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THE CHRONICLES OF NARNIA: PRINCE CASPIAN - Review Hot

Movie Reviews

Release Date: MAY 16, 2008.
Studio: Walt Disney Pictures
MPAA Rating: PG
Genre: Adventure • Fantasy • Family
Director: Andrew Adamson
Writers: C.S. Lewis, Andrew Adamson, Christopher Markus, Stephen McFeely
Cast: Georgie Henley, Skandar Keynes, William Moseley, Anna Popplewell, Ben Barnes, Peter Dinklage, Pierfrancesco Favino, Sergio Castellitto, Liam Neeson, Eddie Izzard
Synopsis: The characters of C.S. Lewis’ timeless fantasy come to life once again in this newest installment of the “Chronicles of Narnia” series, in which the Pevensie siblings are magically transported back from England to the world of Narnia, where a thrilling, perilous new adventure and an even greater test of their faith and courage awaits them.

One year after the incredible events of “The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe,” the Kings and Queens of Narnia find themselves back in that faraway wondrous realm, only to discover that more than 1300 years have passed in Narnian time. During their absence, the Golden Age of Narnia has become extinct, Narnia has been conquered by the Telmarines and is now under the control of the evil King Miraz, who rules the land without mercy.

The four children will soon meet an intriguing new character: Narnia’s rightful heir to the throne, the young Prince Caspian, who has been forced into hiding as his uncle Miraz plots to kill him in order to place his own newborn son on the throne.
The Review: Since we got treated to 3 years (and then some) of Lord of the Rings goodness, and we've had a new Potter film nearly every year since the first. While some would argue the strength of those films they have been overall damn entertaining and I for one have enjoyed all of them immensely. So naturally every studio is trying to follow suit and dive into the Fantasy genre, and most have failed miserably. The only exception so far was the new Narnia franchise.

When the last Narnia movie came out I was simply not a fan of it. Not that it was a bad film it just wasn’t meant for me in the first place and felt like Lord of The Rings Lite. Having revisited it twice now I kept hoping it would stick better, but it just hasn’t. The story line plods along more than it works and the acting is just a tad north of acceptable. So while it’s somewhat enjoyable it’s just not something I’m keen on revisiting much.

Now Prince Caspian on the other hand is a far cry different from The Lion the Witch and The Wardrobe. The story is far darker, more violent, and quite a bit more adhesive. Not by any means perfect but a better film all around. The story moves forward at a blinding pace compared with the first film and the characters have far more dimension to them this time around instead of just being neat special effects. However that’s only in so far as the supporting characters, not the main characters.

The 4 Penvensie children have so little depth to them in this story that I started to wonder if they needed to be in it. Anything of interest with them is touched on and then forgotten about while they stick to the formula of these characters. I.E: Peter is struggling with being a leader, Susan is love lorn, Edmund is the dark one, and Lucy is the innocent believer. They don’t ever break the grasp of these molds and nor do they try. Same can be said for Caspian as well, he’s a man betrayed and goes against the people in his would be kingdom without a hint of feeling conflicted for killing men who are just obeying orders.

It’s hard to chalk it all up to this just not being a movie meant for me and that they had to keep it simple enough to tell the story to the kiddies. The assumption that children lack the ability to understand sophisticated stories is why so many bad family movies are made every single year. Basically don’t make a movie with violent battles meant for older kids and then dumb down the story so the younger crowd will want the toys. It’s marketing over art and in the end nobody wins.

It’s not to say that I didn’t find joy in this new outing, they certainly seem like they learned a bit from the last one and tried to solve the problems where they could. The battles are creative and fun to watch and the plot is far better with a much better pace. It just felt like it wanted to be a much different movie but had it’s hands tied by higher powers…and I’m not talking about religion.
Rating: 2.5 out of 5

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