The summer of 2008 broke history, and rebuilt it.
America suffered through a bitter presidential election on the road to a globewrecking financial crisis.
In theaters, cinematic generations were rising and falling.
Credit: Everett Collection
Last week:a profound debate aboutSpeed Racer.Next week:Indiana Jonesand the refrigerator.
This week: The fantasy franchise that wasntHarry PotterorThe Lord of the Rings.
Before it was a middling film franchise,The Chronicles of Narniawas a beloved fantasy saga.
WithThe Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe, C.S.
Lewis crafted an enticing fairy tale.
And then he wrote six more books, increasingly strange, aggressively anti-narrative, death-crazy.
Its fun to readNarniaas a kid, fun to overthinkNarniaas an adult.
But the religious angle overlooks one of the most interesting things about Lewis saga.
This makes LewisChroniclesbrazenly inappropriate for the requirements of contemporary film franchising.
Serialized big-screen narratives need long-term quests, continuous villainy, familiar hero-faces growing older with the audience.
Ten years ago on Wednesday,Prince Caspianopened in theaters, offering none of that.
Back then, still a new kind of idea: The $400 million disappointment.
Box office historians could record this as fantasy fatigue.
Moviegoers were more discerning, had already suffered through big-screen defenestrations ofThe Golden CompassandEragon.
Popular fantasy was trending away from battlefield operatics.
(On the horizon: Sexy vampires, Sean Beans staked head, the most monochromaticHarry Pottermovies.)
The most important characters from the first film are largely absent.
In a feat of imaginative adaptation, Tilda Swintons White Witch appears for a cameo.
And what was mainstream fantasy, circa 2008?
Here is a film that climaxes with an hourlong battle scene, but can hardly show any blood.
The main male characters regularly prove their heroism via swordplay.
But the violence lacks weight, buried behind MPAA-friendly cutaways.
You have the cumulative feeling that all these instruments of death are being used to tickle the bad guys.
In that big sword duel, Peter wins when he stabs bad guy Miraz (Sergio Castellitto).
Director Andrew Adamson came from animation, has a remarkable indifference to the kinetics of human movement.
The book was published in 1951, but the film bears all the traces of 2000s fantasy bloat.
In the middle: Ben Barnes exploring a few Mediterranean accents as the titular Caspian.
The bad guys wear black, grrrr.
The good guys are sad until finally they arent anymore.
Three elements ofPrince Caspianlook notable from our 2018 perch.
Hes introduced mid-prologue, waving a sword at a squad of bad guys.
To Dinklages credit, he never looks happy to be here.
Three years pre-Game of Thrones, you have the feeling of dangerous energy only barely tapped.
Nowadays, Barnes is the next-most-familiar face.
Hes recently made a fine cottage industry as TVs dissolvingly nefarious bad boy onWestworldandThe Punisher.
Ten years later, shame and reckoning have left us with a different kind of Hollywood.
Of course, the biggest names onPrince Caspianare off-screen.
Adamson cowrote the screenplay with Christopher Markus and Stephen McFeely.
In this decade, M&M became key steersman of the Marvel Cinematic Universe.
They wroteCivil WarandInfinity War.In one movie, Iron Man and Captain America fight about who makes the better superhero.
In the next movie, Iron Man and Dr.
Strange fight about who makes the better superhero.
Times change, never as much as they should.
