[SPOILERS] Seen Prince Caspian

I'll start out generally.

I've seen a few movies based on books, stylizing themselves as translations of these books, when they really are adaptations. Harry Potter comes to mind instantly, which intended to fashion itself as a visual interpretation of the books, but soon lost itself in the interpretation portion. Eragon is another failure of the book-to-movie translation which is quite popular. From these films, then comparing to Prince Caspian, I have to say that this adaptation (and let me say that this is an adaptation, even if LLW was more of a translation) is probably one I actually like. Which is high praise from me as I tend to review books before I go to the movies that base themselves on the books, so I know what to look for, and I'm often overly critical of the movies.

So, suffice it to say I'm not going to take the purist's viewpoint on this movie. From a production standpoint, I would say that Prince Caspian is definitely a difficult book to translate to the screen, especially with its flashback style of storytelling in the midst of a linear story. I am glad that Adamson diverted from a translation in that sense, since attempting to include all of the flashbacks and nuances of the story might have killed the audience' interest in a movie moreso than for a book.

The movie started off well, drawing the audience right into the plot. Anybody who hadn't read the book would have been able to understand quickly what was going on from the dialogue and the events in the first few minutes. I was surprised how far the Telmarine soldiers rode into the forest, and that the horn was blown because of it. However, moving the horn call up in the sequence of events allowed for the Pevensies to be brought in right away. The transition from that scene to the real world of the Pevensies was well done, almost seamlessly bridging the worlds as the horn had done at that moment.

I wasn't a fan of the scene with Susan and the nerdy boy at the newsstand, it was awkward and unnecessary, in my view. I can appreciate the actor who played the boy got more of a cameo this time (he appeared in the train scene in LLW) and it did further the development of the Susan we hear about in The Last Battle. It just seemed out of place to me.

What Adamson did with Peter's development since LLW, I was in an amazed awe about. That was exactly how I could imagine Peter feeling after being torn from Narnia and parted for a year. From being High King to being a normal kid, having to put up with the immaturity and the social tensions, the toll it took showed very well. The way that each of the children responded to being back on Earth was apparent as well, with Susan's acceptance of the situation, Peter's frustration, and Lucy's anticipation. The only one I didn't really get a reading from on this was Edmund, he didn't really seem to show much of a reaction, and I was disappointed in that. Perhaps I'll have to see the movie again to glean his perspective a bit better.

I was glad that Gregson-Williams kept the "One Day" song in the cues for the return to Narnia scene, it was very moving to me and made a needed connection to the last film. I'm disappointed the song didn't make it into the soundtrack, though, I would have really liked to his this mix of it.

When the camera showed us the ruined castle, I was stunned at how it looked. I was almost surprised none of the children recognized it, as I did right off the bat from the ending scenes of LLW. Kudos, though, to the visual crew for all the work it would have taken to construct that. Very beautiful, and still stunning, even as a ruin of its former self.

Eh, my brain is bored, I'll finish this later.