Product: The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian (Two Disc Edition + BD-Live) [Blu-ray] (2008)
Rating: 4.0
A Pleasant Distraction
First, I would like to say, that having read the books, I came in a little bit narrow-minded, but I try to be very open. Chronicles of Narnia, for me, is almost worse than watching a Harry Potter movie because I am so familiar with the story and mythology behind the books.In the film, the story begins with a birth, the birth of Prince Caspian's uncle's first son, which means he can kill off Caspian so that his son can have the throne. Prince Caspian then runs off on horseback and goes into the forest of Narnia where he runs into a badger and two dwarfs, and blows a horn to summon the kings and queens of old. Of course, we also see Lucy, Edmund, Peter, and Susan as they are going about their daily lives wondering whether or not they will ever go back to Narnia. It is, just as they are wondering this that they are pulled back into to Narnia. They soon find that quite some time has passed since they were Kings and Queens in Narnia and things are not as peaceful and pleasant as they were when they left.It is sad to say that this almost seems like a lesser version of Lord of the Rings, but it does. This does not make it a bad film. There are many battle sequences inserted in the movie not originally in the book and feel like they were put in to cash in on Lord of the Rings, but the film still has almost just as much violence as Lord of the Rings. One of the major things that keeps it from really feeling like its own movie is the fact that they left out a lot of the magical creatures from the book, and brought in Aslan far too late. Aslan in the book comes in much earlier, and it never fully explained why Peter, Susan, and Edmund couldn't see Aslan at first either.This movie almost could have earned a PG-13 rating because of the adult themes of power struggles within in the family and murder conspiracies. This is not light stuff, and I would not take anyone under ten to see it, it is quite violent, but there are so many redeeming qualities that I wouldn't throw the baby out with the bath water either.These were the most frustrating points for me, but overall, the film was well-acted, well-filmed, good script, good effects, and was fairly evenly paced. Part of the problem of filming these books is that in general, not a whole lot goes on. The books are very casual in tone, and not quite as engrossing as say Harry Potter, but that doesn't mean the story they tale is any less engaging, and the battle sequences and character changes in Peter were totally unnecessary.I do hope that they continue filming these because it would be marvelous to see all seven books filmed. I very much enjoyed seeing the children more grown up, I am glad they came back for the "Voyage of the Dawn Treader" as that is my favorite book in the series. Next time Disney, cash in more on C.S. Lewis' wonderful world and the quirky characters and fanciful ideas! :DGod Bless ~Amy