Extended Movie Review

Yesterday my mom sisters, nephew, and neice all came down for an early Memorial Day weekend cook-out - after, I should add, our family had to back out of a trip up their way (Rock Hill, SC) for several reasons. I felt badlly about the fact that they were all compelled to come here, but it was good to see everyone, especially since my youngest sister has just returned from school in New York and is going to Cambodia this week for the summer. After enjoying a great dinner together, we gathered all the kids, along with some necessary supplies (i.e. blankets and a cooler, but not, as we realized later to our discomfort, jackets and slighly warmer clothing!) and everyone piled in two cars (minus one sister and neice, who returned home) to drive down to the "Big Mo," a drive-in movie theatre near here. Dave had heard earlier in the week that they were showing Prince Caspian, and we thought it would be a fun family outing, as well as the only way we were all going to get to go to a movie together. It was a little farther out than we had thought, but still only about thirty minutes away, and it was an exciting adventure. We sprawled on lawn chairs and blankets, and the movie began at dark, right about the time Chase was getting a little tired and fussy. A couple of nursing sessions, though, had him sleeping somewhere before the halfway mark, though, and everyone else - including Ryan - made it the entire movie.

So as to the movie - we all enjoyed it immensely, though those who were most familiar with the book were a little confused at times. Aimee observed that they omitted the part in the book with Susan, Lucy, and Aslan joining in a celebration of sorts with some of the more fanciful Narnian creatures, and she felt that "alot of the rest of the story was rooted to that part, " so it was rather a mistake to leave it out. :-) She also wondered why the "colors were all gray, instead of bright like they were in in the Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe." I supposed the LWW does take place in something like the classical days of Narnia, as opposed to the more medieval feel of the Prince Caspian days, and the two movies do a good job of expressing that with the difference in "colors." But Prince Caspian the book has more light and shade, I feel, than the movie captures. The movie focuses primarily on the dark harshness of the Telmarines, and, as another review I read stated, felt almost like "Tolkien lite." It was indeed a bit more violent than I probably would have wanted Ryan to see, had I known, and the hag in one of the scenes was very scary. Also, Aimee noted that in the book, the hag and the werewolf did not actually bring up the White Witch - in the movie the WW simply served as an exciting theatrical display, which Drew appreciated because it provided a dramatic moment with a sword, but which Aimee and I didn't think was necessary at all to the story. The hints of romance between Susan and the Prince cheapened the story at times and were unneccesary as well, but I believe the movie represents the Pevensie children as slightly older than the book does, and I suppose I can give the movie some slack for needing to appeal to a broader audience than simply the C.S. Lewis faithful. For all that, it was an exciting movie - and when it comes out on DVD I imagine we will probably own it in short order. I do give credit to an excellent Reepicheep, thrilling battle scenes (important to the boys!), and a moving conclusion, which promised more Narnia in the future.
I do not, however, understand the study guides which have come out for the movie; in my opinion - and I know I risk offending some of you, so I stress again that it's just my opinion! - there is nothing spiritually valuable to study about the movie. The LWW, of course, weaves a rich and beautiful analogy that the movie version actually retells fairly well. The Prince Caspian book contains a very worthwhile picture of several different expressions of faith - the childlike, almost perfect fastness of Lucy's faith (in which there are even more dimensions to consider), the solid, humble faith of the redeemed Edmund, Peter's realization (and then humble turning, which leades to his final growing up of sorts) that what he takes for faith at first is simply bravery and trust in himself, and Susan's often wavering faith that is hindered by the cares of "practical" things. There's much more of course, but in short, what emerges in the movie is an extremely watered-down represesntation of the that aspect of the story. So watch and enjoy the movie, by all means, but my humble (I've used that word three times now in the space of a few lines!) suggestion is to take it as a good movie and leave it at that. We Christians want to make everything C.S. Lewis a deep spiritual lesson, and in this case, it's simply not there.