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The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian
This book, second of seven, transforms for the screen as a better film then the first. In the first one, The Lion, The Witch, and The Wardrobe comes off as a childrens story and is made to pander to that, and while the series is a series of children stories, Prince Caspian doesn't shy away from a little bit darker part of the story, like the first one did.
The story of the film does a solid job of staying quite true to the story of the book. I know that they took a few liberties here and there, and I don't remember exactly how the last battle runs, but it stayed generally true tot he story and I feel like it got the main ideas across. The one addition that I didn't like was the forced romance between Prince Caspian and Susan. They did a good job of not taking it too far, and poking fun at it with snide comments from Lucy, but it did feel pretty forced and out of place at times. And I don't think the film needed it, as it is generally a kids film and kids story.
The acting in this film I felt was better. It seemed like the actors and actresses who play, Peter, Susan, Edmond, and Lucy have matured and that their acting is better now. I thought that Prince Caspian was decent, but I enjoyed the performance of the general and the uncle in the film. And I think that my favorite performance was the voice acting by Eddie Izzard for Reepicheep, which was a perfect casting.
Visually this was again impressive. The amount of work that needs to be done because of all the CGI creatures is impressive, but they manage to do a very good job with them, and I don't think that there were any slip ups that I saw. One of the most impressive shots, I thought, was looking through the eyes of a water creature, I forget what they are called, and it is looking at someone on a bridge. There is water running down what appears to be across the lense of the camera giving a very nice distorted image.
Overall this is a solid film, even if you don't agree with the message of the books it is an entertaining film that is worth seeing. It definitely steps up from the first one, even though the first one wasn't all that bad.
Overall Grade: B+
Acting: B-
Story: A-
Audio/Visual: A-
This book, second of seven, transforms for the screen as a better film then the first. In the first one, The Lion, The Witch, and The Wardrobe comes off as a childrens story and is made to pander to that, and while the series is a series of children stories, Prince Caspian doesn't shy away from a little bit darker part of the story, like the first one did.
The story of the film does a solid job of staying quite true to the story of the book. I know that they took a few liberties here and there, and I don't remember exactly how the last battle runs, but it stayed generally true tot he story and I feel like it got the main ideas across. The one addition that I didn't like was the forced romance between Prince Caspian and Susan. They did a good job of not taking it too far, and poking fun at it with snide comments from Lucy, but it did feel pretty forced and out of place at times. And I don't think the film needed it, as it is generally a kids film and kids story.
The acting in this film I felt was better. It seemed like the actors and actresses who play, Peter, Susan, Edmond, and Lucy have matured and that their acting is better now. I thought that Prince Caspian was decent, but I enjoyed the performance of the general and the uncle in the film. And I think that my favorite performance was the voice acting by Eddie Izzard for Reepicheep, which was a perfect casting.
Visually this was again impressive. The amount of work that needs to be done because of all the CGI creatures is impressive, but they manage to do a very good job with them, and I don't think that there were any slip ups that I saw. One of the most impressive shots, I thought, was looking through the eyes of a water creature, I forget what they are called, and it is looking at someone on a bridge. There is water running down what appears to be across the lense of the camera giving a very nice distorted image.
Overall this is a solid film, even if you don't agree with the message of the books it is an entertaining film that is worth seeing. It definitely steps up from the first one, even though the first one wasn't all that bad.
Overall Grade: B+
Acting: B-
Story: A-
Audio/Visual: A-