The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian (2008)

Sick Product of a Sick System

As Good As It Gets

This is one of the best movies I’ve seen in a very long time. You have to go and see this on the big screen.

An old-fashioned movie made with new-fashioned finesse.

I am greatly disappointed in this movie. Maybe partly to my expectations, but " Prince Caspian" lost all its charm and wonder to me. Maybe if yo would see it as a stand alone film it could hold up, but since it is a part of the first movie's story, it fails to engage me as the first movie did. I liked that the characters got a bit more depth, but all side characters got neglected and seemed dull and uninteresting. For the mouse, the makers even 'borrowed' the character of Puss in Boots from 'Shrek'. The story-line seemed to be ragged and pieced together and overall this movie seems to be a portfolio for fighting scenes, rather than a well told story.

Even worse than the first Narnia film, Prince Caspian must be one of the most amateurishly acted movies I've seen in ages. While in The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe you can forgive the child actors of finding their way in the acting world, discovering an own style and making authentic emotional expressions combined with their memorized lines, it is much harder to forgive them for it when there's almost no improvement to be seen three years later (except for maybe Georgie Henley). On the other hand, just like with Daniel Radcliffe, Emma Watson and Rupert Grint it takes some time to adjust. For them it also took two Harry Potter movies to get the acting really going. Sadly it makes Prince Caspian hard to watch. There are no James McAvoy and (almost) no Tilda Swanton to cover things up this time. We get Peter Dinklage instead, but that nearly suffices. Especially with Ben Barnes doing a ridiculous Spanish accent. The storyline again is smothered by Christian symbolism and the cinematography by ridiculously bad blue screen effects. The result again is an awful picture that irritates more than it amuses.

I watched the original Chronicles of Narnia and I actually really liked it. So I decided to watch it's sequel which is considered by fans of the book to be extremely inferior, and while I can agree that this sequel is not as good as the original it was still an enjoyable enough experience.So basically a year has passed on Earth which also means in Narnia it's been over a millennium and it's a more savage and darker place where people have invades. Lucy, Susan, Edmund and Peter are then summoned by the fleeing Prince of the invading humans and they must figure out what happened then also figure out how to stop them.Okay, so the battle scenes are actually pretty good, the cinematography is too and I'd also say the scene where they try to retake the castle are actually pretty good and the visual effects surprisingly hold up really well. The acting also is better then it was in the first movie but considering how much older some of them look... It's a tough sell to say that only one year has passed since the first movie... 2 or 3, maybe.Onto what I didn't like. Well the relationship between Caspian and Susan feels very flat. I don't think they have more then 3 or 4 conversations together. I think the villain is another thing I didn't like, he basically is this shifty-eyed bad guy that has almost one note and that note is "Mwua-ha-ha-ha-ha!". You can make the villain of the movie just this obvious bad guy and it'll work but here is an example of when it doesn't. Oh and speaking of the pop soundtrack is bad, I mean I like the more orchestral stuff in the soundtrack but here... no. Last thing, the pacing of the first hour or so is a little dragging.So if someone were to tell me they didn't like this movie, I could see full well where they were coming from. I personally think at the end of the day it is just a satisfying experience. Will I watch it again? No. But if push comes to shove then I will watch The Voyage Of The Dawn Treader.

The four Pevensie brothers and sisters are drawn back to Narnia one day in the subway. They find nothing left of Cair Paravel but only ruins. It has been a long time since they had last been there. The Telmarines has since taken over. Aslan is gone but Lucy (Georgie Henley) sees him every once in awhile. Prince Caspian (Ben Barnes) is the rightful heir to the Telmarines. His evil uncle Lord Miraz (Sergio Castellito) wants to kill Caspian to claim the throne. In desperation, he escapes and calls the Pevensies to lead the Narnians to take on his evil uncle.There are a lot of expositions and explanations. It's too long at two and a half hours running time with overly long battles. The one on one fight is especially too long. It lacks the poetry or the magic of the first movie. It just never gets the same feel. The White Witch makes a small cameo. Aslan is desperately missed for most of the movie.