“So you're bravely refusing to fight a swordsman half your age?”

2008 saw the return of the Chronicles of Narnia, with Prince Caspian, the next story in the lives of the Pevensie kids. Slightly older and a lot more interested in raising the stakes, the movie was either praised or criticized as a departure from The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe. So where does RMWC stand? Read on, gentle visitor, read on…

Plot
Though the Pevensie kids have only been gone from Narnia for about one Earth year, two thousand or so Narnia years have passed, and the neighborhood’s changed. A group of humans descended from pirates who’ve got a bit of a Spanish flair have somehow managed to wander into Narnia and conquered a huge chunk of it. Calling themselves the Telmarines, they’re very much interested in internecine political maneuvering, backstabbing and making sure the local Narnians are good and dead. The rightful heir of the Telmarines, Caspian, is forced to flee for his life when his wicked uncle’s not particularly wicked wife gives birth to a son, meaning Caspian’s got no protection at court. His old tutor gives him some equipment, including an ancient horn that is supposed to summon the heroes of yore. As the prince flees, he gets injured, blows the horn and gets rescued by some Narnians.

The horn blast eventually catches up with the Pevensie kids in a London Underground station and sucks them back to Narnia, where they find that things have changed a lot and are trying to adjust to/do something about the new status quo. Eventually meeting up with Caspian’s growing rebellion, the Pevensies are swept up in not just a Telmarine dynastic dispute, but also a battle against the extinction of the mythological Narnians themselves.

Characters
Peter Pevensie: William Mosely is back as the eldest Pevensie, and you know, that stuff I said about him being kind of a jerk in the last movie? Peter’s gotten worse. Now’s he’s picking fights in the London Underground with little provocation. When they get back to Narnia, he gets even worse. First, and this isn’t that bad, he immediately resumes his title and attitude as “High King Peter” and automatically demands that every Narnian he meets acknowledges this, despite the several hundred years having passed and a new generation of Narnians going “So you’re the High King? Prove it.” And prove it he does, by pigheadedly leading his army into an ambush and a costly defeat, then displaying his rather lacking swordsmanship in a duel to the death, and then leading his army into another battle that is a lot like the one from the first movie: a sure defeat without intervention from a more capable ally. In this movie, Peter’s a really unlikable dick.

Susan Pevensie: Anna Popplewell is back as the smart Pevensie, and this time around, she’s starting to discover boys. A Telmarine boy, to be specific. She’s fine as a character and gets some fun development as the whole awkward young crushes thing happens.

Lucy Pevensie: Georgie Henley is back as the cute Pevensie. She’s the one keeping the faith for Aslan’s return in this movie, though there are moments where it seems like the character is less “keeping the faith” and more “traveling to Cloudkookooland.”

Edmund Pevensie: Skandar “Future Viking” Keynes returns as Edmund, and Edmund is awesome in this film. The events of the last movie have sorted him out and here, he’s shown as a better swordsman than Peter, a skilled diplomat, and well prepared for any eventuality (which usually means pulling Peter’s fat out of the fire). In this movie, Edmund is the competent one, and that makes him the runner-up of badass.

Prince Caspian: Ben Barnes is the Telmarine Prince on the run, and despite having a fairly weak Spanish accent, does a pretty good job of things. His arc is all about finding the Narnians, coming to grips with them and eventually coexisting with them as he tries to take his rightful throne. He’s definitely the prime mover of the movie, and you know, he’s likable. He’s also more than willing to call Peter out on his bullshit.

King Miraz: Sergio Castellitto is a great villain as the duplicitous and weasely Miraz. See, he can’t really make a move on the throne without an heir. Basically, Caspian’s got the poison, but then the King has the remedy when his wife gives birth to a son. Complicated and amoral, Miraz uses Caspian’s disappearance as a pretext for going to war against the remaining Narnians. Miraz also has a fantastically treacherous support staff of nobles and generals that are constantly giving each other meaningful glances behind his back as he prepares to make his final move for power. Its obvious that they hate their boss, and they’ve got some real personality.

Now, a brief aside on the Telmarines themselves. I really liked them. They were great mooks that combined a Roman Imperial and Spanish Conquistador look and really just seemed like regular guys in snappy uniforms. They’re also pretty industrious, like the Romans, and are capable of not only building an impressive wooden bridge in a hurry, but also developing rapid fire trebuchets. As far as mooks go, its easy to sympathize with them, and almost admire them too, if not for the whole “stamp out mysticism/mythology with the monochrome boot of industry” thing.

Trumpkin & Nikabrik: Peter Dinklage and Warwick Davis respectively play two dwarves buddies that get separated by the events of the beginning. Trumpkin gets rescued from some Telmarines by the Pevensies and becomes their deadpan, begrudging guide with some great lines. Nikabrik meets up with Prince Caspian and really resents the Telmarine (actually, he’s really just resentful of everything)

Aslan: Liam Neeson is back as the voice of the allegorical Christ Figure, but isn’t in it much.

The White Witch: Tilda Swinton returns for a very brief, but very creepy scene where Caspian is tempted to turn to her power to defeat his enemies.

Reepicheep: And now, the badass-est for last. Edgy, occasionally dress wearing comedian Eddie Izzard voices the chivalrous and psychopathic warrior mouse who kills more people in single combat than just about anybody else. Seriously, he’s awesome as he makes fun of the Telmarines for having no imagination in their reactions to seeing him, right before he slits their throats.

Visuals/Effects
Andrew Adamson is back in the director’s chair, and the movie has a much surer footing than the last one. Visually, the pacing is much improved and the tone is murkier. The stakes are clear from the very beginning, and while the movie never forgets the whimsy that marked the first movie, it goes for a darker visual look that fits the scheming politics that undercut the movie.

Visually, the land of Narnia still brings a lot of wonder and whimsy. The CGI animal characters are much improved, and the centaurs & fauns are still greatly realized, and this time around Minotaurs also get some great screen time. Battles are eye catching and the action is generally improved over the first installment.

Writing
Andrew Adamson, Christopher Markus & Stephen McFeely seem more comfortable with tinkering with C.S. Lewis’ work this time. I understand a little bit more has been changed from the book to film transition, which I’ll admit is probably necessary since they are two different storytelling mediums. It worked for Lord of the Rings.

Sound
Harry Gregson-Williams returns to the soundtrack, composing another great score and also voicing a squirrel in the movie.That's a sentence I never thought I'd write.

Conclusion
I liked Prince Caspian quite a bit more than The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe. It just feels like a more polished product with the cast and crew more comfortable with the fictional universe being created. Making a sequel darker than its previous installment doesn’t always work, but considering the nature of the story here, I’d say that it does. Its going to be interesting to see what happens with The Voyage of the Dawn Treader.

“Please don't try to run. We're tired and we'd prefer to kill you quickly.”

Its been a little while since we’ve tossed some good ol’ fashioned whimsy into the mix. I’ve always felt bad about not really getting into C.S. Lewis’ fantasy epic The Chronicles of Narnia, but I had a fairly bad experience growing up watching what I believe were some of the BBC versions from the 80s where the budgets and the acting were not very good and I got bored of it fast. So when a new rendition was released for the new millennium, well, I was hesitantly interested in seeing it. Here’s 2005’s The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe.

Plot
Fleeing the Blitz of London during the Second World War, the Pevensie children are sent to the house of a professor in the English countryside to keep them safe. There, they discover a gateway to a magical world in the thrall of an eternal winter and find themselves in the position of being promised ones who legend says would free Narnia from tyranny.

Characters
Lucy Pevensie: Georgie Henley plays the youngest Pevensie sibling, the bright-eyed, innocent, idealist Lucy. She’s also basically the point-of-view character, and her ability to convey wonder at finding a different, magical world within a wardrobe is pretty important.

Peter Pevensie: William Moseley is the eldest Pevensie and the “leader.” Except, he’s kind of a jerk. Sure, he’s the second most skeptical about Narnia existing, but its really in his treatment of Edmund that makes him a jerk. Sure, Edmund’s also a jerk, but he goes through a character arc here. Peter browbeats him at the beginning of the movie for selfishness, then browbeats him later a couple of times, showing the audience that this is something of a habit. When in Narnia, he only gets a few bright ideas to shine in and becomes the de facto general, but he’s never done anything like this before, so its not really a surprise when the battle turns into a rout and he gets completely schooled in a duel with the villain.

Susan Pevensie: Anna Popplewell plays the second oldest Pevensie, and is also “the smart one.” Sometimes a little too smart and not afraid to let others know, she ends up getting a bow & arrow because I guess she’s got the upper body strength to draw back a bow for maximum effect. Or something.

Edmund Pevensie: Skandar Keynes, who’s name indicates he will grow up, build a longboat and raid the North Sea, plays the most interesting Pevensie, the troubled Edmund. Ed’s a jerk in this story, being neither the oldest, nor smartest, nor cutest, so he’s got to be the troublemaker. But he’s also got some nice depth. That first scene where he runs back into the house and Peter drags him back out wasn’t for a selfish reason like Peter said it was. He was going back in to get a photograph of his father, who was off fighting in the war, which is actually a touching, selfless act. Once he gets to Narnia he gets really stupid, selling his siblings out for sweets and a sleigh ride, but the whole point of that dalliance with villainy is to give him some solid character development for later.

Jadis, the White Witch: Tilda Swinton plays up the ice queen of Narnia, a real cold lady with a frigid demeanor- okay, I’ll stop. She’s the villain, a very powerful user of magic. She’s got a staff that can turn people/animals to stone at a touch and her magic is keeping Narnia in a permanent winter. Everybody’s afraid of her for the most part, and as the movie goes on, she gets more and more dangerous. She’s evil, all right. Sexy evil.

Mr. Tumnus: James McAvoy plays a rather timid faun that Lucy meets on her first trip to Narnia. He puts in an incredibly likable performance, and the realization of making the upper half of a character human and the lower half bipedal and goatlike is fantastically well done.

Ginarrbrik: Kiran Shah (who was Frodo’s body double in Lord of the Rings) is the White Witch’s right hand henchman, and a psychotic little guy.

Professor Kirke: Jim Broadbent is the professor who owns the house in which the wardrobe resides. He also seems to have some knowledge of Narnia himself.

Mr. & Mrs. Beaver: Ray Winstone & Dawn French voice two beavers that take the Pevensies under their protection when the White Witch starts looking around for them. The voice acting for both is great, but the CGI is a little bit off on them. Not bad, just…aging quickly, I suppose is the best way to put it.

Maugrim: Michael Madsen plays the wolf that is the head of the White Witch’s secret police. Fairly cool since he’s a vicious psycopath, just not in the movie all that much.

Aslan: Liam Neeson is probably the best option available to voice a majestic lion that is also a clear analog for Christ. He’s an ideal ruler; wise, forgiving, understanding, self-sacrificing and all that good stuff. And interestingly, for all that, he’s not really boring. Also, compared to other Christ-figures in fiction, he’s also capable of eating people’s faces off when he needs to. Now that’s a badass Jesus analog.

Oreius: Patrick Kake is Aslan’s general, and a centaur. Only shows up near the end for the big battle, but he’s a stern, capable warrior that was my runner up for badass of the film. He’s certainly more competent in the battle than Peter.

Visuals/Effects
Directed by Andrew Adamson (who also directed the first two Shrek movies) does an interesting job of trying to capture the sense of wonder required for a world of talking animals and all that. Its very well shot, but the beginning half of the movie feels very light and fluffy and inconsequential compared to the second half, where the stakes get raised dramatically and the story picks up the pace. The second half is incredibly dramatic, and goes into some pretty dark territory what with the heroic sacrifice involved amid a nocturnal ritual that is genuinely creepy. There’s one battle scene, at the end which does some very nice inventive things with armies that include minotaurs, fauns, centaurs, dwarves and griffons. Speaking of which, the special effects on the fauns and centaurs are incredibly well done, as are the effects on Aslan. Some of the other talking critters don’t quite mesh well with their surroundings, but its nothing bad.

Writing
Book by Clive Staples Lewis, adapted for the screen by Andrew Adamson, Ann Peacock, Christopher Markus and Stephen McFeely. A sense of wonder and discovery pervades the movie, and this is of course a good thing. The pacing does feel a little bit uneven though, and I’m pretty sure Peter isn’t meant to be thought of as a jerk.

Sound
The score by Harry Gregson-Williams does a great job of conveying both wonder and ADVENTURE! However, its not quite up there with some of the other fantasy themes we’ve had in the last ten years.

Conclusion
The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe is a fine little film that is a very good kids’ fantasy (which it was intended to be ever since Lewis wrote it). Still, it does feel fairly light and slightly uneven in places. However, when the movie clicks, its magical, and the hybrid special effects of makeup and CGI are incredibly convincing. Its definitely worth a watch.

“When a man lies, he murders some part of the world.”

Now, First Knight was a terrible, terrible movie. We’ve established this in no uncertain terms. But, you may ask, what then is the measure of a good Arthurian film? Holy Grail is a comedy, so it doesn’t really count if you want to get nitpicky. So what then does count? Ah, to understand the proper way to tell an Arthurian movie, we must look at 1981’s Excalibur by John Boorman. It is a film long held up as a definitive Arthurian movie and subsequent films have all tried to do something radically different from it, like telling “the true story” of King Arthur. Well, let’s see what’s so special about this long, magic-infused epic that subsequent moviemakers haven’t even bothered trying to imitate it.

Plot
Whoo-boy. This could get long. Let’s just say that the focus of the story is a man and a sword, their fates entwined. Merlin arranges for the sword Excalibur to be given to King Uther Pendragon for the purposes of uniting England, but Uther gets blinded by lust and alienates the lords by betraying the Duke of Cornwall and sleeping with his wife (with some help from Merlin). A son is born from the union and given to Merlin. Uther is killed soon after. The son grows up into Arthur, recovers the sword and becomes King of England, uniting the land under his idealistic rule. He marries the lovely Guenevere, befriends the mighty Lancelot, but even then, forces are at work at the Court of Camelot that seek to destroy what he’s built. You know, pretty much the standard Arthurian story that follows his birth all the way to his climactic death. It’s a long movie at 140 minutes, but it covers a lot of ground.

Characters
King Uther: Gabriel Byrne in his big-screen debut. Uther is an ambitious man, eager to unify England under one banner; his. With Merlin’s help he gets Excalibur, a sword that can help forge that kingdom. Unfortunately, after settling peace with the Duke of Cornwall, Uther falls violently in love with Cornwall’s wife, Igrayne, and the two lords go to war. Merlin pulls some magic and Uther is able to ride into Cornwall’s court disguised as him and bed Igrayne (in a rather awkward love scene because he’s still wearing his armor). Merlin’s price for helping Uther in this is the child born of this union. Uther’s not in the film all that much, but he leaves a strong impression. He’s basically like Arthur but without the self-restraint.

Merlin: Nicol Williamson is this film’s glorious badass. Merlin is younger than one would normally expect. His beard is neither gray nor very long. But Williamson brings an incredibly over-the-top delivery with a peculiar accent that just makes him fun as all hell to watch. His delivery takes a witty stance when he needs to and completely deadpan when delivering his grim portents and prophesies. He’s an absolute scene stealer and a character that really gets a lot done.

Arthur: Nigel Terry has a lot to do in this film, basically playing Arthur from a young man all the way to old age. He does an all right job, delivering everything with a straight face, and he looks appropriate in the armor as a leader of men, but there’s just something missing from the character that I can’t place. There’s a fire that’s missing from Arthur for a lot of scenes.

Lancelot: Nicholas Clay is Lancelot, a knight bold and true and undefeatable in combat. Until Arthur pushes Excalibur over the limit to beat him (breaking the sword in the process: don’t worry, it gets fixed). Lancelot is Arthur’s greatest knight, but of course he falls in love with Guenevere and that whole situation comes up. Its handled much better here than in *shudder* First Knight. They know their attraction is wrong and Lancelot does everything in his power to keep away from her, but it just doesn’t work and the two do eventually do the deed (yielding quite a bit more naked Lancelot than is bargained for).

Guenevere: Cheri Lunghi rounds out the love triangle. She’s all right as the Queen of Camelot, and the movie does give her and Arthur’s romance time to grow before the marriage, which works in their favor when it comes time for the affair. Still, Arthur, Lancelot and Guenevere all feel like weaker links in this film, especially compared to the Merlin subplot.

Leodegrance: Patrick Stewart (yes, that one) plays the smaller role of Guenevere’s father. A veteran warrior who sides with Arthur soon after the lad draws the sword from the stone, he’s a loyal member of the court and in Arthur’s riding to his aid, the king meets Guenevere. Sadly, Leodegrance disappears from the movie after the wedding.

Gawain: Liam Neeson in one of his earliest roles. He plays Gawain as a fairly simple big guy with an odd haircut (seriously, I don’t get why they did that). His major part is in challenging Guenevere’s fidelity to Arthur. After that, he fades into the background.

Perceval: Paul Geoffrey plays a plucky lad who wants to become a knight, eventually convincing Lancelot to take him to Camelot where he can become a squire. He gets knighted in order to help defend Guenevere’s honor. After that, he becomes the central figure of the grail quest, where he practically goes through hell to find the cup.

Uryens: Keith Buckley plays a lord that is most resistant to Arthur ascending the throne. After a battle, Uryens finally comes round and joins the court. He’s a minor character, but the fact that he keeps showing up consistently through the movie makes him worth mentioning, particularly for his part in the grail quest with Perceval.

Morgana: Helen Mirren (yes, that one) plays the scheming magician that’s Arthur’s half sister. She plays Morgana up as a vamp, sidling up to male characters like Arthur and Merlin to get them to do what she wants. She really hams it up, particularly in her mental duel with Merlin as she tries to seduce him in order to learn all his secrets.

Mordred: Robert Addie plays the unholy spawn of Morgana’s deceptive union with Arthur, the arrogant, ambitious, cruel Mordred. He makes a striking appearance with his gold armor and a helmet that basically serves as a mask (with golden hair and open for his mouth so that it looks like a corrupted face). The armor is ten times as creepy on the boy Mordred, played by Charley Boorman (the director’s son). Man those scenes with boy Mordred were creepy. That laugh alone can cause nightmares.

Visuals/Effects
John Boorman, who directed Deliverance, Exorcist: II and the, er... "legendary" Zardoz, went full out with the look of the film. Completely throwing historicity out the window in favor of myth, his knights spend all their time running, lounging, playing and fornicating in armor, if for no other reason than it looks mythical. Filmed in Ireland, the movie has a wet, lush and very green feel to it that helps with the atmosphere. The movie definitely goes for the magical route of Arthurian legend, but does so more subtly than with puppets or guys in rubber dragon costumes, and I think that’s really for the best. Here, the magical stuff is shadowy, mysterious and you can’t really be sure its all on the level with the heroes, not even with Merlin. Also, the color green (usually reflected or lit up in an unearthly way) is a nice way of saying “magical stuff here” without being too obvious about it. The visual pacing is nice, with scenes moving along, but the movie does feel long, just by the sheer amount of stuff it piles on. The fight scenes on the other hand, well, they’re pretty clunky and slow moving, though not without entertainment.

Writing
Thomas Malory gets credited for Le Morte D’Arthur, which tells you how historically accurate this film’s going to be. (The answer is not at all.) John Boorman and Rospo Pallenberg adapted the mammoth book into a big film, and generally do a good job of telling the Arthur story and hitting the major beats. The Merlin/Morgana interplay is mostly new though, and that’s also the part of the film that really stands out. I definitely have to give credit to a movie that manages to add some interesting new elements to the Arthurian Romance while still being a thematically faithful telling of the legend.

Sound
Trevor Jones wrote original music for the film, which works great, but the most memorable musical cues come from the use of some Richard Wagner and some Carl Orff. Orff’s O Fortuna from Carmina Burana being a signature sound for the film as it accompanies Arthur and his knights riding to battle. Good stuff.

Conclusion
Excalibur is actually a very fine film if you can get over the camp elements (like the constant wearing of armor for leisure and whatnot). The movie achieves an epic feel and really does succeed in bringing a mythological take on King Arthur. Its really more of a cult film now because some of the look hasn’t aged well, but for what it is, its probably the best straight faced telling of Arthur that uses all of the magical elements in the story. Unfortunately, Hollywood doesn’t seem to want to try and surpass it on that front, instead going for “the true history of Arthur” movies that pile on the grime and filth and try to deconstruct the characters into the dust and owe more visually to Gladiator than to Excalibur. It’s a shame, but rumors are circulating that Bryan Singer is planning some kind of remake, which makes me cautiously hopeful for a mystical, thoroughly “Arthurian” telling of the tale.



And just to give you an idea of Merlin in this: