| Overall Grade: |
C+ |
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| Story: |
C- |
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| Acting: |
B- |
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| Direction: |
C |
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| Visuals: |
B+ |
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Where did the Chronicles of Narnia go?
by Nate P (movies profile)
Jul 12, 2008
136
of
186 people found this review helpful
I was really looking forward to this movie, after hearing some good things about it by the critics. I heard that it would be "better than the first movie", etc. Being a huge fan of the books written by C.S. Lewis, the idea of putting these stories to film is very exciting. But I must admit, I was quite disappointed after seeing this on Friday night, and I left the movie thinking "this wasn't the Narnia I remember, where did the Chronicles of Narnia go?"
On the way home, my wife and I discussed our memories of the book and compared it with the movie we just watched, and we both agreed that it felt like there was a lot missing.
It is true, this second installment - of the select episodes that Disney and Walden Media are putting to film, had some pieces that were slightly "better" than the Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe. Such as the visuals, they were just a little more worked out in this film. If you are a person that goes to movies just for action, there was some "better" (read "more") action in this film as well. But this is where the positives end for Prince Caspian.
After the discussion my wife and I had, my wife (the fast reader she is) was so curious about whether our recollections of the books were correct or not, she decided to read through the book that night and into Saturday afternoon. The conclusion? The book was quite a bit different.
The movie and the book did have Prince Caspian - although he played a much smaller role in the book, at least it felt smaller than how the movie focused on him; the movie showed some other basic plot pieces and characters (Prince Caspian's Uncle was the bad guy, the red dwarf - or DLF - was captured but not in the same way nor doing what they show in the movie, Lucy does see Aslan and follows him eventually - but not in the same way it is portrayed in the movie, etc.) from the book, but that is pretty much where the similarities end. The overall flow, order and basically the underlying story was quite a bit different - and in my opinion quite a bit worse and watered down from the original story in C.S. Lewis' book.
I somewhat felt this way in the first movie, but it was even more obvious in Prince Caspian. It is just sad and disappointing how Hollywood was given permission - even by C.S. Lewis' family, that as I understand have helped on these movies - to change the underlying story so much to completely shift it away from the allegory it was (even if C.S. Lewis didn't intend it to be "allegorical" as he claimed - these stories are definitely a reflection of the story of the gospel and the bible).
I know this is a wordy review, but in summary - I was quite disappointed with this movie. As far as entertainment and visuals are concerned, that you expect to get in a fantasy movie like this, there is still some there. But if you are looking for the amazing story that IS the Chronicles of Narnia - that has sadly been lost in this (these) film (s, up to this point). I hope they bring back the true story with the Voyage of the Dawn Treader - which is the next film Disney/Walden is doing in this series.
Why they changed and tinkered with such an amazing series of stories, and just stripped the heart of it as they have with these movies - I don't understand. The movies would be much better if they would keep to the wonderful story that is the Chronicles of Narnia. |
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