After our fellowship on Saturday, no less than 84 of us went to watch The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian at Lido. Our fellowship ended close to 7.30pm, and immediately all of us rushed from Bugis to Lido for the 815pm movie. Most of us reached there around 8.05-8.10pm, quickly queued for whatever junk food there are at Shaw House I settled for two pieces of Bread Talks.
After all the adverst, the movie started proper close to 8.30pm, and here’s what I thought about the movie.
Warning: potential spoiler ahead.
The movie started as many movies, not as fast, to get the story into the audience. Some messages were sent across fine, like when Narnians can’t fight themselves, no matter what kind of tactics they employ, without the help of Aslan. It was made very clear in the movie, the moment Aslan came into the movie, how he reversed the battle for Narnians, from the position of almost losing to a clear victory. The message drive across was like our lives, no matter how much, how hard we tried to do things in our lives, without God, we will fighting a losing battle.
The second important point that the movie tried to send across, but probably didn’t succeed as good. After the movie, I felt that it’s though Aslan left Narnians to their own fight and Aslan was nowhere to be found in Narnians. The truth is Aslan was there in Narnia all along. It’s just that Narnians refused to believe that Aslan exists, and thus unable to see him. Similarly in our lives, it’s not that God doesn’t exist. He exists whether you believe in Him or not, but until you believe in Him, you’ll not be able to “see” Him.
Some sentences spoken were changed in the movie from the book, losing some important message in the process. I’ll just quote from Stand to Reason blog, who mentioned this fact too.
Changes in two key lines from the book greatly weaken his character. The first one happens when Lucy finally meets Aslan face to face. She remarks to him that he’s bigger. In the film, Aslan says that every year she gets bigger, so shall he get bigger. But here’s the actual interchange in the book:
“Aslan,” said Lucy, “you’re bigger.”
“That is because you are older, little one,” answered he.
“Not because you are?”
“I am not. But every year you grow, you will find me bigger.”
This is actually a very profound idea and one of my favorite moments in the book. When we deepen with age and experience, we’re able to see further into the rich depths of God, and our understanding and awe of His greatness grows. It’s very clear in the book that the change is happening all on Lucy’s side, but the film leaves the impression that Aslan has changed (whether that was what they intended or not)
The second change is even worse (being more explicit) and involves another of the ideas most memorable to me–one that recurs throughout the series. In the book, when Lucy realizes she’s failed to do something she should have–and could have–done, she asks Aslan what would have happened had she done what was right: “Please, Aslan! Am I not to know?” Aslan responds powerfully, “No. Nobody is ever told that.” Aslan has authority and perfect wisdom–rebelling against his command has consequences, and Lucy’s not doing what he had revealed for her to do causes new difficulties for everyone. But make no mistake, Aslan is quite aware of what would have happened had she obeyed. Compare this to the film version where Aslan’s response to Lucy’s plea is: “We can never know what would have happened.” We? Yikes! I’m not a fan of open-theist (open-lionist?) Aslan. These changes are small–just a few lines here and there, but they have huge implications that weaken Aslan.
The last part when Susan kisses Caspian was the worst part of the movie. I agree, a simple kiss on the hand will be much more noble and romantic.
Overall, the movie was good for 2.5 hours, I didn’t even feel the movie was that long. Despite all my criticism above, it’s a good movie. It’s just that some subtle changes to the sentences and the movie, that weaken Aslan, in turn weaken the movie message compared to the book.
Highly recommended. FOUR stars from me.
