First things first, "Prince Caspian" is great entertainment, taken strictly as a movie, on its own merits. It moves fast, combines action, adventure, humor, and even a little romance, and feels much shorter than its 2-hour length.
On the downside, the screenwriters have dramatically changed the storyline and some of the characters, making this movie only very loosely based on C.S. Lewis' novel of the same name.
I'm not a purist when it comes to adapting books for the screen, but for me "Prince Caspian" goes too far afield from the original material in the name of hitting easy plot points.
My major issues with the movie are the changes to Peter's character in particular. The faithful and noble Peter from the books is gone, replaced by a rebellious, unhappy, contentious teenager with a chip on his shoulder. Lewis' Peter would not have rolled around in the subway tunnel in a wrestling match with other schoolboys, not would he have knocked heads in a power struggle with Prince Caspian in Narnia. The nonsensical "let's storm the castle" plot line from the movie is a distraction and a time-waster. For this we are denied some of the most wonderful scenes in the book, namely those with Aslan, Susan, Lucy, plus Bacchus and his gang? I was really disappointed with the direction the writers and director chose to take this movie, but in the end, I have to admit that the movie entertains, and the faithful viewers are thrown a few bones in the conversations between Aslan and Lucy and the appearance of one of Lewis' best-loved characters, Reepicheep.
As for the criticism that the movie is too dark and violent, on the contrary I found it much less disturbing than the first -- if the knife-wielding White Witch slaughtering Aslan on the Stone Table didn't get you in the first movie, I don't know why anything in "Prince Caspian" would be a problem.
On the downside, the screenwriters have dramatically changed the storyline and some of the characters, making this movie only very loosely based on C.S. Lewis' novel of the same name.
I'm not a purist when it comes to adapting books for the screen, but for me "Prince Caspian" goes too far afield from the original material in the name of hitting easy plot points.
My major issues with the movie are the changes to Peter's character in particular. The faithful and noble Peter from the books is gone, replaced by a rebellious, unhappy, contentious teenager with a chip on his shoulder. Lewis' Peter would not have rolled around in the subway tunnel in a wrestling match with other schoolboys, not would he have knocked heads in a power struggle with Prince Caspian in Narnia. The nonsensical "let's storm the castle" plot line from the movie is a distraction and a time-waster. For this we are denied some of the most wonderful scenes in the book, namely those with Aslan, Susan, Lucy, plus Bacchus and his gang? I was really disappointed with the direction the writers and director chose to take this movie, but in the end, I have to admit that the movie entertains, and the faithful viewers are thrown a few bones in the conversations between Aslan and Lucy and the appearance of one of Lewis' best-loved characters, Reepicheep.
As for the criticism that the movie is too dark and violent, on the contrary I found it much less disturbing than the first -- if the knife-wielding White Witch slaughtering Aslan on the Stone Table didn't get you in the first movie, I don't know why anything in "Prince Caspian" would be a problem.