In which one man attempts to view every summer blockbuster for the entire season, regardless of taste, genre, or smug British schoolchildren.
I saw the first installment in the Narnia franchise, 2005’s The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe, at one of America’s worst theaters, the United Artists Riverview Plaza in Philadelphia. It’s known for huge crowds, lousy picture quality, and terrible service. The Saturday matinee showing was packed with young children and their parents, none of whom (adults included) would shut up for the whole 2 plus hours. I began to think my impression of the film, which I found to be a rote fantasy exploration, was colored by the moviegoing experience. Having now seen the newest picture in the franchise, The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian, in a much more pleasant setting, I’ve seen all my problems with the first movie duplicated.
These are mediocre adventure movies, designed to make a lot of money from unsuspecting families before fading into the blockbuster ether.
C.S. Lewis’ literary series is one of renown, but I’m not terribly familiar with it. These stories are new to me, and the only thing I was conditioned to expect the first time around was a simplistic Christian parable. And The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe delivered on that. For the most part, those themes seemed to be mostly absent from Prince Caspian. From a filmmaking standpoint, the influence seems to be much more Lord of the Rings than Christian mythology. But a lot of ink has already been spilled on that topic, and with the success of the film version of the Rings saga, duplicates are to be expected.
The biggest flaw in the plan is that, while Narnia presents a fairly rich fantasy universe, the filmmakers fail to execute the little things that its template got right. Peter Jackson’s Lord of the Rings films were sharply and professionally acted, and seemingly small matters like costuming and set dressing were impeccable. Prince Caspian, like the first Narnia film, looks splendid from afar, with sweeping landscape shots. When the characters move into focus, the blemishes show. Close up, the film is populated with myriad different creatures, all of which are ridiculously dressed, ridiculously made up, and just look altogether silly.
The silliest creatures, though, are the humans. Picked solely for their looks and raw Britishness, the four young leads (plus Ben Barnes, picked to play Caspian for his looks and raw ethnicness) are simultaneously wooden and annoying, which really shouldn’t be possible. Though whenever any of these kids delivered some kind of boilerplate action hero line (and there were many such occasions), I laughed out loud, drawing snickers from the rest of the crowd, who somehow seemed to enjoy the film.
For the grand canvas on which this film was painted, it certainly appeared to be done on the cheap, with few name actors and a basic disregard for any visual elements that didn’t involve helicopter shots or things being set on fire.
The only performances of note were Eddie Izzard as the voice of a sword fighting mouse, who provided some laughs, and Peter Dinklage, who was dignified in his supporting role even underneath all that ridiculous costuming. Liam Neeson, reprising his role as Aslan the lion, pretty much phones this one in as he did in the first picture.
Most of the enjoyment I got from Prince Caspian was of my own making, allowing myself to embrace the more ludicrous elements, rather than allow the film to be a chore. I won’t begrudge the filmmakers that. I feel like I got my money’s worth on this one. Just please don’t make another one.
Oh, so you’re going to make this one, and this one? Excellent. Good luck with that.
Film: The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian
Director: Andrew Adamson
Stars: Ben Barnes, Georgie Henley, William Moseley, Peter Dinklage, Warwick Davis
Viewing Situation: Weekday evening, medium crowd; standard projection
Rotten Tomatoes Average: 65%
My Grade (Out of 10): 4
Next Up: Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull
>>The Chronicles of Narnia: The Voyage of the Dawn Treader [IMDB]
>>The Chronicles of Narnia: The Silver Chair [IMDB]
mentos and manatees 