I’m just gonna throw this out there: Prince Caspian is a really good epic fantasy movie. Everything that makes a fantasy movie good was included; good vs. evil, magic, talking animals, battles, a protagonist struggling to channel Antonio Banderas, internal moral struggle, and shorter-than-average humanoids (as you can tell, I’m working on my political correctness).
There, I’ve said it. Now I can move on to my criticism in good conscience.
I’m not going to invoke the standard the-book-was-better-than-the-movie complaint (because, as always, it goes without saying). But you would’ve thought that writers would’ve learned their lesson from the red moon, boiling seas, and raining frogs following the release of the Two Towers.
Don’t get me wrong, (and I’m really trying to avoid spoilers here) what they did to Peter and Caspian wasn’t as bad as what they did to Faramir. Instead of major plagues, the moon just jumped several phases and all the birds in North America molted, so you might’ve missed it. But it was still unacceptable. I don’t care how much cooler they made all of the supporting characters in the process; we need more heroes, so please stop de-BAMFing the noblest characters of our novels!
Now, I try to understand and appreciate the difficulties that adapting a loved and time-honored series of books to film must entail. But Hollywood? Can I talk man-to-demon with you? I have one, simple request for you: when you agree to use characters from a book in your film, please make sure that they have the same (or, at least, similar) characteristics as those in the book? Please? For me?
…Speaking of Peter: don’t you think William Moseley is just a little too pretty to have beaten Miraz in one-on-one combat? Seriously, there can only be one Achilles, people.
Kudos:
– They make Trumpkin even more Trumpkin than in the book! Don’t ask me how it’s possible; it was done
– Reepicheep was also even better than in the books; “Yes, I am a mouse. HieeYAH!”
– Special effects of Old Man River have topped the special effects list to date
– Nothing better than a 3’5″ girl holding an entire pirate army
– Any movie with Willow in it deserves an extra Kudo
