Prince Caspian: a review…

Last night we rented The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian.  I avoided this one in the theater because I had already a) read the book, b) seen the BBC Teleplay, and c) suffered through the first CoN movie.  Clocking in at 2hrs, I was worried about what I was getting myself into.  Instead, I kinda enjoyed it.

First off, CG badgers are much more endearing than little peaple in furry costumes.  Not that there was a lack of little people, the dwarves were in full effect, and kicked almost as much ass as the mice.  Oh yeah, the mice kicked some ass.  There was more violence than the BBC version, but most of the blood occured off-screen.

Prince Caspian was protrayed as a more adult character, unlike the 12yr old from the British version, and the swordplay was impressive.  And while the BBC version was more of a siege story, the 2008 film was equal parts Guns of Navaronne and The Three Musketeers.  Storming the castle, commando invasions, and the big dumb guy holding the gate open so the heroes can retreat, ultimately catching multiple shots before collapsing in heroic sacrifice.

The actors were as annoying as last time, but acceptable.  And the voice talent was impressive, if odd.  Reepicheap the mouse was voiced by Eddie Izzard, and there was a bear with 2 lines of dialog played by David Walliams from Little Britain.  Odd, but funny.  My favorite part was that Warwick Davis was in both film versions of this story, first as the mouse Reepacheap for the BBC, and currently as the evil dwarf Reacharound, or Piknmix, something like that.

Ultimately, this has a lower Homeschooler approval rating than the first, mostly due to the fact that Caspian and Susan Pevensie share a kiss, and some furtive glances.  Whatevs, I say.  It was much more likely to have happened than the BBC film portrayed, although it’s hard to countenance the term “likely” when dealing with talking bears and gryphons and werewolves and dwarves and centaurs and giant walking trees etc.

Point of contention, who first came up with the anthropomorphic tidal wave: C.S. Lewis or J.R.R. Tolkien?  Both of their latest movie adaptations feature this as a dramatic device, but I can’t recall reading it in either books.

All in all, I give it 3 out of 4 dryads.

~ by thecox on December 15, 2008.