Prince Caspian

I reread Prince Caspian on Saturday night and went to see the movie on Sunday (I also watched The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe again to get in the mood). Overall, I enjoyed the movie even though it had a rather angry edge to it. The kids' acting was good. I have to admit, though, that it took me a few minutes to really believe that was Georgie Henley. Of all the kids she had changed the most between the two movies. She wasn't given a lot to do in the movie and seemed quite passive even in her heroic ride to find Aslan. I liked Skandar Keynes in the first one. It has to be hard to play the unlikeable traitor but still have the audience feel connected to you and care. He was much more likeable in this one and, if it was him and not a stunt person, did well in his fight scenes.

I didn't like what they did to Peter. That is my biggest gripe with adaptations -- when they mess with character (I've dubbed it the Faramir syndrome after what they did to his character in The Two Towers... hmph). While it might be understandable that Peter had become angry and would lash out at slights and authority, that was not the Peter of the book. Also, I don't think there was enough underneath the anger and poor judgement to make me feel connected to the character. It's too bad because I liked William Moseley's Peter in the first movie.

Susan was portrayed as quite the warrior queen in the movie. Anna Popplewell played her well. The hint of romance between her and the Prince was cute and not overdone.

I could have done without the accent used by Ben Barnes, but otherwise he was an ok Prince Caspian.

Some changes they made that I didn't particularly care for include the attack on the castle. Maybe the whole thing was a ploy to get the audience to switch alligience from Peter to Caspian, because certainly the latter acted more nobly than the former. I liked seeing the White Witch (an uncredited appearance by Tilda Swinton) even though she did not show up like that in the book. I'm not sure why they left Aslan out for so long, or why there was the bizarre repeat of "things don't happen the same way twice" line (which happened almost the same way twice). That whole dream sequence of Lucy's was confusing.

However, as I said at the beginning, I really did enjoy the movie. The kids come across as believable siblings and the special effects were great. As for the Narnians, as a fan of Eddie Izzard (I just went to see Stripped), I was especially happy to hear him voice Reepicheep! And the composer, Harry Gregson-Williams, got to talk as the voice of Pattertwig the Squirrel (let's get some nuts!).