_The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian_

Deb, Hannah and I saw the movie together tonight, and we all enjoyed it.

The story worked (almost completely-- much better than many adaptations I've seen), and the plot turns and complications were believably managed. Even though it would have been more interesting-- in my opinion-- to see more development of the Narnian characters along with the action sequences (can a brother get an on-screen conversation between King Edmund and a Gryphon, pleeeease?!), the dramatic tension and the heroic responses to risk and danger were effectively conveyed. Good stuff!

I was impressed by the one obvious (there may have been others which I didn't pick up on) story "change" which involved a brief appearance of a previously dispatched arch-enemy (like I said: obvious), but I was very, very, very impressed by one significant storytelling choice which had been a concern since I heard that the books would be adapted to film.

This concern wasn't my idea, but I picked up the burden of it as soon as other critics and commentators pointed it out.

The issue? What could be done about Lewis' presumably fairly innocent-at-the-time choice to cast the Telmarine and/or Calormen with a more or less Arabic cultural framework to avoid any unnecessary or clumsy suggestion of racially volatile references to contemporary radical Muslim concerns?

The solution (at least with the Telmarines)? Go late-medieval Spaniard instead. I think it was a low-level stroke of genius. The Conquistador flavor worked perfectly as a counterpoint to Narnian culture, and the "conquering pirate" culture of the Telmarines fits nicely inside the whole historical spectrum of everything from the Spanish Armada to Cortez and friends.

I will wait with eagerness to see what others have to say about this nuancing of Lewis' original material.

The other ingenius allusion? The commercials and trailers show the "water-demiurge" figure, so this isn't really a spoiler ...

Think Neptune meets Moses and the Egyptian army at the Red Sea. I'll be eager to see the response to this part of the film, too. Will it be considered subtle and creative or heavy-handed and cliche? A case can be made for both perspectives, but I lean heavily toward the subtle and creative.

I'm almost glad that some of the early reviews were a bit mixed and/or downbeat about the film, because I came away feeling that it was much, much better than I had been expecting.

It was enjoyable to see, and it will be interesting and meaningful to see again.

On a totally different note: I was reminded of one of my favorite quotes from the book when it was used in the scene at the river as Lucy tried to engage a bear in conversation. After the action was concluded, "DLF" (is that an intentional distortion of "ELF"?) says, "Get treated like a dumb animal long enough, and that's what you'll become." Very, very true, and not just in Narnia ...