Prince Caspian: Reviews and Reactions Thread

[aramis109]

Originally Posted by Josh

To me, the first two films in the series were both mediocre. I continue to see way too many allusions towards Lord of the Rings, which is sad because they are two very different stories (even though they were written by friends).

Peter Jackson had an detailed universe with stories that represented thousands of years of history. Even by going epic, he still had to remove parts and pieces to make the film manageable. Whereas Adamson has these quick stories with not a lot of detail, and is trying to build them to epic proportions, and even worse, by emulating Jackson. I don't blame him for it (you're not going to keep an audience awake without tons of drama and action), but maybe this property just can't lend itself well to film.

Of course, that is what they said about LOTR for the longest time (even Tolkien), and look what happened there...

While I disagree that they're mediocre (I enjoy watching them with my family quite a bit) I do agree with the rest of what you're saying. However, I don't think this is a fault of the directors, but what the original author was doing. If I recall correctly, Tolkein and Lewis actually taught at school together and talked about what they were working on. Lewis decided to do a similar story to Tolkein but to do it more for children and to write it with more of a Christian slant. Hence, the simpler story.

Tolkein, honestly, went way overboard. The man wrote out and created his own written languages (elvish, for one). He wrote thousands of years of history into his stories. Not many people can compete with that level of dedication and single-mindedness.