Most Helpful Customer Reviews
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3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Great film - despite differences from the book, 17 Dec 2008
Prince Caspian is a superb film, and great to own on Blu-Ray, which gives full rein to the breathtaking and detailed cinematography. It's a great film even though it differs from the book in many crucial respects though -- in case you are thinking about not watching it for this reason -- it remains fundamentally true to what the book is about. Want to know how? Read on.
Prince Caspian (the book) was the second of the Narnia books to be written, and was the 'return to Narnia' after the unprecedented (and unexpected) success of The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe. Of the seven, it's probably the most adventurous and exciting, but it also has to work very hard to explain itself. What this boils down to is that the book begins with a fairly lengthy 'mystery' sequence, where the children arrive in Narnia, but spend a long time before they understand that they are in Narnia, followed by a very long 'flashback', while Trumpkin the dwarf explains the entire history of Prince Caspian (the character) and the entire course of the war with his uncle Miraz. The children then travel with the dwarf through a changed Narnia, in a section dominated by Lucy's passion to see Aslan again, and the disbelief of the others. The book really takes off when the boys join up with Caspian, and the girls with Aslan, leading to one of the most exciting and well-described sword-fights in all of literature. After victory, the book culminates in joyous and eminently readable victory celebrations.
Prince Caspian is a great book, but, quite obviously, most of the plot presented in that way would be almost impossible to make into a film which was anywhere near as exciting as it deserves to be.
So, what was the film-maker's solution? To keep most of the plot, but to play it in a different sequence. Sometimes this is overcoming the difficulty of doing flashbacks well (by presenting things in their 'natural' order), but, more often, it's playing the crucial scenes actually in a different order.
I have to say, I was worried that this would happen, which is why I didn't see the film in the cinema (my loss). My niece still refuses to see it.
Although casually cutting up the best bits of the book and gluing them back together differently sounds like a kind of desecration, it actually works very well indeed. A couple of major scenes are added, including a daring (but doomed) attack on the castle of Miraz, and there's a lot more footage of Miraz and his family. What the screenwriters seem to be trying to do is to keep the spirit and ethos of the book, and draw out the characters, and moving the plot around in order to make sense of it.
This is quite different from the way that The Lord of the Rings was altered for the film, with a very different (and disappointing) slant placed on the character of Elrond.
If you've read the books, and can see that this is the same story told different, then you will be able enjoy to the full this rivetting, gorgeous, touching and perfectly timed film, which (because of the way the plot changes) keeps you guessing right to the end, the way the book did the first time you read it. If you haven't read the book, then this is a great movie and will help the book to resonate afterwards. If you've read the books, though, and can't bear for any of them to be altered, then take heart: with its criss-crossing plot and time lines, Prince Caspian will have been by far the hardest of the books to bring to film. Expect a Voyage of the Dawn Treader, Silver Chair, Horse and his Boy and Magician's Nephew which play very straight, in much the same way that The Chronicles Of Narnia - The Lion, The Witch And The Wardrobe was filmed. The Last Battle, though, may prove more problematic...
What I loved most about this film was the way it brings out the legendary status of the children as Kings and Queens of Narnia, while constantly contrasting it with them as children. The sense of the inter-mingling of time is heady and potent. The camera work is dazzling, and the music, especially when it calls to mind Mr Tumnus's theme from the first film, perfectly offsets it.
Provided that you can overcome the radical surgery to the plot, this is virtually a film without flaw, and its special effects easily overtake its predecessor.
Very warmly recommended, despite my initial misgivings.
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4 of 5 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Fantastic!!!!!, 18 Nov 2008
This is bluray heaven, picture is breathe taking the visual effects stunning.This movie was made for bluray,could not follow storyline my eyes were mesmerized by the sheer beauty of this movie on screen.The sound quailty was awesome. Thankyou Disney movies for this excellent movie.I love it.
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14 of 20 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
You may find Narnia a more savage place than you remember, 6 Sep 2008
Imagine finding a magical kingdom in another world... only to return over a thousand years later, and find it in ruins.
That's the whole idea of "The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian," a superb sequel to "The Lion the Witch and the Wardrobe." While it has a climax that goes on WAY too long, this movie shows us the darker side of C.S. Lewis' fantastical world -- with a heavy dose of Shakespearean villains, political intrigue, and some spectacularly epic battles.
It's been 1,300 years in Narnia, and the human Telmarines have invaded and driven the native Narnians underground. Aslan hasn't been seen in centuries.
And when King Miraz's (Sergio Castellitto) wife gives birth to a baby boy, his nephew -- the rightful heir -- becomes an obstacle. Young Prince Caspian (Ben Barnes) flees from his treacherous uncle, and is discovered by a band of Narnians. Along the way, he accidentally ends up summoning the ancient Kings and Queens of Narnia -- also known as the Pevensie children, who were waiting at a train station when they were unexpectedly sucked trough a tunnel.
Though initially delighted to have returned to Narnia, the Pevensies are horrified when they find that their once-idyllic land has been nearly destroyed. Caspian has been organizing a ramshackle army of native Narnians, but Peter (William Moseley) finds that fighting an organized, armed force is very different from battling the White Witch. And after a disastrous attack, the Narnians are facing almost certain destruction -- but Lucy (Georgie Henley) is convinced that Aslan can somehow save them, and restore the kingdom to Prince Caspian....
"Prince Caspian" is definitely a darker story than its predecessor -- good guys die, coups fail, evil machinations succeed, the castles are grimy, some of the good guys turn bad for real, and a bleak, hopeless feeling suffuses much of the movie's second half. Even our heroes have to deal with their doubts and anger, especially since Aslan is conspicuously absent for 95% of the entire film.
And if the first film was a colorful fantasy adventure, then this one is a military story with all the necessary action trappings -- spectacular aerial drops, castle-wide massacres, and a spectacular finale involving a massive pit, tree roots, a river, and catapults. But Adamson also packs in as much violence as a PG-rated movie can contain -- while there's only a few drops of actual gore, there's plenty of beheadings, shootings and stabbings.
But Narnia itself has lost none of its charm, and Adamson lingers lovingly on the sunlit forests and quiet rivers for as long as he can. And though the story is grim, he sprinkles it with plenty of humor (the bound-and-gagged cat) and fairly snappy dialogue. One of the most spectacular scenes involves a very familiar character speaking from inside a sheet of shimmering ice, as Caspian is dragged into a necromancer's ritual. It's really rather creepy.
Problems with the movie? Well, the climactic battle drags on for a LONG time, and every time you think it'll end, it revs back up. And those masked soldiers are a wee bit too reminiscent of "300's" Persians.
The four Pevensie actors all do solid jobs, although William Moseley is the standout -- Peter is struggling with doubt and a bit of alpha rivalry, especially since he's used to being Narnia's top dog. Barnes starts off a little stiffly -- come on, where's the fear when you see your bed turned into a pincushion? -- but soon grows into the difficult role of a Hamlet-like prince who is struggling to become both a Narnian friend and a Telmarine king.
But there's a pretty brilliant supporting cast as well: Castellitto is simply outstanding as the ruthless, icy-cold Miraz, as are Damián Alcázar and Pierfrancesco Favino as his scheming advisors. Warwick Davis does a low-key, malevolent turn as Nikabrik, while Peter Dinklage is the likably brusque, cynical Trumpkin. And Eddie Izzard is top-notch as the mousy swashbuckler Reepicheep -- this could have a silly, comic-relief character, but he does end up being both adorable and formidable.
"Prince Caspian" drops the children's fantasy feeling, in favor of a darker, more militaristic story -- especially with all that father-murder stuff. But despite its darker overtones, it never forgets the light side.
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