analyzing aside, I was extremely pleased with the movie. My expectations were met, if not exceeded. Cinematography, music, acting, costumes, computer-generated imagery, nods to the book (like Tarva and Alambil, Bulgy Bear, apple trees), everything...it was all great.
Favorite shot: Miraz's view through the telescope, watching Edmund, Glenstorm the Centaur, and Wimbleweather the Giant approach. It makes me laugh just thinking about it. :)
And of course, Skandar Keynes was quite impressive as Edmund. But maybe I'm biased. ;)
