Well it is now week 3 in the summer 2008 lineup and we have another big-budget film debuting this week. The movies title is The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian
To review so far. Week 1. Iron Man B+. It is a hit.
Week 2. Speed Racer B. Huge miss, I do not know how much $ this film will lose.
Now this film is part 2 of a planned 4 part stories based on the series of novels,The Chronicles of Narnia written by C.S. Lewis in the 1950s. The film deals with what happened to Narnia while the 4 kings were away.
The Narnia series has always been hard for me to watch at the movies and even harder for me to review. The reason is that I haven't read any of the books in over 30 years. I have no idea if they are faithful to the source and what if any changes were made to the material.
So I do this review without any knowledge of the book.
"Prince Caspian" is a much slower pace than the last film and for some people this will be a huge turn-off. I found it to be as, one would watch pawns on a chess board, moving slowly but with a goal. It was slow but it has to be slow. What I liked about this slow pace was "Peter" He is the High-King but he is so unsure of himself. It was nice to see him grown into the leader that I thought that he could be.
What was also nice is when Aslan does finally show up, its not over the top. It was like a child who believes in him would and that part of the film so worked for me.
What I really liked was the mouse creature, Reepicheep (Voiced by Eddie Izzard). Looking at this fighter one is never sure what he actually is but it works.
Please do not stay for the credits, there is no surprise at the end.
The film works for me because I believe the story that I am seeing and you see the whole of the men, with their flaws and all. It came across as people trying to save the day but not really sure how.
Please see it when you can.
Grade B
Opened in Korea 15 May 2008
who says you have to read the source novel before reviewing a movie? why should it be important whether the movie is faithful to the book? if a movie is good, then it's good regardless what the book was like. what's so hard to review?
What's with specifically urging people not to watch the end credits?? As a film industry professional, I have to say that's not cool thing to do. A few points:
1. Staying through the credits gives you time to "decompress" from the experience of a film.
2. Credits are counted as part of a film's running time, so if you leave during the credits, guess what? You really didn't see the whole movie, did you?
3. Even if the film wasn't a great one, the fact remains that a lot of people still worked very hard to make it. They didn't all drop the ball, and it is good to honor them by staying.
4. Plus, quite often, it gives you a chance to soak in the movie's score or music in the glory of multi-channel theater sound.
End credits easter eggs are gravy, not the reason to stay to the end.
agreed with jim on the credits
Also a faithful credit watcher here. Boo the the people that get up and flee at the sign of the end titles.
Actually often for the big blockbusters, the opening titles are now thrown at the end, yet another reason to stay.
Some particularly bad movies (300, Smokin' Aces) have pretty spectacular title sequences pushed to the back of the film.
Guys, guys. All I think Mike intended to say was that the credit sequence at the end of this one does not have any presents available for the non-credit watcher.
Me, I sometimes watch till the end, sometimes no. Depends on the mood, or music, bladder control, or amount of headache...
I do like it when an effort has been made to spice up the end credits a bit. Like 300 and Smoking Aces, Van Helsing had damn pretty ones so I made it a point to stay.
Kudos also for sneaking in ridiculous stuff like Flying High (Airplane), where after "best boy" it suddenly says "worst boy: Adolf Hitler".
Even then, peer pressure sometimes forces me out of the theater, when I'm watching a film not by myself but with friends.
Which is when Mike's warning is most appropriate I think:don't force friends to watch these end credits, as there will be nothing there for them.
The end credits of AN American Werewolf In London says something like: "All characters are fictional. Any similarities with the living, the dead and the undead are purely unintended."