The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian

[Kulaf]

Sucked with a capital S!

Never read the books......but my god they had to be better than this. At least 20 - 30 minutes of this film should have been left on the cutting room floor. There is no plot or character development......AT ALL. What little plot threads there were were so blatently transparent it wasn't even funny. The little quips made me want to stangle someone.

ARGH!

[Select]

Oh no - It's been years since I read the book, but I remember it being one of the better ones in the series. I barely remember what I read, but I hope when I see it Tuesday, I won't feel like they butchered it.

Still, the effects in the Lion, etc, etc. were amazing. I loved the character animation in that one. Plus it's fantasy animals!!

[Ddrak]

Sucked with a capital S!

Never read the books......but my god they had to be better than this. At least 20 - 30 minutes of this film should have been left on the cutting room floor. There is no plot or character development......AT ALL. What little plot threads there were were so blatently transparent it wasn't even funny. The little quips made me want to stangle someone.

ARGH!

That actually sounds a lot like the book, from what I remember of it.

Dd

[Rsak]

Actually the stuff they added to the movie made the story better then what was in the book. The book was largely a transition between the high kings and queens to Caspian and the exit of Peter and Susan.

The directing, costumes, and animations were well done. The battle choreography was a better then the first.

The only real complaint I had was the facial modeling of Aslan. It might just be me, but the shadowing was too reminiscent of the typical Jesus image with the sun behind the head. That kind of thing wasn't in the first one where there was natural shadowing/lighting and it just felt like I was getting beat on the head that Aslan is supposed to be the Christian God/Jesus. The books never felt so blatant either.

[Taxious]

it just felt like I was getting beat on the head that Aslan is supposed to be the Christian God/Jesus. The books never felt so blatant either.

My biggest complaint with this movie was that it felt like I was in church for a couple hours. I love the books and I realize that the series is a giant analogy for Christianity, but it felt like this movie went too far.

I didn't think it was as bad as Rsak claims, but I did like the first movie better. I'm excited for Voyage of the Dawn Treader as it was my favorite book out of the series.

[Alluveal]

Actually, it's not an analogy for Christianity, but the Christians claim it is. C.S. Lewis has been quoted as saying that he did not write the Narnia series to be at all allegorical, that the character of Aslan developed pretty organically, that an resemblance to Christ was coincidental--especially given the fact that many (MANY) heroes who follow a monomyth type formula experience some kind of death and rebirth.

Christians just like to claim it because they feel it tells a story about Jesus rising from the dead and how you have to have faith.

It doesn't bother me that they do this, but I always laugh when they actually think Lewis write the series in that fashion.

Toward the end of his life, Lewis actually had a bit of a "falling out" with God--angry for the death of his wife (which is apparent in an article he wrote about her death and his experience coming to terms with it.) I believe he made peace before he passed, though.

Aslan is not Jesus. He's a talking lion with some omnipotence. Just like Gandalf isn't an angel, he's a wizard and Sauron isn't the devil, he's an ancient evil from Middle Earth.

As for the movie, I enjoyed it. It didn't come close to the first one, but it started off with a nice pace and didn't drag for the first half hour like the first one did.

Caspian's accent was atrocious, though I liked the character.

[Taxious]

C.S. Lewis has been quoted as saying that he did not write the Narnia series to be at all allegorical

If you have some proof on this, I'd love to see it.

Tolkien and Lewis, from what I remember of doing a research paper on Tolkien in high school, were pretty good friends. Tolkien hated when people assumed his works were "based" on the Bible where Lewis proudly admitted that his were. Maybe I'm mistaken, but I thought Lewis had stated that the Narnia series was written with a Christian base.

[Klast Brell]

I have a feeling that in a lot of people's minds this movie serves as a counter to the golden compass and it's expected sequels.

[Rsak]

The books of Narnia or His Dark Materials were not overtly religious or anti-religious in my opinion when I read them.

The Narnia movies have done a decent job of being subtle rather then overt. The material is there for you to decide on your own and see what you want to see rather then telling you so and so is Jesus or so and so is the devil. I think the Golden Compass was the same way.. its just a shame they butchered the ending so badly.

The thing about the humanization of the face of Aslan that bothered me was that it took me out of the moment of the movie every time after the first dream sequence when we see Aslan. That didn't bother me in the first movie which is why I think more and more that it was intentional. However I will freely admit it could just be me imagining all of this.

[Kulaf]

Christians just like to claim it because they feel it tells a story about Jesus rising from the dead and how you have to have faith.

I don't think Lewwis set out to write about Christianity......I think he just drew on some biblical themes and it came out in his writing. By the same token I certainly don't think Christians like to lay claim to the story as there is way more paganism in the book then there are Christian parallels.

[Alluveal]

"What Aslan does is not what Christ did in his time on Earth, but what Christ might do were there to be a world like Narnia," said Lewis (British 340).

That could be where people are getting the idea that Narnia is an allegory. An Allegory is more of a metaphor with narrative layering (think Dante's Inferno.) Even in the above quote, he never says Aslan IS Christ, he comments on what Aslan does.

I'll have to dig it up, but I read somewhere that he was saying that when he was writing Aslan, Aslan kind of took a life of his own and wrote his own story. This happens quite often with writers and characters. I believe that the similarities to Christ weren't purposeful--at least at the beginning. He might have been writing from a more "Christian" mentality toward the end. I haven't read the last stories, so I'm not sure.

If I can find it, I'll post it.

Again, I have no issue with Chrstians becoming swooning little girls when they watch Narnia. It's hard not to associate Aslan's shaming, shaving and "Death" with Christ's (and the resurrection.) But, for every notation I can find where someone says C.S. Lewis wrote an allegory, I can find many more that say he did not.

I guess I just look at the story at face value, same as I did The Golden Compas. I think people read too much into these things because they are either angry at the content or they want to see it.

[Alluveal]

I don't think Lewwis set out to write about Christianity......I think he just drew on some biblical themes and it came out in his writing. By the same token I certainly don't think Christians like to lay claim to the story as there is way more paganism in the book then there are Christian parallels.

Yeah, I found an entire website dedicated to how C. S. Lewis is the devil in disguise. Pretty amusing.

[Ddrak]

There's a definite similarity between the story of Jesus and the Lion, Witch and Wardrobe. Past that it breaks down and Narnia takes on its own story.

I'm waiting for The Silver Chair - the story there will definitely provide the best material for a movie!

Dd

[Taxious]

I'm waiting for The Silver Chair - the story there will definitely provide the best material for a movie!

Yeah, that will be fun to watch.

[Rsak]

Book wise Voyage of the Dawn Treader has the best material. Actual good vs. evil arc it is the Silver Chair.

However I still hold a fond place in my memory for the BBC Silver Chair with The Dr. (Tom Baker) as Glimfeather.

[Harlowe]

Some quotes from C.S. Lewis himself indicating the stories are not about Christianity nor allegory.

Some people seem to think that I began by asking myself how I could say something about Christianity to children; then fixed on the fairy tale as an instrument, then collected information about child psychology and decided what age group I’d write for; then drew up a list of basic Christian truths and hammered out ‘allegories’ to embody them. This is all pure moonshine. I couldn’t write in that way. It all began with images; a faun carrying an umbrella, a queen on a sledge, a magnificent lion. At first there wasn’t anything Christian about them; that element pushed itself in of its own accord.

“If Aslan represented the immaterial Deity in the same way in which Giant Despair [a character in The Pilgrim's Progress] represents despair, he would be an allegorical figure. In reality, however, he is an invention giving an imaginary answer to the question, ‘What might Christ become like if there really were a world like Narnia, and He chose to be incarnate and die and rise again in that world as He actually has done in ours?’ This is not allegory at all” (Martindale & Root 1990).