I was only seven or eight years old when I discovered Narnia. Because the books captured so many of us at such a young age, the series is to many people a bigger deal than "Lord of the Rings" or the Harry Potter movies. So expectations for "The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian" were high.
Having read the book, I knew that the first problem facing the filmmakers was that it isn't quite as good as its predecessor, "The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe." So if they were to stay faithful to the book, the film wouldn't be as good either. But if they messed around with the narrative too much, they could alienate the core audience. Adamson and his co-writers decided to amend the narrative somewhat, but the end product is still not as good as the prequel.
Thirteen hundred years after the events of the first film, Narnia is ruled by a race of men called the Telmarines, who have driven the original Narnians, the talking beasts and mythical creatures, into the forest. They are now believed to be extinct.
The hero is Prince Caspian (Ben Barnes), the Telmarine heir to the throne who faces a Hamlet-like predicament: His evil uncle Miraz (Sergio Castellitto) has murdered his father and usurped the throne. When Miraz's wife gives birth to an heir, Caspian must flee for his life into the forest. There he finds that the talking animals, dwarves and centaurs haven't gone extinct after all, and he enlists their help to win his kingdom back and save Narnia.
The Narnians have their own myths. One tells of four warrior kings and queens from long ago 's the Pevensie children, who will come, like Arthur, in Narnia's hour of greatest need.
These four children, meanwhile, are just settling down to life in wartime England. But when Caspian blows a magic horn, they suddenly find themselves transported from the Strand Underground station to Narnia.
It is a shock to the Narnians, of course, to find that their mighty monarchs from long ago are in fact gawky British teenagers. But soon they prove themselves to the Narnians, who accept the leadership of the four humans and Caspian, and the scene is set for a struggle for Narnia's soul.
There are some really good things about the film. The character development is superior to that in the book. Caspian, the new king, and Peter (William Moseley) clash over decision making. This isn't in the book, but it feels right 's these characters would clash. We see that Edmund (Skandar Keynes) has matured, and the different life choices that Lucy (Georgie Henley) and Susan (Anna Popplewell) will make are hinted at here as well.
Aslan, the Christ-like lion voiced by Liam Neeson, is magnificent as always. Eddie Izzard clearly relished the part of Reepicheep, a charming yet deadly sword-wielding mouse.
Adamson also scores points for respecting the intelligence of the viewer. In a scene where the four children are standing in the ruins of their old castle at Cair Paravel, Lucy Pevensie tells the others to imagine what the ruins used to look like. Adamson tastefully refrains from showing it to us, trusting in our ability to imagine it ourselves.
The action sequences are excellent, but they are not for everybody. There is no blood, but the scenes are so visceral and tightly shot that you feel like you're the one being shot at or beaten up. The little girl in the seat next to me was curled up in terror during Peter's climactic fight with Miraz.
I was disappointed to find that the film didn't evoke the sense of wonder that the first film did. Part of the reason may be the settings; to save money, much of the film was shot in Slovenia, the Czech Republic and other Eastern European locations. The first movie and the "Lord of the Rings" trilogy were shot almost entirely in New Zealand, a country with a more epic landscape.
Another poor decision was to follow a chronological narrative structure, doing away with the flashbacks that C.S. Lewis used in the book. What this means in practice is the action starts in Narnia, not in England, and the excitement of suddenly being taken from a humdrum life to a different universe is lost.
Despite its flaws, the film is still better than most you'll see this year, or any year. This is Narnia, after all. It would take a special kind of genius to mess it up completely.
Now showing
in all three countries
