NARNIA: PRINCE CASPIAN

"It's so still."
"They're trees. What do you expect?"
"They used to dance."
~ Lucy Pevensie and Trumpkin the Dwarf

One year after the four Pevensie children stumbled back through the wardrobe into their own world, they are whisked into Narnia again by a desperate blow of Susan's horn. They find the Cair Paravel, where they used to reign, all in ruins as if it has been sitting there for centuries. 1 year for them - 1300 years for Narnia. The children learn Narnia has been invaded by the Temarines and the handful of Narnians left are hiding from their persecutors. But the one that blew the horn is not Narnian at all - he is a Telmarine prince who is outlawed by his evil uncle Miraz. He wants the hiding dwarves, centaurs, and... mice? to help him take back the land and they can come out of hiding and rule again. The Narnians and the Pevensies learn to trust him, and engage in risky battles and duels to save Narnia from the Telmarine tyrants.

I went to see this with a bunch of friends during my recent visit to my hometown. I will readily admit this: it was a FANTASTIC movie. Very well-made, good acting (even if the casting was a bit... wanting in my opinion), good affects, great storyline, quippy lines, the whole sha-bang. BUT I will also be very brave and admit this: I was slightly disappointed. Understand, my expectations were to have this movie ONLY top-notch. I was prepared to be disappointed if it was anything less than LORD OF THE RINGS. Of course, everybody knows that's not possible, and that law still stands. The movie did not follow the book as well as I'd like. The little things like making Reepicheep one foot tall instead of two, light brown instead of almost black, normal-guy voice instead of squeaky yet insanely tough voice REALLY served to tick me off. Reepicheep IS my favorite in the book, and he didn't shine like I would've liked. Not like he wasn't funny and great anyway. Trumpkin is everything I could've imagined -the perfect smart-alec cynic. Ben Barnes's version of Caspian didn't rock my boat to Hawaii. It would've helped if he wasn't so selfish. It would've helped if he wasn't 26 in real life. It would've helped if he didn't talk like Inigo Montoya. I found he was playing that priceless character in the theatres before he got cast for Caspian, and it made me even more iffy to have a comedy king playing an sword-fighting savior. But all the Telmarines had spanish accents, and it was alright for them. There's a bit more darkness and fighting than there was in the first one, so watch it before your six-year-olds do. There was a stupid, MnM hurling, add-in at the end between Susan and Caspian strictly for the twelve-year-old girls. But there are many wonderful battles, scarcely a cheesy line, a few excellent add-ins, and marvelous spiritual significance with Aslan and Lucy. To sum it all up, I enjoyed this movie very much and would watch it a zillion more times. But second of all, I do not think C.S. Lewis would be proud like I imagined he'd be if he watched the Lion the Witch and the Wardrobe. But, it's worth your money to see in the theater!

Directed by: Andrew Adamson ~ Produced by: Andrew Adamson, Cary Granat, Mark Johnson, Perry Moore, Douglas Gresham, Philip Steuer ~ Written by: Novel: C.S. Lewis Screenplay: Andrew Adamson, Christopher Markus, Stephen McFeely ~ Starring: William Moseley, Anna Popplewell, Skandar Keynes, Georgie Henley, Ben Barnes, Sergio Castellitto, Liam Neeson (voice) Eddie Izzard (voice) Peter Dinklage ~ Music by: Harry Gregson-Williams ~ Cinematography: Karl Walter Lindenlaub ~ Editing by: Sim Evan-Jones ~ Distributed by: Walt Disney Pictures, Buena Vista Pictures ~ Release date(s): May 16, 2008 (USA) ~ Running time: 145 minutes