Prince Caspian Conquers Ten-Year Old And His Dad
by Cal Skinner
It's now my all time favorite movie of all time!” my ten-year old son told the movie theater monitors outside of the AMC River East Movie Theatre just before ten o'clock Tuesday night.
There were three monitors. They reminded me of the men (plus one woman) in black.
One admonished me not to take pictures inside when he saw my camera.
During the whole movie he stood at the front scanning the audience with something that might have been an infrared spy glass. I guess they thought someone in the "Faith & Family Outreach" audience might not be ethical and try to make a bootleg copy.
What kind of a Dad am I to deliver my son to his bed at 11 PM on a school night?
The question would have been, “What kind of a Mom is she?” but Mom, the winner of the two Chicago premier movie tickets by being the tenth caller on WMBI, had another place she absolutely had to be.
We didn't get home until 11, but he did sleep a bit in the car.
The movie promoters accomplished their goal.
My son will be a regular little word of mouth machine. He told me he had already been talking about it yesterday at school.
If politicians could just find a way to do the same thing, they would win elections in landslides.
“He was so excited to tell me bits and pieces,” my wife told me.
“He like the part about the White Witch.”
There was ice, too, and Edmund was able to make up for his first movie lapse or judgment.
The Mom was insistent that we leave right after school for the 7 PM showing.
Traffic was light, so we arrived about six.
We found the short line, but I had to ask the ticket agent to do so.
There was not a single indication of what the line was for. It led to a big Indiana Jones display.
Likewise, when we reached the theater itself, the title of the movie was nowhere to be seen.
Above the doors was “Baby Mama.” I just looked it up. It's an actual movie, a comedy.
We got great seats.
And the theater wasn't full, at least the part closest to the screen where my son urged we sit.
No way.
My son also was thrilled with the theater itself. It slopes steeply and the kid in front of him was so short that his head didn't reach above his seat back.
In other words, the ten-year old could see the movie unobstructed by some big person's head.
That usually doesn't happen in Crystal Lake.
His favorite character was the swashbuckling mouse Reepicheep.
If you an enemy soldier in a battle, these are the last words you may say:
Violence?
“There was more fighting than in 'Alien Versus Predator,'”
my son informed Mom.
"Lucy killed a wolf," my son said.
Lucy has this little knife that she had not used before.
She uses it again in a comic relief segment.
Lucy also cures two mortally injured characters with the contents of her little potion bottle.
It was akin to the sword fights between pirates and the heroes in the 1950's movies I watched as a kid.
Queen Susan continues to be a regular killing machine with her bow and arrow.
I have one question, though.
Why doesn't she run out of arrows?
He talked to his mother about the professor who gave Prince Caspian the horn to summon the kings and queens of old.
“Was he a godly man?” she asked.
“Oh, yes,” he replied.
The kings and queens of old, of course, are not very old.
Different time line, don't you know?
There were truisms that popped out of the movie, some repeated, some just once.
Aslan says twice to Lucy, the only one in contact with him until the end of the movie.
But, my favorite, comes quite near the beginning of the story:
like an animal enough and you begin to act like one,”
says a drawf.
You see, much of Narnia has gone to sleep, so to speak, during the 1300 years since the four English kids have left.
The trees don't move like they used to, except in Lucy's dream.
Humans called “Telmarines” have taken control.
The native Narnians are rumored to be in the great forest, but the Telmarines are to afraid of the forest.
Mr. and Mrs. Beaver are no longer in the picture. They are replaced by a talking badger.
But, don't worry. If you look closely, you'll see Mr. Tumnus.
When is the last time you shouted out in shock in a movie?
I can't remember when, but I did last night.
Remember the special effects in the Star Wars' movie “Return of the Jedi?” The almost hitting and hitting the trees that the pursued and pursuers endured?
In Prince Caspian, they do it on horses and with crossbow arrows.
If you are into military strategy, there is plenty to see...successful and unsuccessful.
The final battle is at a tall shrine built to cover the place where Aslan allowed himself to be sacrificed (see the inside in third image) before he arose from the dead to lead the Narnians to victory in the first movie.
And, speaking of the “things never happen the same way twice” line, how is the enemy army dispatched?
Think of a variation of what Moses did to the Red Sea. (There's a hint on the poster to the right.)
My wife heard an interview with C.S. Lewis' son about the movie. He said that
“The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe” was a better book than a movie, but that “Prince Caspian” was a better movie than a book.
There is a romantic interest added.
There's even a kiss at the end of the movie.
It is a good movie, although several times I wondered when it would be over.
Two hours and twenty-some minutes.
We each got a poster with mini-lesson plans and lessons on the back suitable for the Chicago Public Schools “Character Education” curriculum.
Imagine that.
I sat next to a woman who had driven three hours from Indiana. Her sister's youth minister had gotten tickets to see “Evan Almighty” and the same promotion organization had sent him two tickets to “Prince Caspian.” The youth minister serves The Christian Church of Demotte.
In 2010 the third in the series, “The Voyage of the Dawn Treader,” will hit the screen. Only the youngest “king” and “queen” will have parts.
The human time line does not match that of movie production.
Pictures may be enlarged by clicking on them.
Posted first on McHenry County Blog.
Labels: C.S. Lewis, Narnia, Prince Caspian
Cal,
We here in Malaysia, also went to an early showing and quite late at night as well. We were released at 11:45 to put the kids in bed at 12:30 AM! Anyway, here it was managed as a fudnraiser for Focus on the Family. I have a new freind who is the in house Counselor for FOTF. We had great seats and having 12 and 13 year old boys, we had nearly the same conversations that you did, but with many "random" and "fierce" comments, with a few more preteenisms in there.
I wanted to mention though that we let the kids miss 1st block the next morning, so they could sleep in 1.5 more hours. We are loving the 2 day schedule for our middle schoolers. Is it very popular in IL? Raised by an engineer, trained as an engineer, working 14 years as an engineer and then marrying one, I am an efficiency weirdo and I simply love this system. My favorite aspect is the 1.5 hour long classes. Now that is enough time to get something accomplished, discussed, chewed on and fully digested. They aren't spending 15% of their day changing classes!
The other outstanding feature is the ability to be flexible with homework assignemtns. Yes, time management is slightly more complex, but the payoff of learning to manage it and having the freedom from last minute draconinan teacher assignments is awesome.
Why would all schools not go to this system? Although I don't see too many ed issues here from you, I am betting you have the answer.
I miss everyone, and am loving staying caught up with IR.
Posted by: debra | Sunday, May 18, 2008 at 10:59 AM