Prince Caspian

I have to confess wasn't terribly keen on the movie version of "The Lion, The Witch And The Wardrobe" which seemed a lot less C. S. Lewis and a lot more J. K. Rowling. whilst there's nothing wrong with Harry Potter, The Chronicles Of Narnia are a litery legend in their own right. Consequently I approached the next story in the series (by publishing order anyway) with some caution.

That said, I was pleasantly surprised by Prince Caspian. I sat through a story that has no less than five main characters, all of which are given a sufficiently large storyline to stop critics from questioning why they were included in the story at all. The problem of pointless leads is something that plagues a number of stories and movies -storm in "The X -Men" anyone?

That said, however, the movie has essentially no plot at all. The Pevensie kids regret leaving Narnia and want to go back. In Under a minute they get their wish. Meanwhile, young Prince Caspian is about to be usurped by his uncle who will exterminate all Narnians. Cue massive battle for the rest of the movie. But is that a bad thing?
The decision to make the film a whole lot darker is not a bad one, but the far better decision was to restore the Christian undertones. This gives the movie far more of the original book's spirit than the first film had. Meanwhile, in an effort to completely destroy that feel a change is brought in by having Susan snog Caspian. There's nothing more annoying than bringing back spirit and them adding a ridiculously irrelevant element.

There was nothing better for me as a child reading the Chronicles and even better re reading them as an adult and discovering all the things I Missed as a child. With Prince Caspian the producers of the movie have finally gotten that element right.

On the casting side, the four actors playing the Pevensie kids seen far more comfortable with their roles this time round, the girls in particular shining in their roles. What's a surprise casting decision is having all the Telmaire roles played by mostly Mediterranean actors. Some may see this as a racist casting, but really only in the same way all the villains in Star Wars are English. If you see if as racist, you we for too sensitive. Ben Barnes is More than competent as Caspian and Liam Nelson who seemed a little unpowerful in the first film addresses that situation magnificently. However the standout performances in the film ore Eddie Izzard as the voice of the little mouse Reepicheep and, over more notably, Peter Dinklage as the dwarf Trunpkin. Both these characters completely steal every scene They appear in.

A great film, and encourages faith in the series.

"B+"