Willian MoseleyAnna Popplewell
Skandar Keynes
Georgie Henley
These names might not be familiar with you, but when we were talking about the Pevensies, they are the actors and actresses that play the Pevensies siblings - Peter, Susan, Edmund, and Lucy respectively. Yes, the sons of Adam and the daughters of Eve were back! The second movie installation of Narnia is out.
The story began as it ended in The Lion, The Witch, And The Wardrobe, where the Pevensies were back from Narnia to the real world. One Earth-year has passed, but that is equivalent to 1,300 Narnian years. In Narnia, the creatures were almost extinct, and the Telmarines, led by the legendary King Caspian I, has conquered Narnia. Now, King Miraz (Sergio Castellitto), uncle of Prince Caspian X (Ben Barnes), was the de facto monarch, and was blessed with a newborn baby boy. Since Miraz had his own heir, he was all out kill his own nephew and usurp his throne. With the help of Doctor Cornelius the tutor (Vincent Grass), Prince Caspian had to flee for his life, away from his throne which he rightfully owned. During the pursuit, he blew Queen Susan's horn, summoning the Kings and Queens of old - the Pevensies. magically transported from Earth to Narnia in a train station, the Pevensies found themselves in a realm unknown, or rather the ruined future of narnia they once ruled. Now the Pevensies have to look for the one who summoned them - Prince Caspian, so that the latter could regain his kingdom and restore peace to ten land of Narnia. However, how could they do so, since Narnians are almost extinct and vastly outnumbered by Miraz's army? Do they need to call upon the mystical and mysterious Aslan, the mighty creator of Narnia? How? How would ever he reappear, since he was so remote? Or was he really so?
The first movie was filmed in 2002, and released in 2005. During the release of The Lion, the 'kids' were aged 18, 17, 14, and 10 respectively. Now, three years later... you do the maths. In Caspian, Skandar Keynes' voice obviously broke, and I could hardly recognize Georgie Henley! Wow! That was what "one year" had done to them (The Lion and Caspian was set one Earth-year apart).
Nevertheless, this movie has the Andrew Adamson feel. I mean, both background and environment settings, as well as the atmosphere, are more or less the same. Just like the Chris Columbus feel in the first two Harry Potter movies. Too bad the third installation: The Voyage of the Dawn Treader (scheduled to release in 2010), is not going to be directed by Adamson anymore! Which means, The Voyage might appear lousy. And I wonder how much more the "Pevensies" could have changed/grown!
I was watching the movie with my non-Christian colleagues. And, immediately after the movie, one of my colleagues started to ask questions about why the story was set like that. Then I answered: It is simply because it is related to Christianity. Okay, further elaboration of our conversation will lead to spoilers. Nevertheless, later on the same day I realized that the Bible quote 2 Chronicles 7:14 was in a way elaborated in this movie. And, indeed, Christians could quickly relate Aslan to the Lion of Judah!
Of course, being a Disney movie, certain characters that are not deserved to die will not die in the end. Nevertheless, talking about a war between Narnians and Telmarines, it was expected to have body counts and casualties during the battles. And, Disney had all its way to make all animals, particularly the minute ones, "cute"!! Yesss... to those who have watched it, yes, I mean Reepicheep the talking mouse!!
And mind you, Warwick Davis was indeed cast in the movie. He had taken a role totally different from his past roles. No more Willow, no more Leprechaun, no more Professor Flitwick. He's Nikabrik the black-Dwarf, who stood by Prince Caspian, fighting against Miraz, but... not gonna mention here lest spoiler leaks.
A slightly below nine out of ten is my rating. Again, this movie would be one that I would not mind watching more than once.
No comments:
Post a Comment