On Prince Caspian

I don't have time for a full-on review right now (though one is likely coming!) but I'll say this:
This director (Adamson) has a knack for... well, for something. Either he's trying to maintain a balance and only succeeding in certain places, or he's discarded the "original vision" and happening across moments of brilliance by sheer chance.

Example: in this film, he's included Minotaurs on the side of the Narnians. I'd have to check the book again, but I'm pretty sure that Lewis separated his "mythological" creatures very distinctly into "good" and "bad," with the dwarves and giants pretty much the only peoples who take up both sides. These alignments weren't haphazard on Lewis' part (although Tolkien certainly wasn't fond of the combination of Greek, Roman, and Norse characters being thrown together), but if you're not paying attention I suppose it might seem that one mythological creature is just as good as another. Adamson has placed the Minotaur front and centre in Prince Caspian, which raises an interesting interpretational dilemma: either the Minotaur has been "redeemed" as a mythological figure, or has been carelessly thrown into the battle scenes because it's "cool."

Another example: Susan's and Caspian's preoccupation with romance. (I won't spoil anything if you've yet to see the film, suffice it to say "it's there.") This isn't an element of the books plot, and yet it's not totally a contradiction of the plot, either. (Take the "off-stage" Susan-romance plot in Horse and His Boy, for example.) It will be very interesting to see what Adamson&Co. decide to do with Susan once the series reaches an end--I wonder if they'll even answer the question, or if they'll find some way around it...