Prince Caspian
May. 19th, 2008 02:10 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
megotelekJohn and I went to see it yesterday - and it was wonderful! Yes, they changed the structure quite a bit, but all the essential pieces (to me, anyway) were there. Thusly:
I'm sure John was annoyed with me after the fifteenth time I elbowed him and squeaked something like, "It's Reepicheep and the mice!" as some of the Telmarine soldiers are attacked by something rustling through the grass. He hasn't read the books and had no idea why I was excited that the bulgy bear really did suck his paws.
That's what I love about these movies. They put in the most miniscule thing from the book (like the bulgy bear) and that makes it really easy for me to forgive some of the changes - especially since I can see why having half the story be told in flashback by Trumpkin would make the movie harder to get into.
Okay, down to specifics:
The good:
1. The Pevensies' return to Narnia was done brilliantly. Exactly the way I pictured it when I read the books. Complete with "Ow!" "Stop pushing!" "I think it's magic!" comments from the four of them. Again, I was elbowing John and squeaking, "The apple orchard! The golden chess piece!" I think he may have thought I had some weird form of Narnia-oriented Tourette's at that point, actually...
2. Trumpkin. Peter Dinklage was perfect as Trumpkin, and everything from his first fight with Edmund (speaking of which, HELLO, Skandar Keynes) to sheepishly coming before Aslan at the end was pitch-perfect and exactly what I pictured while reading the book.
3. Reepicheep. Again, PERFECT. Eddie Izzard pulled the voice off spectacularly, and he had his own little trumpet-fanfare musical theme that was just perfect. The scene where he asks Aslan for his tail and his followers are ready to cut their tails off for him is adorable and at the same time, completely serious. Also, mouse bagpipes!
4. Miraz/the Telmarines/Caspian. It was weird at first for me to adjust to the Telmarines-as-Spanish conquistadores, but I realized I had never actually thought about what, ethnically, the Telmarines were in the books. So once I made the connection that their ancestors were pirates (which is in the book), I was able to accept that. And Ben Barnes was terrific as Caspian. Even if he did look older than Peter.
The not-quite-as-good:
I can't say "the bad", because there really wasn't any full-on bad, but these were...things I didn't like quite so much.
1. Caspian's age. In the book, I got the impression he was obviously younger than Peter (only by a couple of years though - like he was 13 and Peter was 15) and was in awe of Peter. In the movie, he seems alternately jealous of and threatened by Peter, ultimately respecting him. I think I like movie!Caspian better than book!Caspian, just because the way they interact and the way the characters act on screen seems more like the way I think the characters would act, rather than the way Lewis wrote them.
2. The kiss. I don't know - I get that they're setting up the "Susan can't come back to Narnia because she's growing up" thing, but I would expect that to show itself in her disinterest of Narnia and the way she grows to look at it as "that game we played when we were kids". If Susan really had been growing to like Caspian, wouldn't she have wanted to stay and/or get back to Narnia even more?
3. Super Susan. In that vein, Susan is very action-hero in this movie, with her leather/chainmail corset going on and her Legolas archery. Again, wouldn't you want to stay in the world where you're a super-heroine? Of course, I can't be too upset with this because I want to like super!Susan - I like action-heroines. But Susan Pevensie isn't an action hero. She's a teenage girl becoming rapidly engrossed in normal teenage-girl things (lipstick, boys, etc) that make her shut down her belief in Narnia/Aslan. No, it's not a happy thing, but I think it's something her character has to be true to.
Ahh...now I will spend time digesting it (and reading the book again) before I go see it again in the theater. This time, with someone (Jessica?) who will squeak along with me.
I'm sure John was annoyed with me after the fifteenth time I elbowed him and squeaked something like, "It's Reepicheep and the mice!" as some of the Telmarine soldiers are attacked by something rustling through the grass. He hasn't read the books and had no idea why I was excited that the bulgy bear really did suck his paws.
That's what I love about these movies. They put in the most miniscule thing from the book (like the bulgy bear) and that makes it really easy for me to forgive some of the changes - especially since I can see why having half the story be told in flashback by Trumpkin would make the movie harder to get into.
Okay, down to specifics:
The good:
1. The Pevensies' return to Narnia was done brilliantly. Exactly the way I pictured it when I read the books. Complete with "Ow!" "Stop pushing!" "I think it's magic!" comments from the four of them. Again, I was elbowing John and squeaking, "The apple orchard! The golden chess piece!" I think he may have thought I had some weird form of Narnia-oriented Tourette's at that point, actually...
2. Trumpkin. Peter Dinklage was perfect as Trumpkin, and everything from his first fight with Edmund (speaking of which, HELLO, Skandar Keynes) to sheepishly coming before Aslan at the end was pitch-perfect and exactly what I pictured while reading the book.
3. Reepicheep. Again, PERFECT. Eddie Izzard pulled the voice off spectacularly, and he had his own little trumpet-fanfare musical theme that was just perfect. The scene where he asks Aslan for his tail and his followers are ready to cut their tails off for him is adorable and at the same time, completely serious. Also, mouse bagpipes!
4. Miraz/the Telmarines/Caspian. It was weird at first for me to adjust to the Telmarines-as-Spanish conquistadores, but I realized I had never actually thought about what, ethnically, the Telmarines were in the books. So once I made the connection that their ancestors were pirates (which is in the book), I was able to accept that. And Ben Barnes was terrific as Caspian. Even if he did look older than Peter.
The not-quite-as-good:
I can't say "the bad", because there really wasn't any full-on bad, but these were...things I didn't like quite so much.
1. Caspian's age. In the book, I got the impression he was obviously younger than Peter (only by a couple of years though - like he was 13 and Peter was 15) and was in awe of Peter. In the movie, he seems alternately jealous of and threatened by Peter, ultimately respecting him. I think I like movie!Caspian better than book!Caspian, just because the way they interact and the way the characters act on screen seems more like the way I think the characters would act, rather than the way Lewis wrote them.
2. The kiss. I don't know - I get that they're setting up the "Susan can't come back to Narnia because she's growing up" thing, but I would expect that to show itself in her disinterest of Narnia and the way she grows to look at it as "that game we played when we were kids". If Susan really had been growing to like Caspian, wouldn't she have wanted to stay and/or get back to Narnia even more?
3. Super Susan. In that vein, Susan is very action-hero in this movie, with her leather/chainmail corset going on and her Legolas archery. Again, wouldn't you want to stay in the world where you're a super-heroine? Of course, I can't be too upset with this because I want to like super!Susan - I like action-heroines. But Susan Pevensie isn't an action hero. She's a teenage girl becoming rapidly engrossed in normal teenage-girl things (lipstick, boys, etc) that make her shut down her belief in Narnia/Aslan. No, it's not a happy thing, but I think it's something her character has to be true to.
Ahh...now I will spend time digesting it (and reading the book again) before I go see it again in the theater. This time, with someone (Jessica?) who will squeak along with me.
