Review of The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian (2008) by Tim H — 16 Jun 2011

So here we have the next installment in the film adaptations of C.S. Lewis's beloved "The Chronicles of Narnia" books. The film "The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe" was simply amazing.

It was epic, heartful, magical, and somewhat of a growing up story, despite some of its flaws. It was nonetheless an imrpovement over the novel itself. Now we have "Prince Caspian", the sequel to "The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe" and the fourth book in the "Narnia" series.

Now, a year later (1300 years for Narnia), the 4 Pevensie kids are whisked back to Narnia to aid Prince Caspian in saving Old Narnia and reclaim the throne. What the first film had, "Prince Caspian" didn't.

The magic was gone, probably due to the magical Narnia we knew was gone as well. The movie seemed to have a more serious tone, yet it wasn't executed in the manner I think they were aiming. The big thing audiences will notice is how [i]slow[/i] the movie is.

There is so little happening in the first half that everything needs to be stretched out so that the whole film is beyond the 2 hour mark. The last half of the movie is where the action is and yet, there was almost too much.

Another thing you'll notice is that how perfect the main Pevensie kids are. There is almost no room at all for any character development. The characters are who they are, nothing more, nothing less and they are also expert fighters.

But the acting is great. The 4 main children have grown in their acting and Ben Barnes makes a great Prince Caspian. Also, they couldn't have picked a better looking King Miraz, in my opinion. Now, the visual and special effects are spectacular.

The world of Narnia looks beautiful and the fight scenes are great looking and are almost PG-13 fights. The costume design is superb and Harry Gregson-Williams's score is as epic as his other work.

So, as good as the movie really is, it's very slow, and too many events are stretched out so that it could a 2 and a half hour movie. I mean, it's got to be hard to translate a book that's 100 pages (more or less) into a 2+ hour film but for the sake of the novel, they did well.

Overall, I don't think the movie surpasses "The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe", it's definitely different. It's a good film and I recommed fantasy fans and families to see it.