The second of C. S. Lewis’ beloved Narnia novels, Prince Caspian, appeared in theaters last May. The movie presented an interesting problem to me and I felt I had to write about it. I watched the movie and liked it. But it wasn’t Prince Caspian. Or it was, but only in a failed sense.

Let’s begin with this observation: movies aren’t books and should not be judged accordingly. If we judge movies as if they are books, they will always seem inferior. Books can do things movies will never be able to do; however, the reverse is also true. Films have their own superiorities that cannot be ignored.

In the film category we call “adaptation” there is an intimate connection between books and movies. A movie adaptation must still be judged as a movie, but it is also judged for its attempt to adapt a book to the screen. To this end we talk about whether or not an adaptation is “faithful.” Faithfulness acknowledges that books and movies are not the same thing but that a movie has succeeded in being like the book it adapts in plot and spirit.

In adaptation, there are certainly times to diverge from a book, and the spirit or tone of a book can be kept even with additions and subtractions. Still there are movie adaptations that cause readers to wince. I think, for example, of the movie Troy which kills off Menolaus, one of the few survivors of the Trojan war. The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe was a faithful, if not perfect, movie adaptation of Lewis’ book. Prince Caspian is not.

Nevertheless, Caspian presents me with a dilemma: I liked Adamson’s movie; it just isn’t Lewis’ book. A good movie and a bad adaptation—what do I do with that? I decided I needed a new word for Adamson’s Prince Caspian—one that allows me to enjoy the film as a film and reject it as an adaptation. My friend Kyle suggested the word “resemblance,” and I went with it, suggesting to myself that a “failure” is a movie that claims to be an adaptation but isn’t and ruins our viewing experience; a “resemblance” is an attempted adaptation that takes too many liberties with the original but doesn’t completely ruin our viewing experience. We might say an adaptation is a movie faithful to the plot and spirit of the original book with the understanding that movies must adapt books into filmic conventions and aesthetics. Andrew Adamson’s Prince Caspian is not a successful adaptation, but it’s an entertaining movie. So I’ll call it a resemblance, allowing myself both to enjoy and criticize it.

I loved the quick start to the action in Narnia—the attempt on Caspian’s life while he looks on. I loved the introduction of Reepicheep—the unseen creature moving with menacing speed through the undergrowth. I loved the choreography for the fight sequences, especially Peter’s fight with Miraz and the fighting of the dwarfs. Setting, scenery, and costumes were wonderful. I liked how Lucy discovered the path Aslan wanted her to follow by falling through to it. I liked the humor, especially when it involved Reepicheep. And those double armed Telmarine catapults were, in this reviewer’s opinion, awesome!

I didn’t mind the kiss between Caspian and Susan, but it was certainly “Hollywoodish” and unnecessary. I liked the addition of a conflict for Peter—what would it be like to grow and be a king and then have to go back to being a boy in school? But accomplishing that addition drew the story too far from the original novel.

The scene involving the restoration of Reepicheep’s tail was stilted by stuttering non-Lewis dialog—hacked to pieces by the writers. Indeed, all Adamson’s Aslan seemed to be able to do was growl and repeat that “nothing happens the same way twice” (a phrase he repeated the same way twice). There were too few trees in the fight—their appearance a token of what the book describes. Additionally, there are two major failures in the film.

The reawakening of Narnia which makes up so much of the novel’s beauty was completely absent in the film. A bigger blunder was reducing the importance of Aslan. To claim to be an adaptation and yet leave the lion an almost unnecessary character in the story goes too far. Aslan’s primary role in the film was to growl loudly. He said little, and his best words were removed. It is the movie’s greatest failure.

Prince Caspian is an entertaining movie and a bad adaptation. So I will think of it as a resemblance. That way I can still find something in it to enjoy. That resolves my dilemma but I need to add one note: read the Prince Caspian book to your kids and grandkids. They need to get what the movie missed. |L

OTHER COLUMNS:
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August 9, 2010 - Looking at decades to come (part one)
July 25, 2010 - The calling
July 11, 2010 - A brief history of the Third Millennium [part two]
June 27, 2010 - Carpe chitchat
June 13, 2010 - A brief history of the Third Millennium (part one)
May 30, 2010 - Love your neighbor
May 16, 2010 - The most popular lies atheists tell (Part Three)
May 2, 2010 - Of lighthouses and stormy seas
April 18, 2010 - The most popular lies atheists tell (part two)
April 4, 2010 - Whose friend are we?
March 21, 2010 - The most popular lies atheists tell (part one)
March 7, 2010 - Vampires everywhere
February 21, 2010 - The new buzz in Narnia
February 7, 2010 - Counting the cost of influence
January 24, 2010 - Clone Wars:
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January 10, 2010 - Christians and Culture
December 23, 2009 - Bad Movies vs. Movies that Are Bad
December 6, 2009 - Unless they hear
November 22, 2009 - Why fighting for sexual truth still matters
November 8, 2009 - Why I believe in God
October 25, 2009 - Commuting in days of evil
October 11, 2009 - Poets and don’t know it
September 27, 2009 - How Hollywood proves abortion is wrong
September 13, 2009 - Significance
August 30, 2009 - Dance alternatives
August 16, 2009 - Gluttons for gossip
August 2, 2009 - Truth from Twilight
July 19, 2009 - Visitor-friendly churches
July 5, 2009 - The Shack
June 21, 2009 - When forgiveness fails
June 7, 2009 - Re-imagining Education (Part Six)
May 24, 2009 - We are not alone
May 3, 2009 - Re-imagining education (part five)
April 26, 2009 - Conviction
April 12, 2009 - Re-imagining education (part four)
March 29, 2009 - An evangelistic proposal
March 15, 2009 - Re-imagining education (part three)
March 1, 2009 - He makes me sick
February 15, 2009 - Re-imagining education (Part Two)
February 1, 2009 - Spiritual insecurity
January 18, 2009 - Re-imagining education (part one)
January 4, 2009 - Church and politics
December 21, 2008 - Heaven’s music
December 7, 2008 - The church and marriage
November 23, 2008 - God and the president
November 9, 2008 - A time for courage
October 12, 2008 - What’s that noise?
September 28, 2008 - Modesty matters (part two)
September 14, 2008 - All it takes is some TLC
August 31, 2008 - Modesty matters (part one)
August 17, 2008 - What would you fight for?
August 3, 2008 - Staying through the credits
July 20, 2008 - Honor to whom honor
July 6, 2008 - Tyler Perry and the movies you’re missing
June 22, 2008 - The peaceable kingdom
May 25, 2008 - Another generation grew up
May 25, 2008 - Technology and the Bible (part two)
May 11, 2008 - Technology and the Bible (part one)
April 27, 2008 - What is truth?
April 13, 2008 - And the geek shall inherit the earth
March 30, 2008 - A charactered God
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February 17, 2008 - The college choice (part one)
February 5, 2008 - Ten suggestions for a godly standard of living
January 20, 2008 - Expelled: that “Bueller” guy’s pro-God movie
January 6, 2008 - Choosing a lifestyle
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December 9, 2007 - Owners or stewards?
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October 28, 2007 - Navigating under the radar
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July 8, 2007 - Why books matter: the sequel
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May 27, 2007 - The universal gospel
May 13, 2007 - Loving Muslims through culture
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April 1, 2007 - The gospel goes to the movies
March 18, 2007 - What the Bible movies can teach us
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January 21, 2007 - When fairy tales are true
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August 27, 2006 - The painful truth
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July 30, 2006 - Christian counter culture
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