Miscellany

Movie Review: Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian

June 2, 2008

prince-caspianThe McGee 4 went to the movies together on Saturday and saw Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian, and absolutely delightful movie that had plenty to offer both kids and adults.

I was particularly glad that the movie didn’t go way overboard with special effects and sci-fi/fantasy gimmicks. This would’ve been a completely different movie in the hands of someone like, oh … Steven Spielberg. Prince Caspian is almost like an anti-epic — a big, grand film that seemed like it really wants to be smaller.

Now, it’s worth nothing that I enjoyed the movie a lot even though I’ve never read any of the C.S. Lewis novels, nor have I seen The Lion, The Witch, and The Wardrobe, the first film in the series. Turns out that there were a couple dialog references and other things I missed by not knowing the books/movie better, but as a complete rookie to Chronicles, I still really enjoyed the story. I confess to feeling lost for about the first 10 minutes, but after that it was clear sailing.

The only negatives for me? 1.) The thick English accents that the kids and some of the Telmarine lords used was hard to understand at times, and 2.) Some of the movements of the Narnians was a bit clunky. I’m referring to the centaurs and minotaurs mainly. But that clunkiness was actually somewhat endearing — it was almost like they were trying to make sure things weren’t perfect.

Overall, on a scale of 1-10, I’ll give Prince Caspian an 8. My 6-year-old loved it, and was crying when it was over — she didn’t want it to end. My 10-year-old liked it, but thought a couple scenes were too scary. Still, good for the whole family.

1 Comment

  • Reply patrick June 3, 2008 at 9:02 am

    the makers of Prince Caspian kept to the original story surprisingly well, all thinks considered… i heard they were going to make it into a silly pure-action flick, but thankfully this was not the case

  • Leave a Reply