(no subject)

[rynne]

We seem to have gone from winter into summer with only a very slight detour into spring. A few weeks ago it was still cold enough that I needed three blankets on my bed at night, and now it's bloody hot. And my car's air conditioning is acting up, which is not fun. I was driving home from my dance class today, all hot and sweaty 'cause, you know, dancing, and I had to practically hang my head out the window in order to get some cool air.

Anyway. Today I saw Prince Caspian.


I like the book better.

Peter's characterization totally bugged the hell out of me. Did not really see any King Peter the Magnificent there--I kept wanting him to be magnificent, and then he kept being stubborn and stupid and arrogant and sort of a dick. I want my High King back, thanks.

On that note, I hated the storm-Miraz's-castle scene. It was unnecessary, had no roots in the book, and made Peter look stupid and unreasonable. It seemed the only reason it was there was to play up the tension between Peter and Caspian--tension that wasn't there in the book.

It took a long time, too. If they really wanted to stretch the movie longer, why not, I don't know, give us some of Caspian's backstory from the book? I would have loved to see Caspian learning about Old Narnia from Cornelius (did they even mention his name in the movie?), rather than this gratuitous battle scene.

All of Peter's mistakes did leave me wanting Caspian to make a mistake, to make them more equal, and I guess going along with summoning the White Witch was it. I don't hate that scene the way I do the battle at Miraz's castle, but again, I didn't like how Peter also seemed to be mesmerized, and Edmund took care of everything. I do love Edmund, but this movie just really left me wondering why the hell Peter was High King, and called the Magnificent. It's not like Peter was perfect in the book--when they were trying to get to Aslan's Howe, he still didn't listen to Lucy--but he was a lot better than he was here.

Lucy calling Trumpkin the DLF--Dear Little Friend--did sound patronizing, like Trumpkin commented. And it wasn't that way in the book--or rather, Trumpkin patronized them first, so being patronizing back was sort of an in-joke. I don't think it would have been that hard to add Trumpkin's initial patronization, to make that scene less...bothersome, for lack of a better word.

I didn't mind them taking out most of the hiking around, and I was really glad that they kept Lucy's comment of "That's because our heads have something inside them" when Peter mentioned girls having no maps in their heads. Hee.

But another thing I didn't like was how Peter and Caspian met. In the book, it was when Nikabrik and the hag and the werewolf tried to summon the White Witch, and Peter and Edmund saved Caspian. Here, Peter and Caspian get into a fight. I guess the producers just really wanted that tension, didn't they? *sigh*

I actually did like most of the movie. Susan, Lucy, and Edmund were great, and I actually liked that final battle scene. But I just...really didn't like how Peter was characterized, and that's mostly what's sticking in my head.

Sometimes I think I need to stop seeing movies based on my favorite books. There are always changes, and I always get annoyed. :p

Now off to read the book again.

Comments

[thunderemerald.livejournal.com]

Hm, I sort of always thought the "DLF" thing was patronizing in the book -- not amusingly so, but irritatingly so. I wanted to stab the book a teensy bit every time it happened, and I wanted to stab the movie for leaving it in.

That's it, really...