Prince Caspian Review

So last night a group of us went to see Prince Caspian down at the Valley Regal Cinemas. In anticipation the opening of the movie, I read the original C.S. Lewis masterpiece to my 6th graders at Shiloh. I love reading C.S. Lewis' books and have enjoyed the Chronicles of Narnia series a lot. I love to read the book before seeing the movie because then I feel like I am glued more to what's going on because the nature of my personality forces me to compare the two while watching the silver screen.

Negatives:

So as the movie begins and the boys are fighting classmates in the subway station, I immediately find myself thinking, "Wait, this wasn't in the book!!" We were only 5 minutes into the book and already the story line was different.

The other thing I was disappointed with was the lack of time in the movie given to the relationship built between the professor and Caspian. This important part of the book is where Caspian, and the rest of us, learn what happened to the "Old Narnians" when the Telemarines came into Narnia. And the fact as well that they summed up the first 100 pages or so in the first 20 minutes of the movie and spent the last 2 hours on the battle scenes.

The last thing I didn't like was the lack of attention paid to the interaction between Lucy and Aslan when the kids are on their way to meet Caspian. Aslan guides the kids to where they need to get to. Also, as they start to believe more and more in the fact that he will help them eventually, they start to see him. It is also interesting from the book that the kids start to see Aslan in reverse chronological order. So Lucy sees him and "knows" him first and Peter is the last.

Positive:

The best thing, and sometimes the worst I guess too, about seeing the movie representation of a book already read, is that you get to put a face to the characters. I think one of the best things that Walden Media did was their casting. They did a great job of making all of the Telemarines of Spanish decent to keep consistency with the fact that they were all from a group of pirates that were marooned on an island and walked through the magic cave and into Narnia.

It is always heart warming to read the Christian under tones within the story, but for some reason when you see it acted out on the screen it tends to drive it home a little more. The best example of this from the movie that I saw was when Lucy and Aslan were interacting in the field. Lucy asked Aslan a question like, "Aslan, how many Narnians would have died if I would have come to you sooner?" Aslan replied, "We can never know now, but what we can change is how many we can save now." It just makes me think of how we constantly run away from God and don't seek out his guidance. How many people could I have "saved" if I came to God sooner in life? How many people do I turn away still because I still refuse to give my life "completely" to God.

Last Word:

I believe that the release of this movie will inspire young kids to imagine a savior to come save the day when they are in need. We don't have a magical horn, but we do have a direct line to our savior through the word of prayer. Although I am usually opposed to spending money on going to the movies because it just ends up supporting people that don't hold the same values I do. But, in this case, I think that it was money well spent. Thank you to the Cones for taking Whit and I, we really enjoyed the trip back to Narnia, even if we didn't go back the same way twice.