Movie Review - 'The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian'

The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian

Starring Ben Barnes, Georgie Henley, William Moseley, and Sergio Castillitto
Directed by Andrew Adamson
Rated PG

In fairness to The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, the book upon which it is based is far from being the best, most compelling reading in C.S. Lewis' The Chronicles of Narnia. The series gets much better in the middle, so the fact that the first Narnia movie was kind of ho-hum isn't that surprising.

The second film in the franchise, Prince Caspian, is darker, more violent, and more entertaining and Wardrobe. Gone is the novelty of Mr. Tumnus and the disarming childish wonder of Lucy Pevensie (Georgie Henley) and in its place are bloodthirsty oppressors who have savaged the woods of Narnia so thoroughly over the centuries that it is now believed all who inhabited the magical land are dead.

Of course, we know that's not true, but when the Pevensie children are summoned back to Narnia as the kings and queens of old, but when they arrive Narnia is not the place they left it nor is it the when they left it.

Their call to action comes from Prince Caspian (Ben Barnes) 1,000 years after the first Narnia journey. Caspian has narrowly escaped an onslaught by his uncle, the stop-at-nothing leader in waiting Miraz (Sergio Castellitto), who will use his power as Telmarine king to, I don't know, grab even more power.

Peter, Edmund, Susan and Lucy (William Moseley, Skandar Keynes, Anna Popplewell and Henley) vow to fight the good fight, which of course, they do in every book in the series; it's kind of their gig.

For about 90 of Prince Caspian's 144 minutes, it's a terrific fantasy epic. It clearly has more maturity and better characters than the first film, and Castellitto's Miraz is at least on par with Tilda Swinton's White Witch from Wardrobe. He's sensational in each scene.

But there are still problems here: Caspian could easily condense a fair part of the re-introduction to Narnia, the talking animals - Eddie Izzard as a swashbuckling mouse who is entirely too reminiscent of Puss in Boots from Shrek - are really irritating, and the big finale just kind of sits there.

The prelude to the big finale, a mano e mano swordfight, is the standout scene in the film, but after the first five minutes or so of the action that follows it, you wish the story had just ended with the swordfight.

It also takes entirely too long to wrap up the few loose ends at the conclusion of the story, and you'd figure someone would've watched the ending to The Return of the King to figure out we really hate that kind of thing.

These trouble spots are worth mentioning because a two-hour film that's very strong for 90 minutes, particularly one with this much story and action, is a rare thing. And they're wonderful to find. A two-and-a-half-hour movie that's very strong for 90 minutes is also not very strong 60. How does that math not add up? A shorter, stronger film is better than a longer, less efficient film every time.