Saturday, May 31, 2008

Prince Caspian: The Chronicles Of Narnia

I approached this movie with trepidations, wondering if this movie will rise above the "really a kid's movie" I bestowed on it's predecessor , The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe. Well, glad to say that it was better than the 1st movie, it deserve to be described as "an above average teenage movie" (well, the kids have obviously grown up here now, so it cannot be a kid's movie anymore , rite ?).

The four main leads have much improved, unlike the 1st movie where they hardly make any impressions at all. Maybe that was the problem with the 1st movie, it feels ridiculous for four kids to be proclaimed Kings and Queens of Narnia. Now that they are older and more mature , it was somehow more acceptable. I do look forward to the next installment now, if only to see how Edmund and Lucy will blossom in their characters.

However , the newcomer as Prince Caspian does not make much an impression on me , other than being quite cute and having a soulful gaze. But luckily the much touted additional romance element between Caspian and Susan was not too bad. Except for a not so subtle first look at each other (roll eyes ...) and the compulsory "hero save the damsel"(roll eyes again!) moment, it was very barely there. And I actually think that the impulsive kiss by Susan at the end of the movie was kinda sweet.

Another major gripe is the many silly jokes inserted to lighten up the movie, which I feel is totally unneccessary. I mean, this story was set in 1940s England, an era where people do NOT make smart retorts or silly remarks . I would not mind a few jokes, but there were way too many that I keep rolling my eyes whenever yet another character make yet another cute quip ! Most jokes were so typical "American sitcom-like", I could almost hear the prerecorded laughter.

As usual there were many big battles and special effects thrown around the movie. Most were reminiscent of The Lord Of The Rings, but then which fantasy movie does not? So I shall keep my peace on this point here.

All in all, much better than the 1st movie, much better than I expected, and I can now safely look forward to the 3rd one.

4 comments:

Su Ann said...

Have you read any of the Narnia books?

kimchi.potpourri said...

read it! my first book was the witch blah blah during primary schooldays , and i read the last one jz a few years back ! what a long book hunt huh ? well , the books were quite extinct until the movie's hype n all.

Su Ann said...

A friend gave me a 3 in 1 - tho it's a kiddies' book, the stories are fun. Read the first two only so far: Magician's Nephew, and the Witch blah blah... hehe.

I think the Witch's movie was quite faithful to the book.

kimchi.potpourri said...

Narnia is a preachy children story, esp. the last book! Lucky i read them when young, when I don't understand the preachy stuff and just enjoy a good fantasy/adventure story.

I'm rereading them now :p as I like to reread my fav books once in a while ... and I can still enjoy a good story :)