As I recently outlined (in part 1), the three Narnia films (“The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe,” “Prince Caspian,” and “The Voyage of the Dawn Treader”) offered fans and casual viewers much to enjoy. The story, casting and technical elements were generally good, and I’d argue that overall the films got more right than they got wrong. Having reviewed five highlights of the Narnia trilogy, its time to take a look at the lowlights.
Here are my thoughts, in no particular order:
Prunaprismia in Childbirth. An early newspaper ad for the Narnia films said, “There are a thousand stories in the land of Narnia.” True. There are also at least a thousand ways to begin a Narnia movie, and depicting a woman in childbirth is not now, nor should it ever be, one of them. Remember the scream, that zoom in shot on Prunaprismia’s sweaty face? At that moment I knew the Narnia films might have gone off the rails. (Silly me.) Would it really have been that difficult to show Caspian learning about Narnia? To wedge the Nurse character into the film? Even Andrew Adamson jokes about PC’s opening on the director/cast commentary. You really have to wonder what he was thinking.
The Disastrous Plot Contrivance. Ah, yes, the arrogantly-conceived, poorly-executed “romance” between Prince Caspian and Susan. I say “arrogant” because it is one of several instances throughout the films (especially in PC and VDT) where the director either felt he knew better than Lewis or believed it was necessary to plaster Hollywood sensibilities on a classic piece of literature. Lewis didn’t drum up any physical attraction between Caspian and Susan in the book, likely because he knew it would stick out like a sore thumb. Also, it wasn’t really necessary to the story (but then again, if they’re going to invent villains, why not romance?). Not surprisingly, the glances, dumb jokes and the so-bad-its-impossible-to-describe kiss between Caspian and Susan looked terribly out of place in the film version of PC. And it wasn’t even realistic. What teenage girl wants her first kiss with a particular boy to be on full display in front of her two brothers, her little sister, hundreds of strangers and a messianic lion? (Especially one who exhibits some antisocial traits at the beginning of the film?)
The Green Mist. “There’s no villain in Dawn Treader.” Various people attached to VDT repeated this truism about a million times. While the book does lack a villain, that does not by itself require that one be added. Was there a villain in “Forrest Gump?” Who was the enemy in “Where the Wild Things Are”? Was a bad guy (girl) really that central to the plot of “Bridge to Terabithia”? Let’s go even further back: Did “My Girl” have an antagonist? But if you insist, and if you’re going to pull forward material from SC, why not go all out and bring in the Lady of the Green Kirtle? The hybrid attempt – using the White Witch from LWW and PC, but using the literal color of the villain from SC – just doesn’t compute. I’ve inadvertently skipped some of the green mist scenes while watching the VDT Blu-ray, and you know what? I like the film better. I didn’t stand up and exclaim, “Why are they sailing?! What’s the point?!” The CGI on the mist was not the best, either. (And speaking of green concepts that don’t belong, PC is not about global warming or environmentalism. Someone memo that to Andrew Adamson. The trees in PC were not fighting back over carbon emissions, nor were the ents from “Lord of the Rings.” Some of Adamson’s revelations on the director’s commentary for PC are downright strange.)
Longing for Longing. There were a lot of characters in VDT – too many, because all of them needed servicing. In a fast-paced film of less than two hours, the unfortunate but inevitable result was “mile wide, inch deep” character development. Very early in the film, Reepicheep expositions to Lucy that he longs to see Aslan’s country. Excellent; this is a clue that the screenwriters actually read the book. But viewers aren’t treated to anything further on the mouse’s lifelong yearning until the film is almost over. I half expected Aslan to say “This is the entrance to my country, which Reep here mentioned two acts ago.” And another thing. Caspian doesn’t say much about wanting to be a better king, but he suddenly promises to be one at the end of VDT. Huh? And that brings me to …
Repetition. Have you noticed that all three Narnia films take advantage of an overused device in the final act, i.e. the breakaway? During battles in LWW, PC and VDT the on-screen action stops in order to show a tender moment involving Aslan. There’s nothing wrong with that in principle, but it does get old after seeing it in ALL THREE MOVIES at roughly the same point in the story’s progression. While we’re at it, Caspian promises to be a better king twice, but why? I get his promise at the end of PC, but VDT? Just an hour and a half earlier, Caspian informed Edmund and Lucy that all of Narnia was at peace. Caspian also had the foresight to keep Edmund from monetizing the goods on Deathwater Island. Sounds like a good king to me.
And there you have it! Add your thoughts in the comments section…
I love the Narnia movies. If I place them in the order of my favorites I would have to go with VDT, LWW and PC. I love Ben Barnes but in PC there was too much combat with our heroes only getting little 3 corner cuts on their faces. The most ridiculous parts were the number of men shooting arrows into Caspians bed to leave him to “die in his sleep” like his father did, the men leaving Caspian behind to take one Narnian back to the castle,and then rowing out to the middle of the river to drown him instead of outright killing him. Really silly.
Well, the rowing was in the book (and there was some explanation of it there), so the filmmakers shouldn’t be blamed for that.
And of course the ultimate “low” is the lack of four further Narnia films…
You’re right; the battle/conflict is in the book. But Pat makes a good point about “corner cuts.” All the Narnia films had battles that were too clean. And check out the uniforms worn by the Dawn Treader’s crew. Unless someone was doing laundry on the ship (at sea, mind you), those uniforms stayed just a little too clean!
i totally agree with you bout the ultimate “low” part
I especially agree with the lats one. Another obvious example of repetition was Edmund and the White Witch in VDT, only this was more regression. Why does Edmund seem to fear her even though he clearly showed he overcame her in Prince Caspian?
The White Witch stabbed Edmund – nearly fatally – in LWW. That is the type of event that one doesn’t forget.
I agree with everything.
I agree with all of these points on both posts, except maybe the White Witch, who I thought had kind of a lukewarm performance. I was particularly annoyed with the contrived romance in PC, and the ways that VDT strayed from the book: I would add the overkill of Lucy’s jealousy of Susan’s looks, the absence of Eustace’s “baptismal” healing by Aslan, and the Ghostbusters moment in which Edmund’s imagination produces the sea serpent.
But even though I’m sounding like a crank here, I really do wish they would continue making the films. The cinematography really was fabulous, and where the films do stay true to the books they do it just right.
As much as I like Andrew Adamson’s work he has so many holes in the details of his films. In LWW if one looks at a map of Narnia one will notice that the Pevencies cross the falls in the wrong direction and after the coronation the Sun sets in the east. There are many more.
Michael Apted makes many mistakes too. Edmund and Lucy have lived in Narnia. They should know about dragons. The whole discovery of Eustace changed to a dragon was completely mishandled. When Reep is fighting the dragon at the top of the mast, he goes from being right-handed to left-handed. The whole movie is about Reep the swashbuckling mouse and the undragoning of Eustace and the big battle. The movie plays down the maturing of Caspian and Lucy. In the book Lucy becomes a woman and is not tricked by the beauty temptation. She is tricked by the eavesdropping temptation which is more logical. Caspian becomes a great king. I really think that Caspian and Lucy got screwed by this movie. The book was so much better.
On the whole I do think that all three films were good films. It is just that the books were better.
I have to say I prefer the books by far. And yes, while there was no physical antagonist in VDT, in the book there was conflict. And conflict is all that you need to make a good story. While I enjoyed all the films thus far, and know they hit the key points, the minor changes made, and lack of true character development left me unsatisfied…
Personally, I enjoyed the books way better than the films. I also think that they could have picked better books to make the films, ones that they might have not had the urge to change the story line completely. I still enjoy the films though, although that might just be because they introduced me to Ben Barnes…
I agree with all the points except one, The Green Mist. I think it was necessary to an extent. I just think they dealt with it wrong. In other words, The Green Mist itself isn’t the problem, it is how they portrayed it in the movie. If they did it right, it would have been an excellent addition to the movie.
Yes. It’s not the mist by itself that’s the problem, but the execution. It would have made more sense to bring more plot points from “Silver Chair” into VDT…explain this mist, where the people are disappearing to, etc. This approach would have made a better transition into a film version of “Silver Chair.”
And it would also build excitement for The Silver Chair, making the series more popular.
The first two movies were great, voyage was a disappointment. I was so looking forward to Voyage. I think Voyage is the best story in the book series, but weakest of the movies. I want to see the series continued and maybe a do over on Voyage. No green mist. No messing with the island order. No white witch. I love Narnia. They are my favorite book series. As good or better than Harry Potter. The movies should be the same.
You’ve nailed it.
I will say this just once to ‘Mike’. All films have a life of their own independent of their book source. C.S.Lewis would have known this hence the reason why it is my understanding that he was completely opposed to the Narnia books being turned into films. Given enough time I would have thought that the first two films will also be released in 3-D (and why not?). Given even more time I would also have thought that a different technology will come along that will make it financially viable for the rest of the books to be turned into good quality films.
I totally agree on the romance part! 😛 Otherwise, I love every part of the Narnia films!:D
is too BAD!!!!!! WE HAVE TO WAIT TO MUCH FOR A POSIBILITY OF SEEING ANOTHER NARNIA MOVIE it make me SAD!!! i really enjoy every single movie even with the additions from the romance wich i think was cute to see the witch over and over again but still these movies make me fan for life i like the books but for me the movies are better sorry but that how it works for me and i think im not the only one cuz’ this literature is not popular in foring countrys, and this was the only way to be a part of this amazing world SO PLEASE !!! DONT MAKE US WAIT TO LONG CUZ PROBABLY WILL BE TOO LATE the good think is theres more people everyday like it on facebook that say a lot !!!!!!!!!1
I rather liked the opening scene of Prince Caspian. Tarva and Alambil and then Prunaprismia in childbirth was a great and dramatic introduction, I believe.
The Susan/Caspian kiss was the worst thing in the serries.
When the lady was screaming in the start of prince caspian, she was really representing some Narnia fans after they saw VDT in the theatre 🙂
I also wished they would have left the kiss out and added more romance (or the wedding) w/ Romandus daughter. Can’t wait until they finally make more films. But I know will have to wait a little bit.
Ah…relief! These things that have pestered me in my mind are put out in the open! I definitely agree with all of these…hopefully, if they make another movie, they’ll do a better job. 🙂
Ha, I feel like I can breathe now. 😛
I watched all the 3 movies before I read the books, and I loved all of them, especially LWW.
Now I’m reading the books, and I find it funny and quite interesting to see the differences bettwen the movies and the books, and it keeps the reading interesting for the ones who already saw the movies, you don’t know exactly what happens in the books just by watching the movies, and also the other way around.
But I guess I understand the disapointment of the people who started out with the books and became real fans of them.
I do understand Gresham wanting to go independent. Disney tried to remove most of the Christianity. At least Fox left some of it in. Dawn Treader was about redemption so strongly and was so Christian in its allegorical style that you couldn’t bury it and Disney most certainly would have. Walden tried to, even when they had more latitude with Fox.
I think Gresham wants to move closer to the books. Perhaps a reboot like Superman keeps doing. I liked the Pevensie kids and Caspian. I missed Eddie Izzard as Reep in Dawn Treader – cross-dressing agnostic that he is. Hey, why not? We’ve got some kind of Buddhist as Aslan’s voice trying to say Aslan is not Christ.
I think Gresham should get his ducks in a row and make the whole series as an organized whole one after another like Peter Jackson did with LOTR and now is doing with The Hobbit.
I don’t mind some alteration in the storyline so that it works better on film. That’s part of film-making. I didn’t even mind the “kiss” that gives everyone so much trouble. Lewis was not big on romance anyway and came very late to it himself. He gave a head bob to it in the thing with Ramandu’s daughter, but even then it was a kind of “understanding” between them. It’s really the only missing element in the whole series. I could live with some help there. Lewis probably could have too. His late-coming to love was none the less passionate for all that. It would have been interesting to see how differently he might have done the Narnia books after he married Joy Gresham.
I say, let’s let Doug Handle it and trust his wisdom (and throw in some prayers while we’re all at it). I really want to see the whole series done.
I’m glad they were relatively respectful of Tolkien’s work too, though he buried the Christian message far better than Lewis did, but it was so much the core of the story that they could not root it out with a backhoe. Good on ya, J.R.R.!