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lotesseI meant to get up this morning and write out my thinky thoughts on Narnia, but then I had to lie abed ridiculously late. But now, I meta!
I think that maybe Prince Caspian isn't that great as a movie. I think the first half, especially, might be very confusing to people who are not me. One of the advantages these people have with me is that I don't just love Narnia, I consider it bloody well sacred. Just saying "Aslan's How" or "the Horn" is going to get me there. So I go in, as it were, pre-disposed for bliss. But I also got the bliss, big time.
Much of it was a major departure from the book, but I actually think it worked. It felt to me like the movie was doing the same kind of reinventive/reinterpretive work that fandom so often does. The vaguely Castillian Telmarines were very cool, and the bitter, vengeful Caspian worked as a beautiful outgrowth of that culture, and as a shiny foil for the Pevensies.
I'm also even more in love with Edmund than ever after seeing this. He's wonderful - quiet, but always there. I got the sense that he's in many ways a much more troubled kid than Peter, which would make sense considering that for him, Narnia was kind of an upsetting place at first. But he doesn't have the entitlement to spew about it that Peter does. He just manages, and believes in his little sister, and thankfully! gets to be the one to do away with the Witch once and for all. I loved the fact that Peter got to taste some of Ed's temptation, and Ed got to be the one to hold strong to the foundations of his faith and ethics. King Edmund the Just, indeed.
My darling Lucy got her chances to shine - her dream of Aslan and the trees was lovely, as was her final moment of courage, standing against an Army with her little knife and her untame Lion.
Aslan continues to not work. Come on, people, with all the technology we've got we can't drum up a little bit of holy awe? He just seems like a lion, nothing more than any of the other Beasts. Although the other Beasts were lovely - Trufflehunter and Reep especially. Oh, Reep, I do love you so.
Susan fighting was cool, I guess, but it makes no sense for her character. Susan's deep flaw and deep virtue come from the same place: she's the Gentle. She's compassionate and kind, but also afraid and unsure. Lucy's the one who rides to battle with the men, because she's the True Believer and the force of that burns away her fears. I feel funny, as a feminist, for saying this, but I would have preferred that they keep to the book's separations: Lucy and Susan, and then Peter and Edmund.
I am totally capable of ignoring the Susan/Caspian as it stands. It would also be really easy to edit it out, and I kind of hope someone creates a modded bootleg. Also, Lucy finds it just as inexplicable and ridiculous as I do, and says so. Go Lu!
I wanna go see it again tomorrow, because I feel like this one really took me to Narnia, and I'll love anything that makes me feel that way.
The best part, for me, was the dense symbology and iconography. The single best bit was Peter drawing his sword in the Treasure Chamber and reciting the first bit of the prophecy verse, the vengeful and warlike part, and then Lucy chiming in with the next lines of renewal and peace. The ruins of Cair Paravel, and the statues in the Treasure Chamber, and the paintings in the How, and Cornelius' books: all of these images depicting just how bloody mythical the Pevensies have actually become. It made them more than just schoolchildren on an adventure. It made me believe that they really were Kings and Queens.
The other big thing was that they talked about the strangeness of their own dualities, something the books never directly acknowledge. Peter and Susan hate being in England, because it's not the same. Lucy's old clothes won't fit her, and she laments it. Susan can't be perfectly happy about being back in Narnia, because she knows she'll just have to lose it again. You really get a sense of their own justified bitterness, and that the whole thing is rather a rum deal for them. Narnia keeps reproaching them for abandonment, but they were dragged away unwillingly, and they all visibly carry the scars of that loss.
for my own reference, because flocked: meta especially on Ed and Lucy, and on Susan's sudden fightyness, here.
*
I think that maybe Prince Caspian isn't that great as a movie. I think the first half, especially, might be very confusing to people who are not me. One of the advantages these people have with me is that I don't just love Narnia, I consider it bloody well sacred. Just saying "Aslan's How" or "the Horn" is going to get me there. So I go in, as it were, pre-disposed for bliss. But I also got the bliss, big time.
Much of it was a major departure from the book, but I actually think it worked. It felt to me like the movie was doing the same kind of reinventive/reinterpretive work that fandom so often does. The vaguely Castillian Telmarines were very cool, and the bitter, vengeful Caspian worked as a beautiful outgrowth of that culture, and as a shiny foil for the Pevensies.
I'm also even more in love with Edmund than ever after seeing this. He's wonderful - quiet, but always there. I got the sense that he's in many ways a much more troubled kid than Peter, which would make sense considering that for him, Narnia was kind of an upsetting place at first. But he doesn't have the entitlement to spew about it that Peter does. He just manages, and believes in his little sister, and thankfully! gets to be the one to do away with the Witch once and for all. I loved the fact that Peter got to taste some of Ed's temptation, and Ed got to be the one to hold strong to the foundations of his faith and ethics. King Edmund the Just, indeed.
My darling Lucy got her chances to shine - her dream of Aslan and the trees was lovely, as was her final moment of courage, standing against an Army with her little knife and her untame Lion.
Aslan continues to not work. Come on, people, with all the technology we've got we can't drum up a little bit of holy awe? He just seems like a lion, nothing more than any of the other Beasts. Although the other Beasts were lovely - Trufflehunter and Reep especially. Oh, Reep, I do love you so.
Susan fighting was cool, I guess, but it makes no sense for her character. Susan's deep flaw and deep virtue come from the same place: she's the Gentle. She's compassionate and kind, but also afraid and unsure. Lucy's the one who rides to battle with the men, because she's the True Believer and the force of that burns away her fears. I feel funny, as a feminist, for saying this, but I would have preferred that they keep to the book's separations: Lucy and Susan, and then Peter and Edmund.
I am totally capable of ignoring the Susan/Caspian as it stands. It would also be really easy to edit it out, and I kind of hope someone creates a modded bootleg. Also, Lucy finds it just as inexplicable and ridiculous as I do, and says so. Go Lu!
I wanna go see it again tomorrow, because I feel like this one really took me to Narnia, and I'll love anything that makes me feel that way.
The best part, for me, was the dense symbology and iconography. The single best bit was Peter drawing his sword in the Treasure Chamber and reciting the first bit of the prophecy verse, the vengeful and warlike part, and then Lucy chiming in with the next lines of renewal and peace. The ruins of Cair Paravel, and the statues in the Treasure Chamber, and the paintings in the How, and Cornelius' books: all of these images depicting just how bloody mythical the Pevensies have actually become. It made them more than just schoolchildren on an adventure. It made me believe that they really were Kings and Queens.
The other big thing was that they talked about the strangeness of their own dualities, something the books never directly acknowledge. Peter and Susan hate being in England, because it's not the same. Lucy's old clothes won't fit her, and she laments it. Susan can't be perfectly happy about being back in Narnia, because she knows she'll just have to lose it again. You really get a sense of their own justified bitterness, and that the whole thing is rather a rum deal for them. Narnia keeps reproaching them for abandonment, but they were dragged away unwillingly, and they all visibly carry the scars of that loss.
for my own reference, because flocked: meta especially on Ed and Lucy, and on Susan's sudden fightyness, here.
*