Well, this is my first time writing a movie review, so bear with me. ^-^ (or wait, did I do one for Harry Potter? Don’t remember. It’s still my first for a movie that hasn’t yet been released…)
Anyway, I got a chance to attend the advance screening of The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian down at Pacific Place theater last night, and man was it awesome. I do consider myself a fan of the books, although, truthfully, I can only remember a definite reading of three of the seven books in the series (The Lion, The Witch, and the Wardrobe, Voyage of the Dawn Traeder, and The Magician’s Nephew). I do have some vague memories of watching at least part of the BBC rendition of Prince Caspian, but that far back and in elementary school is too long ago for me to remember clearly.
What this means, is that I pretty much went into the movie with a clean slate, not having preconceptions of what should (or shouldn’t) be in the movie. I also didn’t have expectations on what the plot would be or anything. And I thoroughly enjoyed myself. As did the rest of the audience, if the laughter, applause, and other cues of audible enjoyment were any indication.
Warning, there be spoilers ahead.
The movie opens in the Telmarine castle, where the wife of Miraz is giving birth to a son. Miraz is the brother of the dead King, and seems to be serving as regent for his nephew Caspian, the rightful heir to the throne (honestly, since Caspian seems to be “of age”, I don’t know why Caspian hadn’t been crowned king, and the position that Miraz actually held was never quite explained… However, I didn’t notice these things until almost three hours after I got out of the movie, which is a good thing). Since he now has an heir of his own, the only thing keeping him from claiming the throne for himself is Caspian, so he sends out guards to take care of him. However, Caspian’s tutor, Cornelius, gets to Caspian first, and helps him escape from the castle, entrusting a small bundle to him. He doesn’t tell Caspian what the bundle is, just that it should not be used unless the situation is desperate. While escaping, Caspian is felled by a low branch in the forest, and, thinking that all is lost, uses the precious bundle, which was Susan’s horn, given to her by Father Christmas, to use in the battle against the armies of the White Witch.
Meanwhile, in the real world, Lucy is trying to reach Susan, who’s reading a magazine. She says it’s important, and it turns out that Peter has gotten himself into a fight, and the girls can only stand in the crowd as he is beaten up. After the fight is broken up (given the uniforms and the time period, I’m thinking it’s Nazi martial police), the four wait for their train, but as a train passes them, they see that the station is slowly disappearing, and after the train has gone, they are in a cave on a beach. After frolicking in the waves a bit, they notice some ruins, and begin to explore them. Not remembering ruins during their last trip to Narnia, the siblings realize that these ruins are Cair Paravel, and wonder at how long it’s been since they were last there.
Meanwhile, Caspian has been taken in by Nikabrik the black-Dwarf, and Trufflehunter the badger, who are friends of Trumpkin, a dwarf who was captured by Miraz’s forces while keeping them from finding Caspian. Caspian convinces the two that if they can help him defeat Miraz, that he’ll free Narnia from the control of the Telmarines, and they set off to find other Narnians who can help them.
The Pevensie children, at the same time, encounter Trumpkin as he’s about to be drowned by two Telmarine soldiers, and rescue him. He grudgingly recognizes them for who they are, and show them that a lot has happened to Narnia since they left. In fact, most of the troubles started after they left and Aslan disappeared. While the children travel to find the Narnians’ stronghold, and Caspian begins to organize the Narnians for revolt, Miraz makes his plans to get rid of the Narnians once and for all, finishing what his ancestors had started.
Peter and Caspian, both seeing themselves as the “alpha male,” disagree on how they should face the Telmarine army. Eventually, Peter, reminding everyone that he is High King of Narnia, leads them in an attack on the Telmarine castle. Edmund would be dropped onto a tower first, and then signal for the others to advance. Peter, Caspian, Susan, and Trumpkin would then be dropped into the castle, where they had two goals: Open the gates to the castle, and get Miraz. Reepicheep, a talking mouse swordsman, led his mice in lowering the drawbridge. This would allow the Narnian army to storm the castle. Unfortunately, due to a confrontation with Miraz, the Telmarines are able to fight back, and end up trapping and killing half the Narnian army in the courtyard of the castle.
Back at the Narnians’ stronghold, they prepare for their final stand against the Telmarines, as Lucy and Susan rush off to find Aslan. Caspian informs Peter that, now that Miraz has become king (as Caspian was known to be part of the invading force, and declared a traitor), that there are certain traditions that Miraz has no choice but to comply with. Int his vein, Peter sends Edmund to the Telmarine camp with a challenge for Miraz: One-on-one duel to the death, with the losing side surrendering. However, after Miraz loses, and both Peter and Caspian refuse to kill him, he is killed by his own Lord Glozelle, who declares to the army that Miraz was murdered, and the battle begins. Susan (who had separated from Lucy to fend off pursuit, and was subsequently rescued by Caspian) led the archers, Peter and Edmund led the ground troops, and Caspian led the calvary underground, both to get behind the enemy army, as well as to create a sinkhole in the middle of the battlefield, to take out the enemy’s calvary.
The battle was not going well for the Narnians, until the trees joined the battle, Aslan having awakened them during his meeting with Lucy. The Telmarines retreated to the river, only to face the Narnian army one one side, and, on the far side of the bridge, one little girl, armed only with a dagger. Well, one little girl and the large lion next to her, whose roar summoned a water spirit to take out Glozelle and the bridge, effectively ending the war.
After much celebrations and Caspian is crowned king, Aslan tells the Telmarines of their origin, and offers to send any who wish it back to their original world. A few take him up on his offer, but others are wary that they’d be sent to their demises. To prove that Aslan was trustworthy, the Pevensies decide to go back, even though Peter and Susan know that they will never return to Narnia, although Edmund and Lucy may. They pass through Aslan’s portal, and are back at the train station, just as their train arrives.
As I said earlier, I haven’t read the book. But my roommate, who has, was there with me, and was able to fill me in on changes to the story. The first one was when the horn was blown. Apparently, in the book, the horn wasn’t blown until after the siege on the castle, and, thus, the children didn’t come to Narnia until then. Also, the sub-plot (very sub-plot) of a budding romance between Susan and Caspian was added as well.
The graphics in the movie are awesome, although the scene between Lucy and what I’m assuming was a forest spirit/wood nymph of some sort was a little jarring, since the CG didn’t look as natural as I would have expected, but the overall graphics were great.
I’ve never been one to really notice the music in movies unless it stands out (which is ironic, since I do for anime), but I never caught a bad spot in the music, and there were a few points that really stood out as good.
Overall, I highly recommend the movie. I have half a mind to go see it again this weekend.
