Le Monde de Narnia : Chapitre 2 - Le Prince Caspian

Prince Caspian expands on the battles in the book; turning them from a few pages long into 30 - 45 minute epic fights that borrowed more than a little from The Return of the King. While competently choreographed -- this is far from the cinematic epic the overreaching soundtrack wants you to believe that it is.

The movie is entertaining, but rough around the edges. The editing is poor and one scene in particular should have been removed entirely as it does nothing for the film, outside of extend its already substantial length.

Is it better than The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe? That all depends on your stylistic preferences. If you're the wonderment, fairy-tale, unlimited Turkish Delight type you'll prefer the first Narnia. If you're a darker, sword and sorcery fan you'll consider Prince Caspian the better movie.

Both were worth the price of admission, but both left me feeling like they were one script doctor, soundtrack and/or director away from being the perfect fantasy movies they could have been. That said, Prince Caspian certainly warrants a bucket of popcorn and a fun Sunday afternoon at the theater with the family.

This movie isn't half as charming or eloquently magical as the first, but it engages nonetheless.

There's something about the young actors chosen to play the four major roles- Peter, Edmund, Susan and Lucy. They badly make you wish you were in their shoes. The film in itself is often reminiscent of LOTR, but the major difference being in a childlike simplicity this one retains.

Aslan, despite not having much of a role, manages to be the most striking character, and Lucy is as lovable as she was in the first film.

The battle scenes are brilliant, as are the landscapes. The power politics and senselessness of violence are dealt with a lot maturely in this film as compared to the first installment. At some point you realize you want at least a dozen more films revolving around these four siblings, and to be able to access Narnia for ever.

The only thing that ruins this film is this strange invasion of Hollywood-like romance as a very annoying little subplot, and the sudden intrusion of a ridiculous song at a climactic point.

Apart from that, I am pretty sure any fantasy-hound would enjoy this film a lot, and especially so if you're a big Lewis fan.

I know I am.

Very excited about seeing the 2nd Narnia film, having read all the books as a child Prince Caspian was one of my favourites as I loved how he was told the stories of old Narnia as a child and desperately wanted to see the old days return. Unfortunately the Caspian in the film seems to have little knowledge of Old Narina! The images from the books which I though would have been a useful tool for the film makers were not used once, a deep disappointment to me, especially as other films such as LOTR worked so hard to recreate the images fans of the book were familiar with. Of course there are the comparisons to LOTR, and at times it does feel like they are simply recreated smaller more child like version of events and characters from LOTR, of course when a film as great as LOTR is made every fantasy flick after will always be compared and fail to match it. If you haven't read the book I'm sure it will be an enjoyable family film, it is darker then the first and some parts will frighten small children. But for fans of the book the likeness to the book can be painfully little at times, and will leave you confused as to where the story is going. The back story for Caspian was not very well developed but as Caspian features in the next two books/films hopefully we will see and learn more about him. I will go and see the film again in the coming weeks and watch it as a fantasy fan and not as a fan of the books, hopefully I will enjoy it more!

Taking kids to the cinema can sometimes be painful but this trip was as much for me as them; i have read the book countless times and have just finished it with my eldest daughter.

The film was more LOTR than CS Lewis and don't know what he would have made of this interpretation. There was just enough in common with the book as to transfer the empathy that i have built with the characters over the last 25 years. There were some changes and original scenes that were totally unnecessary and the tone of the movie was much darker and action oriented than the book.

The upside is that aside from that it was a very well made film, almost up there with LOTR in terms of great fantasy and infinitely more appealing to anyone over 12 years old than Harry Potter.

After fictitiously originating the pevensies from finchley in the 1st movie, he has now made the telmarines Spanish and that sort of worked OK. The pevensies and caspian were close to what i would have imagined and the supporting cast of dwarfs and mice were excellent.

Another 2 years to wait till Voyage of the Dawntreader; would have liked to have seen Horse and his boy next. Mind you, in theory that could be done in 10 years time with the same actors.

All in all, a great improvement on the lion, the witch and the wardrobe.

While I enjoyed the first film's story more (it was so clearly an allegory for The Atonement, The Resurrection, the Battle of Armageddon, and the Millennium), this one is better made, better written, and better acted. Plus, it has a healthy share of Christian symbolism itself, some rocking battle sequences (how this is only PG baffles me; the intensity of the action has PG-13 written all over it), and some of the best effects I've ever seen (the badger, in particular, is photo-real).

The idea that the kids actually grew up in Narnia, then returned to their world while retaining all their knowledge and maturity intrigued me (and it makes their battle skills more believable). All that said, I still didn't find myself nearly as emotionally invested or involved in this as I was with The Lord of the Rings, the standard with which it will always, perhaps unfairly, be compared. Why Narnian humans now have Italian accents is beyond me, and some of the jokes fall flat, but all in all it was very good; better than the first in terms of storytelling, character, and filmmaking. ***1/2 (out of five).