Joe’s Review: The Chronicles of Narnia - Prince Caspian
May 28, 2008 by Joe
The first thing I’d suggest before seeing Prince Caspian is to go out and watch the first one. You can get The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe
Prince Caspian is the sequel to the 2005 film, The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe. One year has passed since the Pevensies have left Narnia. However, in that time, hundreds of years have passed in Narnia, and the great kingdom they once ruled has fallen into shambles. The Telmarines have waged war against the Narnians in an attempt to render them extinct. Even worse, the self-appointed ruler of Narnia, General Miraz, has attempted to place his own son as the heir to the throne by assassinating Prince Caspian, the rightful heir to the throne. However, with the help of his professor, Caspian manages to escape, and seek help in the Old Kings and Queens of Narnia. I don’t want to spoil it for anyone who hasn’t seen it, so I’ll stop there. Feel free to contact me if you’d like more information.
The story behind Prince Caspian does seem epic. Does the film succeed in bringing this to the big screen? In my opinion, it does, but only to an extent. There are several conflicts throughout the film that give the feel of an epic movie, but in the end, the scope of the movie doesn’t seem big enough to make it an epic. This might have been what ended up hurting it at the box office. Narnia seemed to try to appeal to a Lord of the Rings crowd while at the same time maintaining the story that appealed to a younger crowd. If they had picked one route or the other, the film might have been more of a commercial success.
That being said, the special effects and camera work in for Prince Caspian was very good. The colors they used, and effects to make the movie seem grand worked for me. As my supervisor (the day job) said when we were discussing the movie:
It was really relaxing, with the cinematography being so visually pleasing. You just got caught up in it.
An excellent way to put it. I couldn’t agree more. That, in my opinion, was the highlight of the film for me. Even though there were special effects aplenty, it didn’t feel too “manufactured”. Just right, in my honest opinion. But then again, my opinion is my own…you may disagree.
Overall, Prince Caspian was an enjoyable movie. It did the trick on a long holiday weekend where I didn’t really have too much else to do other than build furniture for my mom. I have to say that came out nice, and I’ll be taking pictures of it to show off my handywork :-). Oh, and I’ve got an exciting annoucement (for me, anyway) that I hope will bring lots of attention and great stuff for you guys, just for reading (and commenting) on this blog! That’s just a “preview” though, so look out for that.
So, did you see Prince Caspian? What did you think?
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the makers of Prince Caspian kept to the original story surprisingly well… i heard they were going to make it into a silly pure-action flick, but thankfully this was not the case
Hey Patrick! I’m glad you enjoyed the movie, and I am also glad that they kept to the story really well. Too often I find that Hollywood tries to make things “their own”, and fail….
Hope you come back for more!