Over the past day, I've enjoyed the three to four hours it took me to read Prince Caspian, the second book of the Chronicles of Narnia series (if you count them correctly). It had been a long time since I read it, but I really enjoyed the experience of a good children's fantasy book, which I haven't had since last summer's Harry Potter tome. Narnia is a great, wild world, and Lewis also brings a rich history of characters and exciting landscapes to each and every book. But seeing as this post is more about how the movie will end up, let's talk about the other recent fantasy franchises.

First and foremost, there's The Lord of the Rings trilogy, written by J.R.R. Tolkien and directed for the screen by Peter Jackson. This one was epic. Everything was so masterfully done that every detail screamed "this is Middle Earth". With the long film runtimes (and especially in the extended editions), they were able to put in many of those touches that made it as close as you can get to authentic Tolkien. The films were made on such a big scale that they were events to behold. There were a number of aspects of the films that grossly misrepresented and misinterpreted Tolkien's vision, in my opinion, but the films were, overall, very enjoyable and at least in the overall spirit of the Middle Earth that Tolkien chronicled.  I went to see each movie a couple times in the theater and watched all the extended versions once.

The second and most contemporary of the fantasy epics is the Harry Potter series, which tells the story of young Harry Potter in his years at Britain's foremost school of wizardry.  The first couple films were slightly lacking in the special effects department, but all of them solidly brought J.K. Rowling's magical world to a vibrant life.  I've enjoyed every film immensely, but for some reason I've never had the desire to watch any of them a second time.  I guess I don't watch movies numerous times unless I find them so cool that I want to show them to all my friends, but I never felt that with Harry's movies.  Maybe it's just because everyone else is into them.  Maybe it's because it follows the books so closely that I feel like I've already seen it before.  And maybe it's because I find the book was better and my imagination found it cooler, but I'm not sure.

This brings us to the first installment of The Chronicles of Narnia in feature-length film, The Lion, The Witch, and the Wardrobe.  I went to see it with a friend on opening weekend just a week after reading the novel it was based on.  I'd read it a whole number of times in my childhood, but I found it still was a great read even in my mid-twenties.  However, when I saw the film, I was a little disappointed.  I didn't feel the filmmakers captured the epic land of Narnia that well, and I found the movie's special effects a bit too unpolished to be believable.  It was a good, faithful adaptation of the book, but it lacked the connection I felt with Jackson's interpretation of MIddle Earth.  Even in the couple years since the Wardrobe released, I've had no strong desire to give it another look.

In my opinion, Prince Caspian is going to be pretty hard to make into a film.  The book lacks connection with the main characters for long gaps, as the first third follows the Pevensie's as they rediscover Narnia, the second talks about the titular character, and the ending has almost all of the action and brings both parties together.  It could easily be a problem for the pacing and development of the film.  Also, with the basis of the first film firmly behind us, there's actually not that complicated of a plot, so I can see why the old BBC version just spun it into the start of Dawn Treader.

All this is to say that I hope they can do better with Prince Caspian and not just try to churn out a sequel.  It could be with less to do in the 140 minutes that they will do a better job of bringing Narnia to life.  Walden Media has historically done a great job with creating films from books, and with Douglas Gresham helping out with production just like the last film, it could be the best film of the year.  On the other hand, Andrew Adamson's only film experience besides Wardrobe is directing the immoral and unintelligent Shrek and Shrek 2, so there's very little depth to draw upon from the director.  I'm still going to see it this Friday, but here's to hoping that the production team can overcome the film's inherent hurdles.  If not, we have next to look forward to a possible adaptation of The Screwatape Letters sometime in the next couple years and the film adaptation of one of my favorites, The Voyage of the Dawn Treader in May 2010.