And the Narnians fought back in the Box Office
By bluepanjeet on Jun 19, 2008 in Reel Meaning
I haven’t read CS Lewis’ Chronicles of Narnia’s seven books before, so I really have no idea of the flow of some of the sequels of the first book. Watching the first widescreen installation of Narnia years ago on the other hand gave me a starter info on the storyline of the whole series. But yesterday, I went to the cinema to watch the second installation of this Disney Movie entitled Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian. I have to admit that I love the story of CS Lewis work because of its many parallels to the Gospel. But Disney’s version of “The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe” was very cheesy for my taste at that time. So I never had the excitement to even blog about it. Yet “Prince Caspian” caught my attention during the cinema break when I watched Iron Man last month, so I made a date with myself in watching this movie which just concluded yesterday. I have this weird habit of watching movies in cinemas: whenever I like the movie very much and wanted to understand the story, I go to cinemas alone. Hehe. I hate it when people bug me or interrupt me especially when I am carefully listening to the lines of the characters and watching the development of the plot. I also watch during the opening show at 11:00 am so that I have plenty of time to watch it over and over again if ever i didn’t understand the movie the first time. That is the reason why nobody wants to go with me in the movies because I’m a freak! sarap kaya matulog sa sinehan haha
Anyhow, the story started when Prince Caspian blew the horn and called the Pevensie siblings back to the land of Narnia. After 1300 years, Peter, Susan, Edmund and Lucie came back to Narnia only to find out that it was invaded by humans, and the Narnians (minotaurs, centaurs, beasts animals etc) were driven out of their kingdom. The four siblings came back to help Prince Caspian in dethroning his murderous uncle King Miraz. The first attempt was to attack the Castle of King Miraz but the plan failed because Caspian was more swayed by his emotions other than the objective of the siege. In this scenario, the friction between Prince Caspian and Peter (high King) grew worse that almost made the former a clueless accomplice for the reincarnation of the White Queen. During the height of Peter and Caspian’s conflict, the army of King Miraz crossed the river and arrived in their lair with thousands of cavaliers, pike men and battle machines, enthused in destroying them permanently. But with the bravery of Peter, he single-handedly defeated King Miraz in a face-off as Lucie runs for help to Aslan’s whereabouts. As the defeated King was given the second chance to live, his men however betrayed him otherwise by stabbing him with one of Susan’s arrows, thus plummeting the Narnians into another battle with the Humans. But the resolve came when Aslan arrived together with a battalion of Giant trees that drove the enemies to the river. The humans met their defeat as the spirit of the water engulfed some of their legion alive.
On the technical side of the Movie, the Editing was good, the story line fair and the cinematography was amazing especially the shots wherein they showed the flight of the Narnian’s arrows going towards the human targets and the crawling roots of the trees under the battle field that crushed the trebuchets (stone throwing machines). The acting was more convincing this time compared to the previous movie.
But what is interesting about this movie is that it is not just a fantasy film because its very obvious that there are so many biblical parallels injected in it. To name a few, the allusion of the the Red sea swallowing the pharoah’s army during the crossing of the humans in the bridge, the kingdom of God being seen only by children and those who have child-like faith when Lucie saw Aslan and the others did not, and the impatience of the disciples on the coming of the Kingdom of God when Peter said to his siblings that they have waited long enough. Other significant lessons that can also be traced on the movie are:
- Relativity of time in which God stays the same no matter how much time has elapsed.
- God chooses the most foolish and the most unexpected as witnessed in the scene of the mouse being able to vanquish enemies bigger than him, and the disappointment of Narnians when they saw thow young the King and Queens which will lead them.
- Faith is not a consensus but a personal conviction. When Lucie saw Aslan, no one believed her intead they have put it into a vote, which at the end of the story, Lucie was vindicated with her belief.
- Reflects our own world filled with doubt, despair and incredulity through various modes of skepticism, narcissism, intellectualism, elitism etc. We should not waver of faith in times like this.
- Lose fear for God is always with us.
Yet the most striking lesson of all is about “faith with action” that has been very evident in the latter part of the movie. While the absence of Aslan actually crippled the Narnians in their fight with the humans, Peter and the rest however managed to defend their abode from the army of King Miraz independently until the time that help came. It is worthy to note that some of us actually hold on to faith as if it is the very source of our lives, yet it only remains in words for our action speaks otherwise. True faith is not done by words alone but by works also.
Some of trivia about the movie are as follows:
- Originally supposed to be released in 2007.
- Ben Barnes was acting in the play “The History Boys” when he was offered the title role.
- Actor Warwick Davis (Nikabrik) portrayed the characters Reepicheep and Glimfeather in the BBC productions of Prince Caspian and the Voyage of the Dawn Treader (1989) (TV) and The Silver Chair (1990) (TV)
- During filming, Georgie Henley (Lucy) lost two baby teeth. A bridge had to be created to fill in the gaps.
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