THE CHRONICLES OF NARNIA: PRINCE CASPIAN

I can’t put my finger on why, but writing down my thoughts on THE CHRONICLES OF NARNIA – PRINCE CASPIAN have proved rather difficult. Perhaps it’s because I’m not sure whether to consider it as an adaptation, a sequel, or a stand-alone story. Perhaps it’s because its intricate tale of treason and treachery is hard to sum up in a few words. Or perhaps it’s because for two weeks now, I have been denying one underlying truth – that try as the film may, it just wasn’t as good as the first.

Let’s begin with the story. It’s been one year for Peter, Susan, Edmund, and Lucy Pevensie since they last stumbled out of Narnia and back to England. Meanwhile, on the other side of the wardrobe, 1800 years have passed. The land is now ruled by a power-hungry king named Miraz, and the story begins with the birth of his son. The child’s arrival is trouble for the king’s nephew, Prince Caspian (Ben Barnes). Unbeknownst to him, Caspian is the rightful heir to the throne of Narnia, but with his uncle having seized power, and now produced an heir, Caspian’s days are numbered. Caspian flees into the woods, where the mystical creatures that once roamed free through Narnia have taken refuge.

Together, they begin to plan a coup to overthrow the evil king and reclaim their rightful place…the only question is how to do it. Cue the Pevensie kids. Peter, Susan, Edmund, and Lucy are summoned back to Narnia, and become saddened by the state of their once proud kingdom. They are soon met by a dwarf named Trumpkin(Peter Dinklage) who leads them towards Caspian’s camp. Together, the newly formed band of rebels tries to map out their strategy. However, the siblings find it difficult without the lion Aslan to lead the way. Still, they stand determined, and use every tactic they can think of to return Narnia to its rightful ruler.

Sounds like a good story right? So what goes wrong? I’m beginning to believe that filmmakers who produce sequels and filmmakers who adapt work with a huge audience base suffer the same problem: they try to do too much. In adapting a source material, it’s difficult to focus on what would make for the best plot, pace, and product when faced with so many nuanced subplots and side characters. In trying to tell too much of the story, they end up telling a bad story. CASPIAN’s pace seems off, it doubles back on itself, and it takes far too long to balance out the four siblings with their new brother-in-arms Caspian.

It’s not bad enough that CASPIAN is an adaptation; it also has a very imposing big brother to live up to with the success of THE LION, THE WITCH, AND THE WARDROBE. Here the younger brother CASPIAN finds itself wanting, since it has neither LWW’s fantastical whimsy, nor its classic storyline. What’s interesting is that the ultimate battles that end both movies are very similar, and hold similar excitement. However CASPIAN feels like it took the long way to get there, and thus the excitement of the destination has been spoiled by exhaustion from the journey.

I have other qualms with the movie, but at this point I’d feel like I’m nitpicking. The truth is that I don’t want to nitpick, because PC isn’t what I’d call a bad movie – I’d gladly take one CASPIAN over a dozen ERAGONs any day. Considering that everyone from the first film returned for the second, I found myself with higher hopes than what CAPSIAN could deliver.

Oh well…the next chapter, VOYAGE OF THE DAWN TREADER is still two years off. Hopefully that will be enough time for the filmmakers to figure out where they went wrong and right the ship.

Matineescore: ★ ★ 1/2 out of ★ ★ ★ ★

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