THE CHRONICLES OF NARNIA: PRINCE CASPIAN

BVI

RELEASED 26 June 2008

The kids have been away for only a year but in Narnian time, it’s 1300 years later, and the talking animals and mythic creatures have been forced to hide away in the forest as mankind (known as Telmarines in Narnia) have taken over. When Peter, Edmund, Susan, Lucy (played by the same actors) return, they must join forces with the exiled Prince Caspian (Ben Barnes) to free Narnia from the clutches of his villianous uncle, Miraz (Sergio Castellitto, whose people appear to be Spanish for some reason).

I thought the script and the acting in ‘The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe’ were great, with poor special effects, bad pacing, and unadventurous cinematography spoiling the movie for me. This time out, the special effects are much improved and the cinematography is on a bigger scale, but the story is incredibly predictable, the pacing is still off (for nearly two and a half hours), and Disney won’t allow one drop of blood to be spilt on screen. 

The acting from the children seems to have got inexplicably worse, with William Moseley’s Peter coming over like a bad Prince William impersonation. Anna Popplewell’s (Susan) lips seem to have taken over her acting duties now. Acting credit should go to Peter Dinklage as a dour dwarf and Eddie Izzard as the voice of comic mouse Reepicheep, with Liam Neeson and Tilda Swinton’s brief appearances making their absence keenly felt.

I’m surprised, but ‘Prince Caspian’ is another Narnian failure. It’s dull, boring, and derivative. I’ll repeat what I said about the previous movie - director Andrew Adamson doesn’t show the flair nor imagination to create a tale that I would wish to see again. Disney plan to release one more Narnia movie - but will the demand be there? 

TWO OUT OF FIVE