The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian

In the second installment of C.S. Lewis’ epic masterpiece, the Pevensie children journey back to the land of fantasy to help Prince Caspian (Ben Barnes) overthrow his evil uncle, King Miraz (Sergio Castellitto). Peter (William Moseley), Susan (Anna Popplewell), Edmund (Skandar Keynes), and Lucy (Georgie Henley) realize that Narnia is not the same place they knew when they were younger. For the four main characters, it has been only a year since they left Narnia, but in Narnia’s time, 1300 years have past. King Miraz has taken control of Narnia, and the Narnians have been pushed into the forest where they live in fear of the ruthless King. There is one hope for the Narnians, and that lies within Prince Caspian, who should rightfully inherit the thrown. The problem, however, is that King Miraz’s wife bears to him a son, and therefore, if King Miraz kills Caspian, than King Miraz’s son would then inherit the thrown.

Caspian flees the kingdom in the dark of night and ends up in the forest with the Narnians. Meanwhile, Peter, Susan, Edmund, and Lucy have found passage to Narnia via a subway tunnel. The four heroes have a reality check when they notice that part of Narnia lies in ruins, something that they did not leave behind. The audience also notices that Peter has lost faith in Aslan (voiced by Liam Neeson), while the other three cling to a glimmer of hope that Aslan will one day return. The four soon meet up with Caspian, and together, decide to take King Miraz’s castle by force. When that plan fails, however, Caspian and Peter end up at odds with each other over the struggle to find who the true leader of Narnia actually is. Caspian consults the Ice Queen (Alicia Borrachero), but decides that he would rather not resurrect the tyrant and make matters worse. Peter finally squares off in an epic battle with King Miraz with unconditional surrender at stake. When Peter defeats King Miraz, the perception is that all is well. Both good and evil, however, will square off in one final epic battle, and all will ask, where’s Aslan? To find out more about the movie, head on over to a theater near you, my analysis is below; here are some pictures from the film:

Georgie Henley, William Moseley, Ben Barnes, Anna Popplewell, and Skandar Keynes in The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian

Aslan (voiced by Liam Neeson) and Skandar Keynes in The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian

Skandar Keynes, William Moseley, Anna Popplewell and Georgie Henley in The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian

This film was solid. The main themes of the series were apparent throughout, but I really liked how the cast portrayed the characters getting older. Peter was no longer going to blindly believe in Aslan, and that makes him easily paralleled to people in today’s society. Aslan continues to serve as a God-like figure in the story, and I think Peter relates to regular people in the fact that he loses faith. Lucy, however, does an excellent job portraying the innocence and simplicity of a child. She believes in Aslan quite simply because Aslan is one of the few things in her life that give her hope. Ben Barnes provides a memorable performance as Prince Caspian, but honestly I think the reason this movie could be considered for Best Movie of the Summer is its special effects. Everything from the animals to the moving trees to the amazing battle sequences solidifies this movie as one of the top movies of the summer, as well as one of the top special effects efforts of the summer. Overall, it gets a 3.9 out of 5 in my book, and the only reason I’d say it loses points is because of what seemed to me to be on long battle sequence after another starting half way into the movie and running until the end. I’m a fan of battle sequences, but in my mind, they should be broken up with storyline.