Movie Review: The Chronicles Of Narnia: Prince Caspian - Page 3

While the movie follows the same basic plot line as the book, they seem to have lost track of what the story was about. While the original books were dominated by Christian imagery — only natural as Lewis was a devout Christian — they also were designed to teach children about the power of faith and belief. Narnia was a wondrous place where myths came alive, animals talked, and trees danced. However, in order for it to survive, people have to want it to survive, which means not just sitting idly back and waiting for someone to come and save them when things go bad, but to make the effort themselves to set things right. According to Lewis, that and faith are an unbeatable combination.

While the movie version of Prince Caspian makes passing reference to believing and having faith, it's done through showing the opposite traits in characters: impatience, questioning, and losing faith; rather than any positive demonstrations of belief. The various side plots introduced for the movie — turning the Telmarines into refugees from 15th century Italy, complete with thick, and in some cases bad, Italian accents; a rivalry between Peter and Caspian; an extra battle; additional action sequences — might fill up screen time, but they do nothing to advance the themes of the story.

In the book, when the four children land in Narnia, Caspian had blown the horn that summoned them after he and his forces had suffered a defeat at the hands of his uncle's army. Like in the movie the children meet up with the character of Trumpkin the dwarf (Peter Dinklage) and he guides them to Caspian. However, in the book, while on the way to meeting Caspian the five of them meet up with Aslan. He sends Peter, Edward, and Trumpkin off to meet with Caspian, while he and the two girls travel through Narnia waking the tree and river spirits and generally reviving the magic of the country. It's a beautiful journey that reminds the reader of all that is wild, exciting and beautiful about Narnia and makes Aslan real to us. What we are given in the movie instead of this is the extra battle scene, which might make for excitement, but does little to weave the spell of magical beauty that the book or the first movie did.

Article Author: Richard Marcus

Richard Marcus is the author of the forthcoming book What Will Happen In Eragon IV? and has had his work published in print and on line all over the world. The not so long-haired Canadian iconoclast writes reviews and opines on the world as he sees …

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