Grev wrote:Whoever was in charge of advertising the movie failed. I was psyched for this but only learned it was out when I was in the theater today.
I've been seeing trailers and release dates for it since about June.
I just went to see it last night, and actually enjoyed it more than the Harry Potter movie. Overall I thought the character development was great, the acting average, though a few actors stood out above others (Eustace, in particular surprisingly). The visual affects were great in some places and strangely unrealistic in others (the green mist was very overlayed-looking rather than a physical mist, this probably because they rendered it 2d, but steam and fluid in general are notoriously hard; the watery merpeople were also poorly rendered). The mythical creatures in this were among my favorites so far (I won't go into detail to avoid spoilers).
I noticed a huge improvement in acting for Prince Caspian (Ben Barnes) since the second movie, in which he appeared to be cast for the pretty face and not much else. However, that may simply be because the second movie suffered from poor scripting, which was a big improvement in the third film. Eustace (Will Poulter,
who's surprisingly 17, even though Eustace is 10 in the film) was a hard character to portray, and potentially the most annoying character in the series if done incorrectly. They kept the character's silly antics humorous enough to keep him from getting too irritating, maintaining a nice balance of the two characteristics to keep the film enjoyable. Eustace's character development was the strongest out of the film, albeit fantastical, though that is the purpose of the film after all. I was dismayed by the fact that the actors who portrayed Edmund and Lucy (Skandar Keynes & Georgie Henley respectively) had not improved their acting ability what-so-ever. It wasn't per-say
bad but it wasn't strong either (lots of overacting certain parts). The well written script however suited them well enough to make it almost unnoticeable.
Another interesting point to make is that it was very light on the allegory (the context of which I don't want to get into, nor do I want it to be argued about here, being a point of controversy), which the first two films were very heavy on at certain points. There were a few blatant references here and there but they were passable, and overall the film encouraged strong morality and open-mindedness, which I thoroughly enjoyed. I'd say it far surpasses the second film (which some people seem to disagree with me on) and is about level with the first film if not better (though the opening of the wardrobe scene from the first movie still stands in my memory as cinematic brilliance unparalleled by any scene in the two following movies). I look forward to seeing the Silver Chair in 2011.