I just can't even muster a "meh" on this Jared - the Disney"fication" of the last one just left me completely uninspired, even with the nice resurrection scene.......I wish this series was in the hands of Peter Jackson or someone of that ilk.......

Ah, I thought it was good. Underwhelming, but good.

I've given up on movies really capturing the books in completely satisfying ways. Even the LOTR didn't exactly do that, although I loved them.

I thought LWW was great! I'm hoping Prince Caspian is awesome too.

I enjoyed Wardrobe. I'm sure I'll enjoy this, but yeah I don't expect any of them to be earth shattering. I reallt do want to see what they can do for A Horse and His Boy.

I think the key difference for me between the LOTR series and this one (so far) is that LOTR broke the "4th wall" and let me in a little - I felt connected to the characters. I hate that I'm waiting for video on this one - I want to "want to" go see it, but no desire.

....renting "Bella" this weekend - I've heard good things on the "redemptive themes/pro-life message" front.

The trailer for Caspian is incredible. I really liked LWW too, but thought that it could have been better. It was good, but not outstanding.

So far, Rotten Tomatoes is treating Caspian well, but there are only a handful of reviews in.

I've heard whispers that Caspian kisses Susan in this episode. If so, I'll be more than just a little disappointed.

Looking forward to your comments on it. It looks like it does not need to be Christian for me to want to see it. BTW, I have been enjoying my discussions with your brother, Jntn, here around SU, though I wonder how he got to be related to you sometimes.

I also heard about the (shudders) kissing. BLECH!!

I also heard they treated Reepicheep much like the beavers in the first movie - making him act like something out of an ABC sitcom.

I don't think I wanna see it.

My son stopped dead in his tracks when I told him you were getting to go. I think he wants to join you instead of helping with an event at church.

Milly

Kissing is just fine in the sanctity of myowndarnedhouse...but in a movie that never had it in the book? Pah. And nobody puts Reepicheep in a corner. Er. Baby...er, dancing?

Man, I gotta lay off the peanut M&M's...

Why are you all so upset about the kissing?

Movies have to do things differently than books. I think I'll have to see the movie to see if "the kiss" is in keeping with the spirit of the book.

Lewis certainly didn't sanitize things for kids, I don't think. for example, I was trying to read "the magicians nephew" to mine, and saw some cursing ("dem fine woman").

It's been a looooong time since I read Prince Caspian. Does Susan have a thing for Caspian in the book?

I think I'd have to see the context and style of the kiss to make a good judgement.

The purist in me might recoil at any departure a movie makes from a book that I've loved.

But I realize the necessity of making changes to turn a book into a movie, and can live with them as long as the changes stay true to the ethos and feel of the story, and to the author's worldview and the world he created I can be ok with them.

What really irks me is when movie departures from "the text" either (a) yank me out of the story and into the 21st Century with a modern day wink-and-nod to the audience, like the “I think I’m getting the hang of this” line we hear from Sam Gamgee after he bonks an orc with a frying pan in FOTR, or (b) are something that the author would NEVER have written b/c it clashes with something pretty fundamental in his worldview, the story he was trying to tell, etc. and instead tries to convey a 21st Century message of some sort, or tries to "help out" the author's story by throwing extraneous stuff in (there's usually too much to include from the book in the first place, so the main job of the movie maker is deciding what to cut vs. what from the text to elaborate upon, rather than coming up with whole other side-stories that never even existed in the book).

For me, insertion of a Susan-Caspian flirtation where Lewis never put one, detracts from the story Lewis was trying to tell rather than adding to it. If it's subtle I'll be ok with it. If they end up kissing I'll really be rolling my eyes.

They end up kissing.

Also:
Caspian the movie takes A LOT of liberties with the source material. There's a lot of invented stuff, including some stuff I don't think Lewis would have been happy about.
Susan the warrior princess being just one.

Still, I liked the movie quite a bit. I guess I'm losing my literary purist convictions.

I was sort of disappointed that the revealing of the hag and wolf scene didn't closely follow the book's version, since that was one of the most powerful scenes in the book (for me).

Also, Edmund is hard core awesome in this movie. Like, Legolas hard core. Like, Legolas-except-hetero hard core.

Well unless there are some MAJOR liberties taken, we won't have to see the Susan/Caspian romance continue to bud in Dawn Treader. She's a no-show in that one.

One liberty I noticed early on (I haven't seen it yet, just the trailers) - Caspian in the book is a little kid. In the movies he's this hunk-warrior.

Andrew, I don't know what constitutes major liberties, but they do treat the book's plot points as somewhat malleable. Same story, same general narrative, same trajectory. But a lot of different, altered, or new details.

Also, they do maintain at the end that Peter and Susan's time in Narnia is up and that they won't be returning.
So at least that was faithful.

It's been a while since I've read Caspian, but the whole castle scene at night? Not quite remembering that. Nor "you-know-who" showing up during the werewolf/hag scene...

The kiss/Susan/Caspian sparks thing was bad enough, but the treatment of some of the characters was fairly Hollywood-ized.

That's it. I am NOT seeing it. If my boy seems like he'll go postal if he doesn't see it, his daddy can take him. His dad hasn't read the books and won't be frothing at the mouth.

I AM a purist and I'm a-stayin' that way! ;-)

We saw it last night. I thought it was really good, but I haven't read Caspian in probably ten years so I couldn't remember a lot of details about the canonical version.



Spoiler alert




The main thing that bugged me about the movie, though, was the silly rivalry between Caspian and Peter. Was that in the book? That part got old.

The kiss was a non-event - something in the last few minutes of the movie. I don't think the "romance" between C and S ws too distracting, as it amounted to little more than light flirtation during the bulk of the film.

Lucy remains absolutely precious. I love that actress.

Edmond, Peter, and Susan did, indeed, rock on the battlefield.

Reepicheep was fantastic.

I really thought that the dwarf Trumpkin was well acted as well.

Yeah, it was really good.

I agree with you on the Peter/Caspian thing. I read the book to Macy last year, but couldn't remember that being in the book. In any event, it was lame and unnecessary.

The acting was great. Eddie Izzard is a fantastic Reepicheep and Peter Dinklage (Trumpkin) is always great.
It was even cool to see Warwick Davis again.

A few more comments (with spoilers).




Am I the only one who thought the guy who played Caspian looks like David Cassidy of the Partridge family?

There's a great review of the movie by Thomas Hibbs, mostly positive, over at National Review Online. I think he hit the nail on the head in his conclusion:

The real problem with the film, I’m saddened to report, has to do with Aslan. This is due in part to the book’s relegation of him to a more marginal role than he had in the first book. On screen, he seems almost like one of the other animals — more powerful, certainly, but not all that mysterious. Except for when he roars, he is more cuddly than fearful. His admonitions to Lucy about the importance of fidelity to him come off as formulaic. A sign of the extent to which Aslan has been diminished in the film is evident in the penultimate scene, in which the children depart Narnia. In the book, they say goodbye to everyone else and then, last, “wonderfully and terribly,” as Lewis puts it, “it was farewell to Aslan himself.”

By contrast, in the film, the parting culminates with Susan’s sorrow over leaving Caspian. The scene is sweet and innocent enough, but it cultivates in the audience the mundane sense of unrealized romantic possibility, rather than the grand appreciation, both terrible and wonderful, of a cosmic romance of redemption.

Saw it last night and was underwhelmed. I was really hoping for something better.

I don't like the quick "witty" comments that make me feel as if the director were still wishing to be in Shrek mode. They are out of context and weird.

As for the kissing, it was just unnecessary. It meant nothing, brought nothing to the film and sets up nothing for anything else. Nothing would be different if they were to remove the kiss. Nothing. How pointless.

Dinklage was the bright point in this movie with a close second going to Lucy and Edmund. I'm looking forward to their return and am glad that Peter and Susan are all but done. Caspian wasn't bad.

The effects were some of the best I've seen. Between this film and Cloverfield, which came out in January, I think it will be a close race for an Oscar when it comes to digital effects.

Did anyone catch the Switchfoot song during the credits? I really liked it. It was a sound Switchfoot had not done before and they pulled it off really well.

On another note, did anyone else see the trailer for City of Ember? It looks very promising. Kung Fu Panda also looked fun while Wall-E seems to be another victory for Pixar. There was another animated film, Igor, that looked quite stupid. I don't think I laughed once in the entire trailer, even though I love Jon Cusack and I wanted to like it.

I should say that overall I liked the film, but I was wanting to like it so much more. While it was more well-done than the first, there were too many loose ends that needed tying. There were more than a few lines/scenes that could have ended up on the cutting room floor.

I think the next film has a new director. I hope that he brings with it a new scope and feel. We've seen new directors positively impact the Harry Potter films and I think the same could be done here.