Title: The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian (2008; PG)
Director: Andrew Adamson
Series: The Chronicles of Narnia, #2
Major Themes: Christian Allegories, Fantasy
Synopsis: With a battle between right and wrong about to break out in Narnia, the Pevensie children are brought back to help protect Narnia once again.
One of my (mostly) unbreakable reading rules is that I never want to watch a movie based on a book before I read the book itself. That hasn’t always happened—there are exceptions to the rule—but after finishing the book Prince Caspian recently, I knew I wanted to see the movie based on the book at some stage. Not long afterward, my brother and I had a quiet weekend to ourselves, so we watched the movie. What fun! Although it is different from the book and left out one of my favorite scenes in the whole series, I enjoyed watching this version of the story.
Movie description:
The magical world of C.S. Lewis’ beloved fantasy comes to life once again in Prince Caspian, the second installment of The Chronicles of Narnia series. Join Peter, Susan, Edmund, Lucy, the mighty and majestic Aslan, friendly new Narnian creatures and Prince Caspian as they lead the Narnians on a remarkable journey to restore peace and glory to their enchanted land. Continuing the adventure of The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe with more magic and a brand-new hero, Prince Caspian is a triumph of imagination, courage, love, joy and humor your whole family will want to watch again and again.
My thoughts:
It’s interesting to see a scriptwriter’s perspective on well-loved books. Prince Caspian will likely never be one of my top favorite stories in The Chronicles of Narnia, but as always, there are elements of the story that I really appreciate. This movie hits most of them, although some elements are perhaps more dramatized than they are in the book itself. I was sad that one allegorical portion was left out in the movie—in the book, Aslan reveals himself to Lucy, and the others eventually have to trust that he’s there and walk in obedience for a while before he becomes visible to them, too. That wasn’t in the movie at all, and I was sad about that because it’s such a beautiful picture of walking by faith! Oh, well. We can’t have everything, I guess.
As far as action and adventure, this movie has a lot of that. Personally, I wouldn’t show it to anyone younger than my 14-year-old brother, just because it is on the more violent side. That part was sad for me, especially since some of the scenes weren’t in the book (although they may have been alluded to in the book). There’s a lot more violence in this movie than in The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, for example.
In the end, I’m glad I got to see Prince Caspian. I wouldn’t be surprised if I watch it again sometime, but between this movie and The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, the latter is definitely my favorite. This plot is just not quite as strong, and due to the violence, I couldn’t enjoy it as much. In saying that, though, Reepicheep is one of my all-time favorite characters, and I loved how he was represented here—that was a highlight! But overall, while it’s a good movie, it isn’t great. If you’re really curious about it (especially if you’ve read the book), I’d recommend you watch it, so long as you don’t mind a little violence in your stories. I’m glad my brother and I had the chance to watch it together; it made for a fun memory!
WARNING: The movie starts with a woman in labor (to 1:21). 3:10–4:36: man almost shot, hawk killed. 6:40–8:15: man falls off his horse into the river, a boy gets dragged behind a horse, man is threatened with a knife. 9:30–10:20: school boys fight, lots of punching. 18:37: man whacks another man across the face hard. 23:18–23:35: man thrown into the water and almost drowns, man shot with an arrow. 25:27–25:55: a mock fight with swords. 26:50–27:13: a brief fight. 33:44–34:05: a bear tries to kill a girl, it’s shot and killed. 36:20–38:00: people trying to shoot someone, a fight with people presumably killed or badly injured, man knocked to the ground. 41:27–42:30: people shout, sounding like they want to kill someone. 51:30–52:15: a fight, no one hurt. My gosh. 54:56: man whacked across the mouth. 1:02:55–1:18:20: sentry carried off by a big bird, a night attack and some men killed, man held at sword point, a fight in a courtyard with many killed. 1:21:55–1:27:35: hag and werewolf, a chant/incantation, man’s hand sliced open (somewhat gruesome), a fight, people killed (White Witch tries to return). 1:35:20–2:01:00: a duel to the death, multiple people shot off horses, man shot then killed with a dagger, a terrible battle with many killed, and many people drowned. 2:10:10: a kiss.
Appropriate ages:
Ages 12 – 15, 15 and Above
Links to buy this movie:
Amazon: Prime Video | DVD | Blu-Ray | Multi-Format
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