The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian Review

My mom and I saw The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe and we loved it, so we were looking forward to seeing the second in the series The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian.  If you have not seen the first film, stop reading this review right now because it will ruin it for you!  You should really see them in order.  If you have seen the first film, read on!

Basic Plot Details
In a town near Narnia, a new story is going on.  A child is being born in a royal family and it's a boy!  Sounds like good news, but for Prince Caspian it means he must run.  His uncle, who's child was just born, wants to kill Prince Caspian so he can take the thrown instead.  Prince Caspian runs off into the woods (where the rumors of Narnia are found) with a horn given to him by his professor who's told him many stories of Narnia.  Feeling danger, he blows the horn.

The last film ended with the four kids saving Narnia from the evil witch and being crowned the queens and kings of Narnia.  They grew older even, but eventually found their way back through the wardrobe, and back to being kids again.  When this film begins, the kids are living their life in England and they don't seem incredibly happy about it.  Susan is annoyed by advances from a young man, and Peter is starting fights over nothing.  Due to the blow of the horn from Prince Caspian, they suddenly start to sense magic.  Soon they are transported back into Narnia, but hundreds of years have passed and it's a very different Narnia then they remember.  They set out to find out what happened and get prepared to save Narnia once again!  Prince Caspian plays a part, of course, but you can see that for yourself.

This film had a lot of talking
At the beginning, it was hard to pay attention.  There was just a lot of talking, a lot of story telling, and a lot more talking.  It was obvious the writers wanted to catch the audience up on what happened in the hundreds of years since the last film, and they also wanted us to learn a lot about Prince Caspian and his past.  However all of this led to... a little bit of boredom.

There was also a lot of dramatic scenes
You know the scene where they show the four kids standing with a beautiful scenery behind them?  In the first movie, when they did this, it was at a real dramatic part.  However in this movie, they did this same sort of scene over and over in the beginning.  It was a little too much unnecessary pausing, really.  The movie was very long at 2.4 hours, so they could have easily cut out a few of these dramatic pauses and made the movie 2 hours.

But there was a lot of good stuff too
Those two things above are the reason I knocked this down to 4 stars instead of 5, but there was still a lot of good.  The four kids are played by the same actors as before and they seem to fit the parts very well.  They are all interesting in their own way.  In addition, this movie added the additional character of Prince Caspian, played by England's Ben Barnes.  He was a good co-star for this movie and really made it fun to watch.  His personality fit well with the character and he also fit well alongside the other kids.

They still had some amazing scenes, and we still can't get over how realistic they make all the little talking animals.  When there finally was some real action, it was all very well executed and kept us interested.  So if you are at all bored in the first half of the movie, sit tight for some cool scenery and amazing sequences in the second half of the movie.

You'll also find some comedy in this film, especially with the new mouse character - a mouse with an attitude!  The humor is subtle and thrown in here and there just for a little break from the action, but it isn't comedy overall.  Mostly it's drama and not as light-hearted as the first.

Kids still love it
As the little girl behind me (who kept kicking my chair!) was so into it she was explaining scenes to her dad.  But I still don't see these films as being the best for children.  They seem way more adult in nature with characters dying, sword fighting, dark and dreary sequences, and real adult consequences.  Besides the fact that grown men are attacking children!  It seems a little odd at times.  When I have kids, I'll probably wait until they are at least 11 before letting them watch any of the Narnia movies.  I do recommend this film to older children and adults, but be prepared for a little less excitement at the beginning.  Enjoy!!