BEYOND REELS

AN INCOMPLETE GUIDE TO CYNICAL LITERATURE

THE CHRONICLES OF NARNIA: PRINCE CASPIAN

The aged lion, an unwanted romance and a torchlight

Dim lights.

No lights now, its dark completely as the movie begins. I guess you might have seen the early part, the lion the witch and the wardrobe which was quite an innocent entertainer nevertheless the usual king and queen and lion story.

I haven’t read C.S.Lewis so I shouldn’t comment upon the story, but after Lord of the Rings got released no special effects movie was able to create an impact in my life.

So does Prince Caspian, we might as well wonder why the movie is titled Prince Caspian (Ben Barnes). Seriously you cannot name a movie after you just because you get to kiss a girl in the end which is by the way very male chauvinistic, the alternate title should have been the one that I suggested in the first place or The Chronicles of Narnia: The Final Decline.

So its story we have seen before, scheming uncle wants his just born baby to be king and so he plans to dispose his nephew who happens to be the well-learned, dashing Prince Caspian who rides away into the woods only to blow a horn to call back four school going children in post-war London.

Yes it doesn’t make any sense, I know. Apparently these four children to whom we have been introduced to in the first place in the first movie are the old kings of Narnia which is the imaginary land created by Lion King Aslan.

The horn does not come into the picture later after we get to see these school children back in Narnia, so when the director Andrew Adamson finally decides that the movie needs something to ride upon he in a moment of inspiration and true cinematic genius comes up with the centaur, minator, unnamed creatures theme who are Narnians and fighting for freedom from the evil Telmarines whose rightful king is Prince Caspian of the title fame.

Prince Caspian joins forces with the four school kids who have been away for sometime and have convinced the dwarves and not so-dwarf creatures that they were really kings. An outrageous attack on the Telmarine castle results in the further loss of life leaving no chance for the Narnians but to prepare for the final battle.

Ok now how many children movies have you gone to and thought that the children were too much of a …of an…irritating nature, and so it is with the case of the youngest queen Lucy whose only role in the movie in the movie was to smile incessantly and shout Aslan wherever possible, come on now she is just a little girl and will promise us with better performances in the near…er…future.

And now for the romance, the director who certainly did feel that the children had grown up (both the audience and the actors) planted a not so interesting love theme between the not so old young queen Susan of Narnia and our beloved Prince Caspian of the title fame who also can drive horses as we come to know during the course of the movie. The prince himself says it to Susan “I wish we had more time together” for which the not so queenly looking queen replies “It wouldn’t have worked out anyway”. So much so for that effort.

King Edmund is quite enjoyable as the younger brother, I can plainly say that the selling point of the movie is the mouse Reepicheep (voiced by Eddie Izzard) who gets the best lines on screen. Yes , yes the graphics are quite good and so are panoramic shots of the wide country side and assembled soldiers wearing weird masks with beards in it. Aslan makes the shortest of cameos with a moving performance, yes he moves and growls(thrice) to prove that he really is a lion.

I have seen better regional movies than Prince Caspian watch it only if you do not have an air conditioner at home or when you want to spare your children a visit to the local zoo to watch animals. Go children before you grow up, or else you will be writing hopeless reviews like this one.

And Oh I forgot the torchlight!

Satyeki