The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian

Starring: Ben Barnes, Georgie Henley, Skander Keynes, William Mosley, Anna Popplewell, Warwick Davis, Tilda Swinton, Sergio Castellitto, Liam Neeson (voice)
Directed by: Andrew Adamson
Rating: PG
Genre: Action, Adventure, Drama
2008

Times Seen:
Tim: 1

Summary: The Pevensie children (Georgie Henley, Skander Keynes, William Mosley, Anna Popplewell) travel back to Narnia after a year, shocked to find that it has been 1,000 years for Narnia. Now, they team with Prince Caspian (Ben Barnes) to battle against the evil King (Sergio Castellitto) who stole his throne and enslaved the Narnians.

Review:

Tim: I still am not completely sure what to think about this movie. I was so, so excited about the first film. When I watched it, I enjoyed it, but wasn't blown away. To be frank, I was expecting more. So, going into this film, I had mixed feelings. In fact, I didn't even see this in theatres (if you know me, you know that I always see the big blockbusters in theatres). I just couldn't get excited about this movie. However, I finally did get around to it, and unfortunately, I was fairly right. This movie is a step down in quality. I really went back and forth on what to rate this movie, and in the end, the first film had enough goodwill to push this up in my eyes.

Once again, we are transported back to Narnia, but this is not the Narnia we remember. In fact, in many ways, this seems like a completely different film (instead of a traditional sequel). Besides the Pevensie children, almost none of the original film's characters are back. We have a whole slew of new characters, and they aren't nearly as good as the previous ones. In some ways, it is exciting for the sequel to be so completely different from the original. On the other hand, it makes you miss certain qualities from the first movie.

It was genuinely good to see Georgie Henley, Skander Keynes, William Mosley, and Anna Popplewell reprise their roles. They are a little older, and I enjoyed seeing their development. I thought they were all actually less annoying in this film. Ben Barnes is a good addition to the cast. He's not a terrific actor, but he does a serviceable job. I really liked the extremely small role of Tilda Swinton, and I thought it did a great job of bridging these two films together. Plus, I was glad to see Liam Neeson was back voicing Aslan, even if he really isn't a focus of this movie at all.

The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian is ambitious enough and exciting enough to cover up for some of its flaws. I was disappointed that this movie wasn't as good as the original. In fact, after this film didn't live up to the previous movie's box office take, there was some question if this would be the last in the series. That is troubling. This movie was decent, but I don't think I'd watch it again and again.

Rating 1-10
Tim's Rating: 7



If You Enjoyed This Movie, We Recommend: The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe; The Lord of the Rings trilogy