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Review: “The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian”
By Kyle | May 15, 2008
ONWARD, CHRISTIAN SOLDIERS
Running time: 144 minutes
Rated PG (battle action)
Kyle Smith review of “The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian”
Kids do grow up fast: Since the last time we saw the quartet from Narnia, they’ve aged 1,300 years.
Another classic saga of swashes buckled and troths pledged, “The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian” doesn’t quite equal the first film, but some may find this one a less insistent piece of pure entertainment because it isn’t so overtly Christian.
“Narnia 2″ has a bleak “Empire Strikes Back”-ish aura, with leaders making poor decisions that cause heavy losses, rebels in hiding and a psychological wrestling match inside a Jungian cave. In place of jolly Mr. Tumnus from the first film, the guide this time is a dour red-bearded dwarf (Peter Dinklage) who warns, “You may find Narnia a more savage place than you remember.” Cuteness is tightly rationed, with only a feisty sword-fighting mouse on hand to provide much in the way of comic relief.
The four kids from the first movie are now fully licensed kings and queens of Narnia. But they are still stuck in wartime London, trudging around a train station in their school uniforms. Any hopes that they’ll be getting in a rumble with the Hogwarts gang are dashed, though, when the station abruptly turns into Narnia, where they discover 1,300 years have passed while they were away for one year in earth time.
Things are not well: the magical lion king Aslan is nowhere in sight, his good works lie in ruins and all of the magical creatures he once championed have been driven into near-extinction by the ruling tribe of vicious humans called the Telmarines, who speak in Italian accents and rock a Conquistador look to produce an amusing anti-Mediterranean effect.
With the king of the Telmarines dead, his brother takes over. The new despot, who will soon crown himself King Miraz, orders a hit squad to take out his nephew, the proper heir to the throne, Prince Caspian (Ben Barnes of “The History Boys”).
Instead, Caspian escapes, chased by troops who hadn’t reckoned on the battle readiness of, for instance, a resourceful badger and a swashbuckling mouse. When he joins forces with the four kids, there arises a dilemma: Should they hunker down and set a trap for their attackers or launch a daring aerial raid on the enemy castle? And what should they make of young Lucy’s claim that Aslan is around somewhere?
The themes lack the heft of the first movie–there’s nothing here with the mythic force of Aslan’s tortured death and rebirth, or of young Edmund’s character gradually subsiding into evil. (That cave battle with inner demons is brief and seemingly tossed in.) There’s also a villain deficit: the wicked king is a stock figure, a nefarious Italian who could have been played by Basil Rathbone or Claude Rains. He has neither the supernatural pull nor the fashion panache of the unnerving White Witch.
But Narnia 2 is as splendid a military movie as “Patton.” The C.S. Lewis book on which it is based is said to have been inspired by Mars, the god of war. Director Andrew Adamson can brilliantly stage a battle scene, complicating the action with the medieval equivalents of tank traps and airborne assaults behind enemy lines.
Adamson also has the confidence to know when to slow things down to savor the majesty of a dreamy vision of Aslan in the forest or the pride of the four siblings marching beneath the upraised swords of their honor guard. It’s the kind of movie where no one has to be hip or apologize for shouting, “Stay your blade.” In their refusal to be up-to-the-moment, the Narnia movies are bound to age beautifully, perhaps much more so than the Shrek films Adamson did. When he stages a display of fireworks over a castle, it isn’t a smarmy allusion meant to get a laugh but a pleasing reminder of the Disney canon, in which this film takes its rightful place.
Topics: Movies |
May 15th, 2008 at 9:19 pm
Considering the etymology of “swashbuckler,” we are more likely to see bucklers swashed than swashes buckled.
May 15th, 2008 at 11:17 pm
Deep.
May 15th, 2008 at 11:52 pm
Like every well-raised English child I am as familiar with the NARNIA series of novels as an equivalent American child would be with, say, a handgun, a comic book and a revisionist history of their country. I look forward to PRINCE CASPIAN with bated breath.
May 16th, 2008 at 12:13 am
“Like every well-raised English child I am as familiar with the NARNIA series of novels as an equivalent American child would be with, say, a handgun, a comic book and a revisionist history of their country.”
That may be the strangest thing you’ve ever written here.
May 16th, 2008 at 12:16 am
Like every well-raised English child I am …
Hunter is stuck in a state of perpetual childishness.
May 16th, 2008 at 12:40 am
Ah, they wait, they wait, their crayons raised like daggers before them, their wax paper before their eyes.
May 16th, 2008 at 10:47 am
Hunter, you live in America. How many handgun owners have you met? Or conservatives, for that matter? Where do you get this idea that this is a land of gun-toting knuckle-draggers? From the British press?
May 16th, 2008 at 12:26 pm
Lots; many; conversations; no.
May 16th, 2008 at 12:46 pm
Surprising. In the 16 years I’ve lived in this area, I can’t recall ever meeting a gun owner. And 95 percent of the people I know are liberals. I guess things are radically different way out there in Jersey City.
May 16th, 2008 at 12:50 pm
Hunter, you live in America.
So he says, but I wonder.
Lots; many; conversations; no.
Baloney to all four.
May 16th, 2008 at 12:57 pm
@ Kyle. Well, a lot of your friends are fellow journalists: alcohol and firearms are a recipe for disaster.
@Kishke. Kishke my ass.
May 16th, 2008 at 1:17 pm
Hunter: Is that part of your proper British upbringing or did you pick it up from one of the many, many gun owners you’ve met here?
May 16th, 2008 at 2:16 pm
@English Turd
If you knew anything about history, you would know that the right to own a handgun is an important check on the government so it doesn’t get too powerful. You would also know that handguns are important to protect against criminals. Unless you believe that people have no right to self-defense and instead should wait for the cops to arrive 10 minutes after their heads have been blown off.
PS The queen is a shriveled-up old prune and the whole royal family is about as useless as a poop flavored lollypop.
May 16th, 2008 at 3:51 pm
and instead should wait for the cops to arrive 10 minutes after their heads have been blown off.
Let’s not forget the British habit of prosecuting homeowners who defend themselves against home invaders.
May 16th, 2008 at 4:46 pm
I guess they’re just supposed to run away like the little cowards that they are.
May 16th, 2008 at 10:15 pm
“@English Turd”
All insults will do is encourage him, while making you look like an ass.
“PS The queen is a shriveled-up old prune and the whole royal family is about as useless as a poop flavored lollypop.”
I’d say that there’s roughly a 60-70% chance he agrees with you. Even if he doesn’t, he’s almost definitely heard worse if he’s watched a BBC comedy show in the last 20 years.
May 16th, 2008 at 10:23 pm
“Let’s not forget the British habit of prosecuting homeowners who defend themselves against home invaders”
Well, that was one decision by a crazy old English judge, rightfully picked up and ridiculed by the world’s press (including our own). I wouldn’t say too many English people agreed with it…or any.
Of course, American judges NEVER make crazy decisions……….
Orange Juice, anyone?
May 16th, 2008 at 10:39 pm
@ jic make that 75%, while Jack surely qualifies 100% as one of Kyle’s “gun-toting knuckle-draggers.”
May 17th, 2008 at 2:30 am
Hunter! What a stereotypical thing to say! Couldn’t you have compared Narnia in England to Dr. Seuss in the U.S.? That’s what I grew up on. No comics, but what’s wrong with them anyway?
Kyle: I liked that you mentioned Hogwarts in the review. When I first saw the commercial for Narnia 2, I thought, “A new Harry Potter film?” Haha
May 17th, 2008 at 9:32 am
“Hunter! What a stereotypical thing to say! Couldn’t you have compared Narnia in England to Dr. Seuss in the U.S.?”
But then his post wouldn’t have contained a barely veiled insult. Or, should I say, attempt at an insult. I don’t get what’s wrong with comic books either, I don’t see a problem with children learning to shoot (although they shouldn’t have *unsupervised* access to firearms, any more than they should have unsupervised access to hedge clippers or swimming pools), and I’m not sure that hunter knows what a “revisionist history” is.
May 17th, 2008 at 9:36 am
“@ jic make that 75%”
You mean that there’s a 25% chance that you don’t agree with him?
May 17th, 2008 at 9:46 am
By the way, I think that Dr. Seuss is an odd choice for an equivalent of the *Narnia* books, as they are aimed at a different audience. I would have gone with L. Frank Baum’s *Oz* books.
May 17th, 2008 at 4:42 pm
@ jic Most of the time I think the whole lot of them are a waste of space and a joke, but there are those days when it just seems cool to have a King or a Queen, albeit limited in real power. “Prime Minister” and “President” are such prosaic titles.
May 17th, 2008 at 11:43 pm
“Well, that was one decision by a crazy old English judge”
Actually, it’s very common for people to face murder or manslaughter prosecutions in England for fairly straightforward cases of self-defence. Of course, many are acquitted.
May 18th, 2008 at 9:51 am
jic: I’t nice that “many” are acquitted, but it shouldn’t be treated as a crime in the first place. Though if Hunter’s thinking is representative, they have only themselves to blame.
May 18th, 2008 at 9:56 am
I tried to post some links showing that the law in Great Britian does indeed prevent a person from defending his own home, but for some reason the links don’t post. Flinder, just google “home invastion in great britain” if you’re interested in the facts.
May 18th, 2008 at 11:09 am
“jic: I’t nice that “many†are acquitted, but it shouldn’t be treated as a crime in the first place.”
I agree, I’m just offering some perspective. You get so many people saying that there’s ‘no right to self-defense in England’; and others who claim that current policy works fine and that it’s a media-created problem.
The truth is that the law *does* allow for self-defense; but unless you used a butter knife to kill an intruder armed with a sub-machine gun, you are going to trial.
May 19th, 2008 at 8:08 pm
“Another classic saga of swashes buckled and troths pledged, “The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian†doesn’t quite equal the first film…”
Wow! The first one sucked, so this one…
Oh, and Hunter, all history is revisionist history.
May 20th, 2008 at 12:08 pm
These well-raised British children must have gotten illicit access to comic books, or met a gun owner. What else could explain their behavior?
http://www.thesun.co.uk/sol/homepage/news/article1184603.ece
January 22nd, 2009 at 11:17 pm
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