Continuing
my ongoing tug-of-war with the Chronicles
of Narnia films. Although, on the
whole, I’d say Prince Caspian is a
more uneven film than The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe and mostly lacks the best elements from that movie,
the script explores themes that make it a much richer film for me, which helps
me forgive some of its deficits.
A year
after the events of The Lion, the Witch,
and the Wardrobe, Peter, Susan, Edmund, and Lucy are called back to
Narnia. They find themselves in a Narnia
that’s nearly foreign to the land they knew – centuries have passed, and their
time as kings and queens there now falls somewhere between history and
legend. They’ve been called by the young
Prince Caspian, who is on the run from his usurper uncle with an eye for
Caspian’s blood. The four children do
what they can to aid Caspian, and the Narnians who’ve rallied behind him, in
ridding Narnia of the cruel ruler and proving that the old magic, and Aslan, is
still with them.
Far and
away, my favorite part of this film is the way it examines what it’s like for
the children, both being back in our world after having been in Narnia and
returning after such a long absence. I
love the meditations on how they can never be normal English schoolchildren
again, that even though they’re kids once more, they can’t forget what it was
like to be monarchs. This theme is
especially evident in Peter’s storyline; back in Narnia, he chafes at being
dismissed as a “mere boy” and fights hard to show the Narnians and Caspian
that, despite his youth, he is still the high king of old. I also like the slowly-dawning realization
for the children that hundreds of years have passed in Narnia since they were
last there. It’s a melancholy reveal
that has no solution, and even though they’re able to move past it and press
on, the film gives them time to face up to the understanding that everyone they
knew there is long dead, that this isn’t the Narnia they remember. And even after they make up their minds to
move forward, reminders keep creeping up in subtle ways, like when Peter’s
navigation attempts are marred by how the river has eroded the land over the
centuries. Just as they can’t go back to
their naïve childhood before Narnia, they can’t go back to Narnia as they once
knew it, either (these are the kinds of things that happen, I suspect, when
screenwriters Christopher Markus and Stephen McFeely are allowed freer reign of
the script, and I feel it really pays off.)
But while
these themes are fascinating and well-explored, the story itself doesn’t really
measure up to The Lion, the Witch, and
the Wardrobe. I appreciate little
touches here and there, like Edmund mixing 20th-century English
technology with a Narnian battle and a few nods to the imperialist weirdness of
Narnians always being ruled by humans instead of one of their own, but there’s
just not as much “there” there from a straight plot perspective. Miraz, Caspian’s uncle, is no White Witch as
far as baddies go, and although Peter Dinkalge and Eddie Izzard both do a fine
job with their characters – Trumpkin the dwarf and Reepicheep the mouse,
respectively – I can’t help wishing I could trade either of them for Mr. Tumnus. Now, these are issues with the book itself,
which the movie can’t really be blamed for.
Still, it keeps Prince Caspian
from being the excellent movie that it hints at when it delves into its more
complex themes.
Warnings
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