• May. 20, 2008
Prince Caspian
Well, the much awaited second installment to the Chronicles of Narnia movie is finally out and we could not wait to go see it. We are huge Narnia fans in our household. We absolutely loved the first movie and have been eagerly anticipating this one. After seeing it last night, I must leave a mixed review.
First of all I will explain our situation coming into the movie. My daughter and I have read and re-read and listened to the audio book version of all of the Narnia books. We love them and we know them. My husband has 'listened' somewhat distractedly to the audio books so while he has a rough idea of the series he by no means "knows" the intricasies of the story lines. Thus, the mixed review.
I will start with my husbands point of view. He loved it. He thought it was well done, action packed and brought out the subtler Christian themes of God being in control no matter what the circumstances look like and the fact that when we seek Him, He will be found by us. He gave it 5 stars.
Sarah and I however gave it more like 3 stars. Both of us said, first thing when the lights came up, "They left out all the best parts!" Truly, if you know the book you will feel that way. So much of the character development was left out that there were characters, like Caspian's nurse, who weren't even part of the movie. Now this wasn't necessarily vital to the plot of the movie, but there was a LOT missing. I really want to see the movie again with that in mind because it was a good movie, well done and with great effects. But I was driven to distraction playing all of the parts of the book that were missing in my mind to catch up with where the movie was.
All that being said, here is my recommendation. If you have not read the book yet, DO NOT DO SO BEFORE SEEING THE MOVIE. Please go see the movie first. But be sure to read the book after that so you can get the full story and the full effect of the Christian message in it. If you have already read the book...well, just know it is not going to be the same. Anticipate that and just sit back and enjoy the show. I think if I had known ahead of time how much different it would be that I would have enjoyed it more.
And some fun facts, keep in mind the age range of the 4 main characters. Lucy is at the stage where her teeth kept falling out during the filming so that they had to make false teeth for her to wear! And Edmund grew so much during filming that they had to keep re making his costumes.
Enjoy the show.
Shannon
