regarding caspian

today i joined the mounds of lewis fans who crowded theatres to consume this summer's ration of narnia chronicles. i wanted to write out a few of my reflections, both positive and negative. if you've seen it, please weigh in!

bad news first... my top 10 issues:
10) romance between susan and caspian. just no. ok?
9) no real "repentance" scene for susan and peter, which was internally consistent (see 5, below) but sad. i love aslan in that scene.
8) competitive tension between peter and caspian. this was explicitly not the case in the book: peter assured the telmarine heir that the pevensies were just there to help, and that he had no ambitions to the throne.
7) along the same lines, an uber-ambitious, vengeful caspian. who is this guy? in the book he never imagined launching an attack on miraz until the centaur called for it. he wasn't enough of a kid here.
6) two words: mexican standoff. oh, four more and some punctuation: are you kidding me?!?!?!!?
5) the decision not to follow lucy's vision of aslan was treated very lightly, which was quite disappointing. this was a crisis in the book, almost a crucible for the pevensies.
4) the ecological bent of lewis' work was tragically underplayed. all but gone gone was the telmarine fear of trees and water, which was to be contrasted with the narnian way. there was some depiction of telmarine industry, but this wasn't enough for me.
3) dropping this line: "you come from lord adam and lady eve, and that is both honor enough to erect the head of the poorest beggar, and shame enough to bow the shoulders of the greatest emperor on earth. be content.”
2) dropping this line: "wouldn't it be dreadful if some day, in our own world, at home, men started going wild inside, like the animals here, and still looked like men so that you’d never know which were which?"
1) not enough cuddling with aslan. i'm not kidding.

nice changes:
- including the white witch. i'm more than ok with it, 'cause it revealed important things. and because ed was the one to deal with it, and that seemed to heal up some issues from lw&w
- "for narnia" vs. "for aslan" - sweet and very much in keeping with lewis' themes. i like it very, very much.

ambivalence:
- the battle at the telmarine castle. just not sure how i feel about that change.

criage:
- war freaking tears me up right now. when the gate came down after that battle? i cried and cried. just bad. there's prolly another note coming about that.