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Prince Caspian is very good. All spoilers are below the cut.

First of all, there were a whole lot of changes. I'd estimate at least 75% of the movie was different, whether in small ways or big. More discussion on it behind the cut, however, all of the changes were justified. I'm a huge opponent of changes when I liked the book, but the alterations made sense and worked very well.

Reepicheep may have been a little more on the cute side than I wanted, but he rocked. He was larger than a regular-sized mouse, which is a very good thing, and he got a decent amount of action.

There was far more depth to the Peter and Caspian undertone of both wanting to lead, which was a good addition.

The Centaurs were far more feral-looking. They looked dangerous and angry; their transition was excellent.

Susan kicked butt!

Of course, with all of this positive, the question arises... why did I only call the movie very good instead of excellent?

Only one reason: the soundtrack. You know the soundtrack from The Lion, The Witch, and The Wardrobe? Yeah. Same. And I'm not just talking similar themes, like how the Hobbits had their theme in LoTR. I'm talking same tracks. I don't know about you, but I like soundtracks. I have the one from TLTWTW, and when I listen to it, I know what's going on. So as I watched Prince Caspian, the soundtrack detracted and distracted from the movie, because I see them running on the beach, but it's the same tune and song as when they were on the train in TLTWTW. This happened repeatedly. The first soundtrack was great and connected you to the movie. The second... horrible, shoddy work. And that's really, really disappointing.



When we finally get to London, after Caspian's escape scene, we find Peter in a fight, and Edmund rushes in to help. This is new, but it makes perfect sense. Peter was the High King of Narnia, and now he's just an ordinary kid. How do you go back to that? It can't be easy, and the books never explored that transition. They're all a bit burnt out, hoping to return. This makes when they do get back all the more powerful.

One scene they kept mostly the same was the duel between Miraz and Peter, though they changed a chunk near the end. However, what they kept the same was effective and well-done. You could feel how important the fight was to the Narnians.

I will not spoil the White Witch scene with details, but I will say that it was far more powerful than what the previews implied.

DLF was perfect. So perfect. Trufflehunter never got his name mentioned, which was a shame. He actually wasn't treated as nearly as important as the book treated him. The focus was on Nikabrick and Trumpkin. And it was right to give Nikabrik (gosh, I'm probably mutilating his name) more time and attention; that makes the betrayal better, but... poor Trumpkin. The credits listed Wimbleweather, but I didn't notice him anywhere in the movie, which is pretty darn odd since he's a giant.

The huge battle was a bit of a let down except for the end. Same battle music, similar tactics (except for the end, of course), no phoenix... The battle before that was utterly new, and very painful in a good way. It emphasized that neither Peter nor Caspian were in the right or really knew what they were doing.

Romance... you know, I don't mind the Caspian and Susan thing. 90% of it was glances, and of the other 10%, he saved her once after she'd done a great amount of work (but she's an archer, so close-range gets very dangerous, logical time to be saved) and there was a short kiss before she left. It didn't feel as deep or sad or poignant as Mr. Tumnus and Lucy, but... it was all right. Poor Lucy. She realized pretty fast that Mr. Tumnus was gone, and the little actress is good. You could see it hurt.

Of the scenes that got cut, there's one I think still should have made it - the village. There's a portion of the book with dryads and satyrs dancing, and Bacchus riding around, and kids being turned into pigs... it was great. But it wasn't just great for the dramatics. It was great because it put a face on the people of the Telmarines. All we saw until the very, very end were soldiers and nobles except for five seconds of cheering "Long live King Miraz." The general populace might as well not have existed, and that does them a disservice. We go from hearing that everyone hates and fears the Narnians to triumphant parade of Caspian and Narnians into town, being greeted with cheers and thrown petals. No transition. No reason for them to love him. I mean, they were just cheering his uncle, and now here he marches in, with a LION BEHIND HIM THANK YOU and armed Centaurs and Satyrs and all sorts of creatures, and the people cheer. Riiiiight.



However, that being said... overall the movie was great. If the soundtrack had been new or varied, it would have been excellent.