Movie and Television Reviews

About a quarter way through Prince Caspian, I resigned myself to a delightful, mildly thrilling, and imaginative movie like the first Narnia, The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe. Instead, Caspian evolved into something more mature, thrilling, thoughtful, and even profound. It's better than Lion in every way and I guarantee your enjoyment (Not literally- so don't send me your ticket stubs.).

First, for those of you keeping score in the allegory playoffs, so far we have:

Christian- 2

The Chronicles of Narnia - The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe (Widescreen Edition)

Atheist (Golden Compass)- 1

It looks like New Line will forfeit the rest of the series as well.

The Golden Compass (New Line Platinum Series Two-Disc Widescreen Edition)

Communist- 1

Antz

Environmentalist- 1:

Fantastic Four - Rise of the Silver Surfer

Gay rights- 1

Happy Feet (Widescreen Edition)

Al Gore- 1

Phenomenon

You can add more, I'm sure.

Anyways, by the time of the second film, after the departure of the Pevensie kings and queens 1200 years earlier, Narnia has fallen to a race of people called the Telmarines. Prince Caspian X (Ben Barnes), the protagonist, is heir to the Telemarine throne- until his aunt, the queen, has a son.

Like many good fantasy stories, Caspian begins with two barely-touching plot strings that knot at an extraordinary event. In this case, Prince Caspian, escaping the newly murderous intentions of his uncle, the king, Miraz (Sergio Castellitto), finds himself in the Narnian forest with Telmarine soldiers in pursuit. Caspian blows a small, magical horn in desperation which brings the Pevensie children, Peter, Edmund, Susan, and Lucy to his aid.

The Pevensie children encounter their BFF, DLF (a cynical red dwarf named Trumpkin and played by Peter Dinklage) and eventually meet up with Caspian to take on the Telmarine kingdom and the king.

Sounds simple, but Caspian unravels with with masterful precision, along the way uncovering:

1. Thrilling battles, probably the best and most original since the Lord of the Rings trilogy. An attack on the Telmarine castle half-way through the movie is tense, complex, unexpectedly logical and oddly realistic, with wonderful special effects.

2. Complex, elemental human emotions. The rivalry between two legitimate kings, one representing the past (Peter) and the other the future (Caspian) explores a legitimate issue. The tempting of evil- in this case for military expediency- is an issue to plumb over and over again.

3. Great acting all around. The Pevensie children have aged well and are still believable in their roles. The animated characters are good combinations of creepy, noble, cute, and funny. I like the female centaur weeping over her fallen husband; the mice are hilarious. The dwarfs are particularly interesting in that their former allegiance with the evil Queen of Narnia makes them susceptible to ignobility, although Trumpkin, whom I mention above overcomes his nature to be perhaps the most high-minded of all.

4. Just an excellent story arc where we have defeat, hope, defeat, false hope, triumph, and, finally, a noble, thoughtful ending.

Minor complaints:

We've seen the long, mountain travel shot a in every fantasy movie since Lord of the Rings and the horse chase scene seems derivative as well. The children's entry into Narnia is something of a let-down.

Message/ Politics:

At the surface level, Caspian promotes:

Freedom for the oppressed.

Battle as character-decipherer.

Bravery, without which things just couldn't get done.

Justice, rule of law, tradition, order (in that people need to ascend or descend into their proper station).

Faith. It's Lucy's faith, from the youngest and, therefore the most purely innocent, that turns the tide.

Even I felt a little queasy at Caspian being tied with the horrible Golden Compass for the most violent children's movie of all time. On the other hand, the violence in Caspian isn't Kill Bill nihilism. It's justified if one accepts the premise that it's the only solution to the problem at hand.

Aslan is an imperfect Jesus figure in that he very definitely doesn't always turn the other cheek.

Very many (and very long) deeper meanings can be squeezed out of Caspian. I won't get into the "Bush is...Peter, ...King Miraz, ...Caspian, ...Nikabrik: the evil black dwarf;" "Clinton is the Queen of Narnia;" or "Obama is Aslan" sophistries...and offer a bit of my own sophistry instead:

Committed Steynians may wish to see Caspian as the giving way of Christian Europe to the Muslim immigrants represented by the Narnians and Telmarines respectively. If things play out as in Narnia, Muslims and Christians will fight before coming to some accommodation. The very last scene, in fact, has some Telmarines voluntarily leaving Narnia because of the new understanding.

The fictional bad guys are Spaniards! I knew my time was coming. After Jamaicans and Chinese in Star Wars, Cockneys and "darkies" in Lord of the Rings, the French in Next, and Canadians in X-Men, it was finally my gene pool's turn at infamy (Elizabeth's Spanish baddies weren't fictional characters.).

Tags: allegories in movies, conservative review of prince caspian, telemarines