MOVIE REVIEW: The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian

I remember as a kid being enthralled by The Chronicles of Narnia series by C.S. Lewis. By the time The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe came out as a film I had forgotten what exactly happened in those books. I was pleasantly surprised when watching TCN:LWW that many plot points and strong feelings I had while reading as a youngster came back to me. Particularly, the movie captured my visceral dislike I had of Edmund. Boy, I hated Edmund as a kid. I found the film version of TCN:LWW to be a disappointment, though. I liked the special effects and thought the kids were good but the pacing was off and the film seemed to lag.

Prince Caspian is a better film. But no memories of the book were reignited while watching Prince Caspian. I don’t know if the movie veered far from the book but I didn’t recall a thing. Prince Caspian starts as many stories do. A son is born to a scheming evil man, portrayed with sullen eyes, a pointed beard, and a predilection to wearing black, as many evil men are in the movies. The evil man, who happens to be Prince Caspian’s uncle, wants his son to be heir to the throne and this sends young Prince Caspian into exile. Prince Caspian, who happens to be a dreamy heartthrob of a prince, and his scheming uncle, are both Telmarines. As we find out after Prince Caspian meets the remaining, also exiled Narnians in the forbidden woods, the Telmarines are a human race that hundreds of years ago thought they wiped out the Narnians. The Narnians, if you remember are made up of talking animals, centaurs, minotaurs, fauns, dwarves, and other fanciful creatures. The arrival of Prince Caspian along with the four English kids from TCN:LWW galvanizes the Narnians and off to war against the Telmarines we go.

This is where I begin to have some problems with the story. A man full of hubris beginning wars for selfish reasons with no concern for all the deaths he is causing is an old story and one that keeps repeating itself. So I have no real grievance with that part. My issue is when there is a meeting of Narnians and a dark-skinned centaur states that Narnia can only be ruled in peace by “Sons of Adam” (re: white men) and in order to get peace the same “Sons of Adam” (re: white men) needs to go to war, total war. And here is dreamy heartthrob (and incidentally white) Prince Caspian waiting to go to war, collect his rightful throne, and bring peace to the Narnians, who cannot or will not do it for themselves. Perhaps, it is because I am now currently living in Africa or because the Iraq war has jaded my sensibilities that I don’t really think that civilized, western, white men can rule anyone let alone rule in peace.

Another aspect worth mentioning is the treatment of Aslan the majestic lion. I remember some kerfuffle about how the crazy Christians liked TCN:LWW because of the portrayal of Aslan as Jesus and the studio was denying it and the crazy Christians blamed liberal, evil America for the denial. I don’t remember hearing anything like that this time around. But if Aslan was Jesus in TCN:LWW he is in full God-mode in Prince Caspian. When asked why he didn’t rush to the Narnians aid sooner Aslan provides some mumbo jumbo indicating how he works in mysterious ways. Some characters catch sight of him, if only for a moment, while others doubt he exists anymore. Then, despite his self-help and mysterious ways talk, when necessary, and with a mighty roar, he can call on all the destructive forces of nature against the enemy. You’d think there was a gay pride parade going on in Narnia based on the torrential force brought down on those bad Telmarines.

Despite, or perhaps, because of these misgivings it was still an entertaining movie. While there never was any real suspense or high drama, the special effects were excellent and the battle scenes were good. [I like battle scenes. I’m not against war per se, I’m against the glorification of white man’s ability to wage war to bring peace to other species (or races) who have nothing better to do than wait around for white men to bring them war and peace.] The English kids do a decent job of having you believe they are mighty kings and queens in Narnia. While there is less to the story here than other chapters in The Chronicles of Narnia it still translates well to film.