Topic: Narnia: Prince Caspian

[ShyGuy]

Saw this last night. Not quite as strong as the first movie, but I still give it a thumbs up.

Plenty of action with very minimal blood and gore.

[animecyberrat]

I was going to see this but I am saving my money for Indiana Jones.

[Arbok]

I was going to see this but I am saving my money for Indiana Jones.

Ditto. Given the early box office estimates, which show it underperfoming compared to expectations, that seems to be the norm mentality too.

[vudu]

Saw this last night. Not quite as strong as the first movie, but I still give it a thumbs up.

The first movie was horrible.

[Bloodworth]

Saw this last night. Not quite as strong as the first movie, but I still give it a thumbs up.

The first movie was horrible.

Yeah, I wouldn't say horrible, but it definitely wasn't as good as I'd hoped it would be. To hear that this one doesn't even reach that mark is a bad sign.

[Kairon]

I didn't like the first movie at all... but this one was vastly more enjoyable to me. It actually STARTS in Narnnia, doesn't have to deal with the whole boring set-up of the first movie, has reams of action, and the characters all feel like they embody their roles to a better degree. I really don't like the dolt of an older son, but even in this movie he had his place.

[ShyGuy]

I don't know Bloodworth, you make like this one better. Like Kairon said it jumps straight into the action more quickly and the style of the story feels more like high fantasy than fairy tale. Whereas the first film's main character arc focused on Edmund giving up his selfish nature, this film is about Peter learning humility.

I don't think it's as strong as the first movie because the villian is weaker and the story is less clear cut.

[Ian Sane]

Regarding the first film I'm the infamous "not as good as the book" type of critic.   So when I see some sort of water elemental of sorts in the trailer for this film and can't think of what that corresponds to in the book I immediately decide I'm not bothering to waste my money on this one.

The first one seemed to try way too hard to be Lord of the Rings.  Now I'm sure there's a fair share of Tolkien fans that felt that the Lord of the Rings films weren't Lord of the Rings as well.  But they tried really hard to make it a big epic battle movie and that really didn't fit the feel of the book to me.

I think part of the problem is that LotR has made the big fantasy themed battle a cliche.  You look at this and 300 and the Golden Compass and Beowulf and they all seem like they're trying to be like LotR.  Hell even Harry Potter's trailers try to make it sound a little more LotR than the resuling movies are.  It's the typical Hollywood cookie cutter.  Like LotR, The Chronicle of Narnia are a popular fantasy series and obviously they want it to be their LotR.  But it isn't.  It doesn't quite fit.  For me it doesn't help that I find those types of battles rather dull now.

The worst offenders for me in the first film are the new fox character (or maybe he was a wolf; I can't remember) and the DRAMATIC ice flow scene.  Since The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe was actually written by someone with, you know, talent these hackneyed scenes stuck out like a sore thumb.  But then any time Peter Jackson decided to get cute with his LotR films you got dumb sh!t like Aragorn falling off a cliff, landing in about three feet of water, and not only surviving but suffering no injuries.  So it's kind of a problem in general when someone else decides to add their own idea into a literay classic.  LotR still worked though.  The first Narnia doesn't do it for me even when it's following the source material.

To be fair though Prince Caspian isn't as good of a book as The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe.  So if this film isn't as "good" that's somewhat expected.

[GoldenPhoenix]

Aragorn falling off a cliff, landing in about three feet of water, and not only surviving but suffering no injuries. 

I don't even remember that part, guess that is how much it mattered to me.

[Kairon]

But then any time Peter Jackson decided to get cute with his LotR films you got dumb sh!t like Aragorn falling off a cliff, landing in about three feet of water, and not only surviving but suffering no injuries.

God I hated that part because it was so dumb... but then I hated the books to begin with.

[NWR_pap64]

So, can we agree that both Narnia and LOTR suck hard? :p

[GoldenPhoenix]

So, can we agree that both Narnia and LOTR suck hard? :p

No because LOTR Triliogy is one of my all time favorites, and got me started on the books which I also love. So take that you Papster!

[NWR_insanolord]

If you're going to say a movie based on a book is no good if it's not as good as the book you're not going to come up with very many good book-based movies. Off the top of my head I can only think of 1 book-based movie that's as good as the book. I can think of a lot more book-based movies that I enjoyed, though

[animecyberrat]

Bridge to Terrabithia, that was better than the book.

A Wrinkle in time, made me wish I had never seen the damn movie.

[Bloodworth]

I still need to see Terabithia. I think I was in 5th grade when I read that one.

[NWR_insanolord]

I know there are more, I know I've seen more movies that were as good as or better than the books they were based on, but the only one I can think of after extensively trying to remember is The Hunt for Red October. Brilliant performances by Alec Baldwin and Sean Connery make a great story even better.

[UncleBob]

A Wrinkle in time, made me wish I had never seen the damn movie.

Ditto.  Talk about a bad movie.

[Darkheart]

Regarding the first film I'm the infamous "not as good as the book" type of critic.   So when I see some sort of water elemental of sorts in the trailer for this film and can't think of what that corresponds to in the book I immediately decide I'm not bothering to waste my money on this one.

The first one seemed to try way too hard to be Lord of the Rings.  Now I'm sure there's a fair share of Tolkien fans that felt that the Lord of the Rings films weren't Lord of the Rings as well.  But they tried really hard to make it a big epic battle movie and that really didn't fit the feel of the book to me

I think part of the problem is that LotR has made the big fantasy themed battle a cliche.  You look at this and 300 and the Golden Compass and Beowulf and they all seem like they're trying to be like LotR.  Hell even Harry Potter's trailers try to make it sound a little more LotR than the resuling movies are.  It's the typical Hollywood cookie cutter.  Like LotR, The Chronicle of Narnia are a popular fantasy series and obviously they want it to be their LotR.  But it isn't.  It doesn't quite fit.  For me it doesn't help that I find those types of battles rather dull now.

The worst offenders for me in the first film are the new fox character (or maybe he was a wolf; I can't remember) and the DRAMATIC ice flow scene.  Since The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe was actually written by someone with, you know, talent these hackneyed scenes stuck out like a sore thumb.  But then any time Peter Jackson decided to get cute with his LotR films you got dumb sh!t like Aragorn falling off a cliff, landing in about three feet of water, and not only surviving but suffering no injuries.  So it's kind of a problem in general when someone else decides to add their own idea into a literay classic.  LotR still worked though.  The first Narnia doesn't do it for me even when it's following the source material.

To be fair though Prince Caspian isn't as good of a book as The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe.  So if this film isn't as "good" that's somewhat expected.

Does it really count though when Tolkien himself said he was heavily inspired by the Narnia series?  True the LOTR movies came out first but the Narnia books came out before the LotR books.

[Ian Sane]

If you're going to say a movie based on a book is no good if it's not as good as the book you're not going to come up with very many good book-based movies.

Well I do think the Jurassic Park book is better than the movie but I still really enjoyed the film.  I actually like the Lord of the Rings films better than the books.  And then there are movies like Spider-man where I'm quite familiar with the source material and yet the fact that the film doesn't follow the comic perfectly doesn't bother me at all.

Does it really count though when Tolkien himself said he was heavily inspired by the Narnia series?  True the LOTR movies came out first but the Narnia books came out before the LotR books.

The basic storyline elements of the first Narnia film are fine.  It's the action scenes in the film that come across as trying to recreate the battle scenes in the Lord of the Rings movies and to me it just doesn't fit Narnia.  I mean they do fight the Queen but the way it's done in the film just doesn't seem to fit.  Middle-earth is full of warriors and orcs so this dark, violent, big huge battle style of film-making really fits.  Narnia is populated by fawns and talking animals.  That world doesn't seem to fit the style they chose for the first movie.  The first film seemed like it was entirely designed for people who liked the LotR films but had no interest in the books and found scenes like the council of Elrond boring because they wanted to get to more orc killing.  Peter Jackson comes across as a Tolkien fan making a LotR movies for the fans.  The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe seems like it was directed by someone with no appreciation of C.S. Lewis' work, who just used the source materal as a quick way to get a storyline and a popular "brand" on their own fantasy epic film to cash in on the current trend created by Jackson's films.

[GoldenPhoenix]

Ian I think you are beng a bit unfair with the people behind Narnia, from what I understand they all had a appreciate of the Narnia books, even C.S. Lewis's stepson was a co-producer of the series.

[animecyberrat]

Star Wars Revenge of the Sith was too a good movie. Oh wait wrong thread. Narnia was too a good movie.

[Kairon]

Is it wrong that I liked this movie more than the first one because it had more battles and fighting and war in it?

[animecyberrat]

I don't know, they are supposed to be based on Christianity to some degree, or at least Christian principals. I think that is a huge part of why I got into the first movie so much, it spoke to me.