Friday, May 30, 2008

Prince Caspian

Got a ticket for the charity screening of Prince Caspian, organised by the National Foundation for Digestive Diseases (NFDD).














I bought the whole series of Chronicles of Narnia before "The Lion, the Witch & the Wardrobe" screened, so I have read the stories. I recalled "TLWW" was quite true to the actual book, so it was really enjoyable to watch and have visuals of all the images conjured up going through the pages of the book.

Not so for Prince Caspian (PC).

Something didn't seem right from the start of the film, when a baby was borned to the evil aunt, and Prof Cornelius went to wake PC up..okiieee...what happened to his nanny, who was the one who piqued his curiosity about the land beyond the north, about the ambiguity of Miraz cruelty to PC (which started to show when he removed the nanny forcefully), to Prof Cornelius revelation that he's of dwarf-human blood and all the private tuition to PC?!?

And the wrong things came up throughout the show.

The horn was blown at the wrong time; we never got to see Trumpkin's kind yet steadfast character; the group never sieged the palace in the actual story; Prof Cornelius played a bigger role in planning the battles; Peter is never a conceited and rebellious fella; Susan and PC never had anything going throughout the original story!

SUPER FRUSTRATING.

It's one thing to drum up details to make a show more exciting,but it's another thing to twist the whole story to make it so different from the original novel, which from its simplicity, there is a reason for characters playing their roles, saying what they were supposed to say..

If you are ok with spending 2 hours plus watching an action packed fantasy movie, this movie will prob score ok with you. However if you enjoyed the book and found inspiration from the simple story which told of courage, friendship, faith..you will be sorely disappointed, and prob end up like me - with a look of disbelief throughout the whole show.

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