Confessions of a Liberal Puritan

Just a quick note to say that I ended up seeing "Prince Caspian" (the second of the "Chronicles of Narnia" film adaptations) this past Sunday afternoon, and I thoroughly enjoyed it.

Granted, my expectations weren't too high, based on the very unsympathetic reviews I'd heard on radio and television AND on the fact that of all the Narnia books I finally made time to read in seminary (a couple of decades ago!), Caspian is the only one about which I couldn't remember a single thing, suggesting that I hadn't found it a particularly compelling story in print, either.

But the movie surprised me in that I didn't find it at all too long, nor did I find the battle scenes excessive in any way. The battles are a much larger part of the story than they were in "The Lion, The Witch, and the Wardrobe" and Aslan plays a much, much smaller role, but I vaguely remember that that's the way the story goes in this second book of the Chronicles.

Plus, it was a pleasure to see older sister Susan getting the chance to be pretty darn heroic in this film version, which was a welcome updating to what I remember of C.S. Lewis' depiction of her character.

And how could I NOT love a movie in which Eddie Izzard provides the voice for Reepicheep, the incredibly heroic mouse version of Scaramouche?

Given the way two of my co-workers who'd seen the new "Indiana Jones" movie over the weekend were tearing it to shreds for being markedly worse than "Temple of Doom" (which I myself consider to be a pretty pointless installment in the series, since it takes place before the important, life-changing events in "Raiders of the Lost Ark" and seems to reveal nothing about Jones' character nor make any lasting contribution to his relationships), I am left with that rather smug "Mary of Bethany" feeling: I have chosen the better portion, which shall not be taken away from me.

Though I'll probably eventually see "Kingdom of the Crystal Skull" in a budget theater, or when there's nothing else to see in a matinee, just for the sake of seeing Karen Allen's character as part of the Indy mythos again. (So, there goes all my smugness!)