The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian

Starring: Ben Barnes, Georgie Henley, Skandar Keynes, William Moseley, Anna Popplewell

IMDB: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0499448/

This review contains minor spoilers.

I was never that excited for this movie, I enjoyed the first one and the trailers looked kind of decent but for some reason the anticipation just wasn’t there. Now after having seen it I still feel somewhat the same way. The movie was good, I enjoyed it, but the movie just felt really awkward. I don’t really know how else to describe it, there were just so many moments where I either cringed or laughed at the absurdity when they may not have intended it to be funny. In the same vein, this movie was infinitely more funny than the previous film. As if they decided to change the film from an action-adventure with some comedy, to a comedy with some action-adventure; and in no way is that a bad thing.

The story this time around was much better than the first film, mainly because I never really liked the White Witch, but also because this installment felt much more real. At least as real as a movie about magic, talking animals, and giant water elementals can be. Where the plot and writing fell short was with the scenes where something so entrenched in fantasy happens that you can’t help but laugh at it. There are moments in the film that are extremely serious and then all of a sudden a bulky minotaur or bear will say something and it comes as such a surprise that it pretty much ruins the moment since you can’t believe that just happened. Another great example is a nighttime battle scene where, before any fighting has started, a griffin is seen flying into the shot with one of the leads clutched between his feet. It looks so absurd that the suspense is killed and, at least in the theater I was in, the entire patronage erupted in laughter.

My main problem with the film, and it’s not many awkward or absurd scenes, was the annoyingly pretentious dialog and acting on the part of the elder two siblings. Peter was pretty much a jerk who thought he was amazing and seemed to constantly revel in his status as High King, not to mention taking every possible chance to tell others about it. Susan was not quite as bad but still highly annoying throughout the film, and if they make a third I am glad that only the youngest two siblings will be returning.

Enough talking about faults though, I should probably mention the things that I liked. The foremost being the surprisingly amazing fighting on the part of the Peter, Susan, and Edmund (Lucy, for the most part, stays out of the fights). After seeing the first movie where the children were not very comfortable with their weapons and the fight scenes were more nervous and luck-based, I had expected more of the same with this second movie. I was pleasantly surprised during the fight scenes to see oddly talented kids fighting at a level above the average warrior in the film. Edmund, who I always pegged as the wimpy one, had some of the coolest fights in the film. And while his pre and post fight stances looked pretty dumb, he was still one of the more interesting characters to watch.

The movie was good for the most part, the fight scenes being the highlight, and so overall I did enjoy the movie. I would recommend it to any fans of the novels or the first film, and maybe those people who like to make constant jokes at the expense of the film while they watch, since this movie will give them no shortage of fodder.

~ by Hobbes on May 18, 2008.