International Graduate Student Ministry – Gracepoint Berkeley

We went to see The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian after our weekly Friday Forum. So on the opening weekend, Friday Night, the theater was packed… full of our church members. College students and post-graduate staff volunteers from UC Berkeley Acts 2 Fellowship, Kairos, and Koinonia were there for the show. The only place where I normally see our church members en masse would be prayer meeting and Sunday service.

The movie itself was fun: large battle scenes, a raid on the castle, and swords flying everywhere. The action was good. The only problem was the scenery reminded me a lot of Lord of the Rings movie , “The Two Towers”. (which, by the way, was also incredibly unfaithful from the book… Helm’s Deep in the actual LOTR book was not that contested or scary) In fact, once the trees came back… well, it was like Lord of the Rings. Joe commented that the movie was “Lord of the Rings Junior”.

Sort of. Lord of the Rings didn’t have talking mice like Reepacheep. The little mouse had a big personality that was somewhat reminiscent of the characters in the Princess Bride (big, blown up “noble” personalities that are comical) or Mercutio from Shakespeare’s Romeo & Juliet. But that didn’t stop Mia and other girls from talking about just how cute a talking rat can be. Scary.

Of course, this movie also deviated from the actual C.S. Lewis book in 1 respect: the cheesy romance stuff. If you have seen Star Wars Episode II, then it almost makes you laugh in the same way when Susan and Caspian are flirting with each other. If you haven’t seen Star Wars Ep 2, don’t. It’s not even worth renting. Anyways, most of us thought this was a bit much.

Anyways, I still recommend the movie. Just be ready for The Two Towers + Star Wars Episode Two = Narnia Two, also known as “Prince Caspian”.