Review of The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian (2008) by Ben L — 05 Jul 2012

From what I understand, there were certain producers who considered skipping this book in the run of movies because it wasn't exciting enough for film. Instead they decided to add massive battle sequences that didn't exist in the book in order to keep the audience entertained. I know why movie companies do this kind of stuff, but it's a real shame. The book is a good read, and has enough going on that I think they could have held audiences without pandering. But big movie companies like to play it as safe as possible, so that means stick with the formula that has worked in the past.

Now, I don't mean to sound completely derogatory, because I did enjoy this film. In fact it has some really entertaining moments that I thought worked quite well. The failed attack on Miraz was great, and the final battle was visually stunning. Perhaps one of the most subtle, but spectacular visual effects was the dissolve from train station to cave at the beginning. I sometimes get bored when over-the-top CGI overloads a film, but I thought this movie blended it amazingly. Also a lot of child actors can be downright annoying, but these kids are absolutely charming.

This movie starts off much darker than the first, but never gets worse than the death of Aslan. However the dark tone carries through more scenes in this edition. This is unfortunate because the books are great reading for young kids, but the movies might end up being a little too intense for them. This is a trap that many sequels fall into, because the producers are so desperate to avoid recreating the same movie again, they make conscious choices to go in a completely different direction. While Caspian isn't my favorite book in the series, I still find it disappointing that the movie strayed so far from the source. However, while they made some unfortunate choices, the movie still has superb CGI and certain scenes that outdo the first film.