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The "Narnia" franchise has run a twisty course: after a spectacular first movie (The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe), the second outing (Prince Caspian) was a critical and Box Office disaster. Disney dropped the franchise after taaking a major bath with the movie but 20th Centruy Fox (for reasons unknown and perhaps unknowable) took up the franchise. What they produced was a pretty good "quest" movie although purists won't care for it much: this "Voyage" often veers away from the C.S. Lewis story.
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Peter and Susan (the two older children from the first two movies) have gone off to America with their parents leaving Edmund and Lucy (the younger kids--now well into their teens) in the care of cousins. For this trip to Narnia they are joined by cousin Eustace (played to priggish perfection by Will Poulter). Like Edmund before him, Eustace is transfromed by his visit to Narnia (literally and figuratively) and he comes out better for it. Prince Caspian (Ben Barnes) is back and Liam Neeson gives voice to Aslan the animated lion. Even Tilda Swinton's White Witch shows up briefly. Simon Pegg gives voice to Reepicheep, the impossibly brave and ceaselessly cheerful mouse (and he actually turns the little guy into an admirable character you want to root for).
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Plot-wise, this is a standard "quest" movie. You can't fail to know how everything is going to turn out even before the movie starts. There are several "huh?" moments (where elements are introduced in a major way--then completely dropped). The costuming and sets are suitaly fantastic and the FX are first rate. I do have one major quibble however: Robyn and I saw this in 3D (paying $4.00 a piece extra for the "privelage"). 3D adds NOTHING (but a lot of extra expense) to this movie! In fact, the effects are rarely even noticeable--but maybe that's just me. Still, I found the extra expense rather hampered my enjoyment of the movie.
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Purists are sure to be annoyed by the serious working-over the writers gave the plot but IMHO this was a good thing. (The book was awfuly "talky" and didn't have a lot of action to hold my interest.) Don't bother with the extra expense of a 3D showing unless you are seriously rich or seriously into 3D. Otherwise go and enjoy the movie.
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FINAL GRADE: B
3 comments:
I loved the book - it was one of my favorites of the series. I didn't re-read it before seeing the movie, which turned out to be a good thing ... if I had, I would have been completely annoyed by all the changes. As it was, I enjoyed the movie and the kids did too. We missed Prince Caspian completely, though - is it worth renting?
You might like it (at least it sticks close to the book) but I found Prince Caspian to be slow going. There are a few good scenes but there's a lot of ceaseless talking and chest-pounding. Dig far enough back in this blog and you'll find a review.
I only read the first book, and saw the first movie. Led such a sheltered life as a kid I had no idea there were more than just the first book.
Have a lot of catching up to do!
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