Friday, May 16, 2008

PhotobucketPopcorn, M&M's, Movies.....

They just go together. This is what we've been doing the last bit of time.

Mike and the 3 older young men (19, 17, 14) went at mid-night to see.....

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Yep, Prince Caspian. We are HUGE C.S. Lewis fans. Yes, I'm aware of the controversy about CS Lewis in homeschooling/Christian circles. It's fine if you've decided not to read him - we do. LOL Mike has read the entire Chronicles to the children at least nine times in the past 23 years. AND he and I read them aloud together before we had children. Our children have been counting down to Prince Caspian and really wanted to go the first showing.

We compromised. We thought Arielle and Nolan would fall asleep if they tried to watch it that early. I took the two of them this afternoon.

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I found it funny that the girls tried to call and text message while we were watching it. I bet they wanted to tell us they'd seen it already. ::snort::

Focus on the Family, via Plugged in Online gave Prince Caspian a rather bleak review. World Magazine arrived today and has several articles on Prince Caspian. The danger in analyzing a movie is that you can lose the charm of the movie...take the "fun out of it" - but we are sure to be analyzing this one for days to come in our home.

Warning - there may be spoilers below this point - do not read further if that will irritate you!

Reviews are mixed in our household. The boys and Mike told me that it "didn't stick to the book as nearly as the first movie," and yet Jamin and Jared pointed out that the "Christian message comes through strongly." I agree.

Mike had seen this before I took Arielle (nearly 11) and Nolan (9). He thought it would be o.k. for them BECAUSE they KNOW the series. The battles were not a shock to them. They knew where the hag and wer-wolf would show up etc. We did not take Zander (6). Arielle and Nolan were so looking forward to it - that we went. I'm glad we did.

I'd love to discuss this with a die hard Narnia fan - and probably will tonight - but for now....

The film doesn't stick close to the book. Part of this had to have been the difficulty in the plot line from the book.......50 pages of info from Trumpkin about a child they've never met. SO....the film writers compressed mightily and in so doing didn't develop the characters and their relationships as well as they are in the book.

Two characters are changed - drastically. Mike picked up on Peter. Peter was always noble in the books. He wrestles with pride in this film. He enters the movie in a street brawl. Mike likes Lewis' notion better. HOWEVER - the struggle between pride/humility is one that Christians will relate to. I loved Lucy's line "Peter, remember who really won the battle against the White Witch" or something similar.

Susan changed. Mike didn't mention this one but I picked up on it. I like Susan in this movie. There is the hint of romance that culminates in a kiss....so that's an obvious departure. However, what really is different is her character. She was "Susan the Gentle" and in the film she's a warrior princess. When she was given her bow in the books she is told not to use them in combat and that war is an ugly thing when "women are involved". In the film she's "flinging them arrows left and right" and commanding Narnian archers in battle. Jamin said, "They turned Susan into an action figure" and after viewing the movie, I know what he means. LOL I liked her - but it is a rather big change.

Prince Caspian seemed to be younger in the book than in the film...but this is probably up to personal interpretation.

Reepicheep - we all loved him and his band of mice. One of the funniest scenes was where he and his mice restrained the cat.

Battles that were only contemplated in the book are major components in the film. Peter never stormed Miraz' castle in the book. But in the film the heavy losses he suffers in this battle are the cost of his pride and not waiting for Aslan (another huge Christian message there for me). There are new figures in the film - winged animals (girffins), old figures that died and never came back in the books show up in this film, but the message is intact.

I'd never made the connection between Caspian being offered the kingdom if he'd surrender to dark magic and Jesus' temptation. I wanted to scream at Lucy "follow HIM - who cares whether they see Him?" Other Aslan messages: "Aslan doesn't always do things the same way", "it's better to wait for Aslan than to step ahead of him"...I'm sure there are more.

Yes, I enjoyed the film. The children loved the film. The young men are loving the discussions about the themes and differences from book to film. Mike said he thought he would have enjoyed the film more if he hadn't been so familiar with the books.

About the violence - there ARE a lot of battle scenes. We've just been studying ancient warfare in school and so we found it interesting to see how closely the movie reflected ancient Greek weapons and battle formations. I hadn't noticed most the gore until reading pluggedin online....I don't think my little ones noticed many of the details mentioned in the review. There is NOT a lot of blood, gore, guts hanging out type thing...but you do see menataurs fall to their death, soldiers struck down, blood on faces and hands from time to time etc. I wouldn't take a young child to see the movie. If Nolan wasn't so familiar with the story I may not have taken a 9 year old. Arielle - 11 had no trouble with it. For comparison purposes it is WAY LESS graphic violence than say Star Wars or Lord of the Rings. I actually think PG is a good rating for this movie. Parental Guidance - good for parents to see it and then make a judgment concerning their individual children. PG 13 to me says "probably not good to see it unless you are an adult and by then who wants to waste their money". ::snort::

The film writers and some critics say that the first movie "stuck to the books" but that made it "stiff" and "formal" and "lifeless". They insist that they stay with Lewis' themes in PC and that the details of the story line aren't what's important. What do other Narnian fans think? I liked this movie. I liked the books. I'm not sure if I buy the "lifeless" line.....the first movie didn't strike me as lifeless. Mike mentioned, and I agree, that they may continue to veer away from the books even further in future movies. That would be sad. What we LOVED about The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe from 2005 is that it DID mirror the book. Though as Jamin points out - writers have to get their own "creative juices" going or they have no passion.

This is a movie that left me with much to think about, besides comparing it to the book. ::snort:: I love what they've done with Aslan. The scenery and photography in this movie is breathtaking. There is much to like about this movie. As always, our final conclusion remains: read the books first! LOL

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9 comments:

Michelle said...

De'Etta, we just saw the film this morning. I read it aloud to the oldest three and before the next movie is released (currently being filmed), I'll reread the series to the *new* children. We also noticed a much larger departure from the book, but there was so much that was good about this movie. The older girls and I did talk about those who may only see the movie....how much they'll miss from reading the books: the depth of the relationships the Pevensie's had with other characters in the stories is big. We were delighted to see Reepicheep on the big screen. :)

Gilda said...

DeEtta,
We just got back from seeing the movie and we all loved it. Phillip and I talked about it on the way home and how we plan to make it part of school on Monday to pull out many things we think are wonderful lessons. Even though it departed from the book we still saw many "teachable" moments in the movie. We are going to read the book aloud again this upcoming week and discuss the differences from the movie and what they thought about the changes etc. I can't wait to see it again after reading the book again. Hmmmm, so much to think about and talk about.

Unknown said...

Hi De'Etta,
I personally am not a big C.S. Lewis fan but two of our boys love him. The boys are excited about seeing the movie but I am not. lol
My oldest son was surprised that they made this book into a movie. He said it was the most boring book out of the series.
We plan on seeing it in 2 weeks.
Laura

DeEtta @ Courageous Joy said...

Yes, many teachable movements and overall a good movie. LOL

Mike, our purist is the least happy with the movie.

Laura, I suspect this one was next so that the 4 children could still be used....I haven't checked the website to see which one they are making next but I'm guessing Voyage of the Dawn Treader before Lucy and Edmond get too old to play their parts.

berrypatch said...

We have been waiting for this to open. My 11 year old is so eager to go & see it. We're hoping to make that happen tomorrow but we'll see. Thanks for the indepth review!

Anonymous said...

so I saw it last night!!!! I loved it...but yes I did noticed the discrepancies...the two that bothered me the most were the attack on Mriaz's castle (it made me cry: ) and then the kiss at the end (I thought the whole romance interest was cute up until that point...what a waste of a first kiss; )...but it was humorous and Molly and I elbowed each other the whole way through about "young male egos" (which wasn't in the book but was amusing).....whew...oh and I loved the "DLF" teehehe...anyways...oh and did you notice how it was Edmond (the one who had first been tempted by white witch in the past) who struck her while Caspian and Peter were struggling....and as always I loved the sibling comradely....made me miss ya'all....

bre g

DeEtta @ Courageous Joy said...

Bre you are right - I loved the DLF too....and I agreed with the whole kiss....and yes....Edmond's role was cool....noble even.

Cynthia said...

Our girls went to a private showing the other night.. the first in town with 100 or so of their closest friends (LOL)...

momma24 said...

De'Etta - what is the conflict with Lewis and homeschooling? I am so in the dark about such things!!

We, too, loved the movie. Yes, there were differences and they are being discussed heavily!

All in all, we loved it! We did take all of our children, even the 6 yodd and the 3yodd. They were enthralled. The 3yo yelled "Aslan is back" when she saw him the first time!