The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian

This weekend, Kevin and I went to go see Prince Caspian, the 2nd in The Chronicles of Narnia series. It had been so long since either of us had read the original C.S. Lewis book, that we immediately had to start reading it again to see how it compared to the movie.

If you're interested in The Chronicles of Narnia, you'll definitely want to check out Caspian vs. Caspian, Elizabeth Bird's simultaneous review of both the book and the movie over at Fuse #8. But be warned: there are plenty of spoilers, so if you want to watch the movie or read the book fresh, save this for later.

I agree with Ms. Bird on almost every point. For instance (no plot spoilers here),

• Prince Caspian was never my favorite Narnia book. (The Voyage of the Dawn Treader, on the other hand...)
• The girls as excellent warriors was a good move. (She has an interesting tidbit about how the filmmaker had to argue for this.)
• The book has such a different tone from the movie that neither one could possibly spoil the other.

I think our biggest point of contention would be that I actually loved the Regina Spektor song at the end. (Check out the fancy-schmancy new song-clip widget from Amazon, or you can hear the whole song here.)


Overall, I thought the movie was pretty good. The characters are awfully flat (Kevin described it as taking the "meat off the bones"), and the tension could be ratcheted up a notch on lots of levels, but I have to say, the visuals make up for it. Just seeing the world of Narnia come to life is pretty spectacular. Plus, how could you not love seeing Reepicheep in action?

Here's the New York Times review, too.