Be Excellent To Each Other

Cinema cards eh? Aren't they great. You can take chances. Here's a review on a chance I took, having just emailed it to my cinema going friend in the 'I've just seen a film here is my review' tradition we have with kino flicks...

So, Prince Caspian then. It jumps down and hits the ground and keeps on running, and I was never less than gripped to be honest. It completely outclasses the flawed first one, which I kind of liked, and is a markedly different beast. The opening kicks off with the birth of High Protector (Steward) Miraz's first son, which is bad news for his nephew Prince Caspian, who has to flee the crossbolt firing assassins sent after him. This sets the tone of the film, intrigue, high adventure and bad ass Spanish guys in cool armour. Yep, Prince Caspian and his fellow Telmarines are swarthy folk who glower lots and grin and plot and ride horses really fast. I warm to them quickly, as they are entirely cool. Caspian flees for the haunted woods under the advice of his old professor, who has been telling him forbidden tales of Narnia. All he knows that Narnians are dangerous (and all signs point to YES in this film on that question) and aren't as extinct as his uncle would have the people believe. But when Caspian gets cornered by his pursuers in the forest, he winds a magical horn which calls upon the old Kings and Queens of Narnia.

Who of course are the Pevansie kids, currently in the Strand underground station, preparing to go back to school and quite weirded out by the fact that they're kids again and no longer fully grown adults. The sequence that pulls them into Narnia I was dreading, it being highly cheesy in the book, but it really works in the film and is a typically imaginative and exciting special effects offering. No prizes for guessing that Caspian and the kids are going to meet up, but what was surprising is that the encounter and subsequent adventure is nowhere near as matey and easy as in the book. Caspian and Peter don't really like each other, and their butting of heads leads to a thrilling but tragic assault on the castle, which ushers in an Empire Strikes Back darkness to the middle act. Because the baddies in this film are far cleverer than the witch, and the army consists of brave and tough fighters who work as a team. Miraz is especially cunning, but with fascinating flaws that evidently doom him. Also there is pleasing added meat in his council, the kingdom itself evidently teetering on a bloody coup outside of Narnian interference. In all its far more adult.

And far more people die as well. There's no blood really, but lots of throat cutting and stabbing and impaling - somehow without gore but still clearly "arrgh!" eye-rolling tongue lollingly terminal. Reepecheap the chivelrous mouse could have been terrible, but with the voice of Eddie Izzard, a fun script and a brave hand he's a complete badass muddy funster, leaping up onto Telmarine shoulders and slitting their throats. Susan takes out about two dozen soldiers with her bow. Warwick Davies and Peter Dinklage remove any trace of cutsiness from fantasy dwarves and are sarcastic, bitter and violent. It's a world of retreats, massacres and strategies, and the Narnians kill first and ask questions later.

So, darker, more thrilling, great effects - any flaws? Yes. Peter never really comes into his own and never seems leadership material, plus the actor who plays him is rather stilted. Despite the fun and adventure, the fact that the kids collectively kill a good four dozen soldiers is a bit weird. (Albiet strangely cool.) Plus the ending is slightly too happy (but plausibly so) after the fact that a good half the population of Narnia and Telmar have died. Still, it works. The pacing is fine, the script smart enough and with a good number of one liners and quips. Edmund is particular fun, and Lucy is still charming. The patronising Aslan fortunately has minimal screen time, which since he's one big deus ex machina in the books (or 'Deus ex wardrobe', eh kids? Ha ha!) and far less interesting than bearded Spanish smackdowns.

The only big flaw is that you can never really emotionally connect with the kids, unlike with Frodo or Harry. They don't really have any weighty problems of their own, other than saving the kingdom. Still, in this case it doesn't matter. After all, we never had to emotionally connect with Luke Skywalker really, or Errol Flynn - what matters here are epic battles, swordfights, sneaking about, cool 'I am Inigio Montaya, you killed my father, prepare to die' isms and high adventure.

In summary - not as good as Goblet of Fire, but excellently somehow better if admittedly less daring than Prisoner of Azkaban. About four times better than the first Narnia film. Even cynical mate John Atkinson enjoyed it.

Four out of five.

Shocker!

Pete is it your job to try and make me see films I'm avoiding for ethical reasons?

First promoting Tom Cruise's films* and now a film's backed by Evangelical Christians based on Racist and Misogynistic source texts.

I'll look out for watching it, in a manner that doesn't support the film financially.

*Talking of which, I've heard rumours that "Look who's talking" was funded by Scientology to relaunch the careers of Kirsty Alley and Whatshisface. I really like LWT

Chilling facts there, Lave. I wouldn't hold against it because of evangelical idiots though, and true the book is misogynistic and A Horse & His Boy is...

... well, from one perspective I'm not sure if it really is racist. If Lewis was approaching from the whole Arabian Nights vibe which A Horse & His Boy essentially is, then it isn't at all. If he's approaching from a Christanity vs Islam angle then that is a lot more worrying. Curiously enough, A Horse & His Boy is my fave though. Those Calormen dudes are much more fun than Narnians.*

The big worry I have about Narnia is about the 'Question of Susan' thing which is one of the worst and most spiteful things a writer has ever done in history to one of his characters. It really is horribly mean and childish how he treats her, and doesn't speak well of Lewis at all. Neil Gaiman wrote rather a brutal and emotionally shattering short story on what happens to Susan after Narnia and the death of her entire family in that train crash. You're an idiot, Lewis.

Still, love Prince Caspian and I can't deny that I grew up on the books and love them still, despite being opposed to much of what they say. I'd say go and see it, there are Christian bits in there but no where near as many as in the first film, and it is a lot more fun. I understand if you want to withhold your money on moral grounds though.

And I cannot help but love War of the Worlds. It is hardcoded in my programming. Even with a scientology goon as the lead.

(Man, I hate scientology. The Christian writer G K Chesterton, however, I adore.)

The Last Battle bothered me even as a child, and now it's really quite shocking. I remember having no idea how people could possibly think it was supposed to be a happy ending.