AlterNet: 'Prince Caspian': Sugarpuff Christian Propaganda Dressed Up As a Dark Children's Movie

[marmar]

'Prince Caspian': Sugarpuff Christian Propaganda Dressed Up As a Dark Children's Movie

By Eileen Jones, AlterNet. Posted May 19, 2008.

This movie is so long, so slow, so cheesy, so pumped full of phony computer graphics that there's nothing to stop it from making a billion dollars.



The second film in the Chronicles of Narnia franchise, Prince Caspian, is so big, so long, so slow, so stilted, so cheesy, so pumped full of phony-looking CGI that there's nothing to stop it from making a billion dollars. Because, God help us, this is the gelatinous form the fantasy genre has taken in the past few decades and now everyone has learned to love it, the way we learned to love Spam and Jello and many other products that hold a pre-molded shape for mysterious reasons we don't want to go into.

You'll read other reviews claiming that, compared to the first film, The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe (2005), this one is dark and maybe even disturbing for the hordes of kids worldwide who will flock to see it. Don't you believe it. This film is dark the way pearl grey would seem dark if you lived in the Land of Blinding Whiteness. Prince Caspian earns its PG rating through bloodless war, reversible deaths, tiresome moral preachiness, and the cutest, blandest kid heroes ever assembled.

These kids are the four Pevensie siblings of C.S. Lewis' famous children's classics, London youngsters who periodically slip off to the magical world of Narnia to lead epic lives. Here's how you tell them apart: Peter (William Moseley) is now in his sullen teen years and scowls all the time; Susan (Anna Popplewell) shoots a mean arrow and has the poutiest red lips of the four, which is saying a lot; Edmund (Scandar Keynes) has the most upstanding hair; and Lucy (Georgie Henley) is the small, pious girl forever reminding the others to worship the giant holy lion Aslan (voiced by Liam Neeson) that nobody can see but her since he was martyred in the last war.

At the end of the first film, the kids had been crowned young kings and queens in honor of their leadership in defeating the forces of the magnificently evil White Witch (Tilda Swinton). As the sequel begins, they are one year older and very bored when they're transported back again to Narnia via the enchanted London tube (also Harry Potter's main mode of travel to the world of magic). However, in Narnia it's centuries later, and the castle in which the children were crowned is now an ancient ruin. The Narnians, a motley assortment of dwarves, centaurs, minotaurs, gryphons, talking animals, feisty trees, et.al., have been driven into hiding by the cruel tyranny of the Telmarines, led by the usurper King Miraz, played by Sergio Castellitto. (The wicked Telmarines are clearly Spaniards, by the way, probably for reasons having to do with C.S. Lewis' willingness to hold a permanent grudge against all former foes of dear old England) The Narnians, reunited with the Pevensie children, pin their hopes on the rightful heir to the throne, young Telmarine Prince Caspian (Ben Barnes) to unite and restore the kingdom.

It's all very plotty and ponderous. Director Andrew Adamson (the Shrek franchise) isn't exactly the surest hand in the West when it comes to mobilizing the troops for exciting action sequences. Luckily horses galloping are always beautiful to watch, and that helps the dragging pace of the battles a bit. But the entrancing White Witch who did so much to enliven the first film is sorely missed here. Tilda Swinton as the Witch makes only a brief appearance in Caspian, but she really knows how to goose up the stodgy proceedings of contemporary fantasy. With her odd-angled Renaissance-era face, her cold grandeur, her convincing battle-readiness and barbaric furs and sledge pulled by wolves, she was the perfect antidote to all the glutinous scenes with children learning to have unquestioning faith in a giant supremely-fake-looking lion. I spent the whole first film rooting for her. ......(more)

The complete piece is at: http://www.alternet.org/movies/85742/

[Larkspur]

1. I saw Prince Caspian last week and enjoyed it

C.S. Lewis' Narnia is not Tolkein's "Lord of the Rings". And yes they were intended as "Sugarpuff Christian Propaganda".
I thought the CGI were excellent for the movie. I had no problem with the Conquistador image of the Telmarines. Caspian was one of them and one of the main points of the story was that "enemies" can have good people. It contradicts Bush's claim that the "other" are all evil and must be killed, imprisioned, or tortured and humiliated to force them to do your will.

Lewis' plot lines may not work as well today as they did in his day. His Christianity is not Xtian fundamentalism nor part of institutionalized religion. Humans switching between Earth and another world doesn't always work, especially when they are children. But I love those talking animals and always will.

[Lint Head]

2. C.S. Lewis lost his religion when his wife died. He then found it

again. He never set himself up as an evangelical. He was a writer that practiced his art and did it well. He struggled with his beliefs just like we all do. He did not set himself up a a Jerry "Sitting at the Right Hand of God the Father Almighty" Falwell or
Pat "I Control the Weather" Robertson. :dem:

[nxylas]

3. Going into pedant mode...

...it's hard to take the reviewer seriously when she apparently can't tell the difference between a tube train and the Hogwarts Express.