Friday, May 23, 2008

Further thoughts on Prince Caspian

I've had a week to think about the film some more and I've read several reviews all over the internet and it seems that most reviewers have the same things to say that I did. I found this cover image on Wikipedia to the first edition and I thought I'd post it. I think this image completely clashes with the movie poster's interpretation of Prince Caspian. The cover illustration suggests a gentle story possibly reminiscent of Greek myth. If I weren't feeling so sluggish and tired lately, I'd totally dig out my copy of Prince Caspian and re-read it right now. I don't want to be horribly negative about the film, but I keep thinking about those centaurs. I have to say that the idea of centaurs in general just creeps me out, but the centaurs in the movie are just so ugly and I mean unbearably ugly. There's just something ugly about the film's Narnia. I was enchanted with the ruins of Cair Paravel, but beyond that Narnia was just too dark and dismal. Perhaps this has to do with Aslan's absence (although had Aslan been more prominent in the film, it wouldn't have made the centaurs more attractive). I know that The Lord of The Rings films really set the standard for intense and epic battle sequences, but every fantasy story doesn't have to live up to that. Narnia is not Middle Earth and nor does it have to be. Narnia is exciting in its own way. Now, I only read The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe when I was in sixth grade and since I wasn't really into fantasy, I didn't read on. I remember my school library's limited collection of books and I favored Laura Ingalls Wilder and books by Noel Streatfeild and checked out those books repeatedly while leaving books like The Hobbit and A Wrinkle in Time on the shelves. So, I would not venture back to Narnia until my early thirties when I began reading the series to my older son Luke. I was enchanted and I loved reading The Magician's Nephew last only to discover how that lamp post ended up in Narnia. If anything, the recent film Prince Caspian has got me longing for the true Narnia.

1 comment:

Mary G said...

Dear Carmen,

I'm with you! I think about MacBeth's review of the movie, "hmmm, it sort of reminds me of a book by CSLewis" ... it's too bad because the movie WAS good but not Narnia!