The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian (2008)
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The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian Movie Review
The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian is a 2008 family fantasy film directed by Andrew Adamson. It is a solid, but very flawed adaptation.
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“You get treated like a dumb animal long enough, that’s what you become.
You may find Narnia a more savage place than you remember“
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First, let’s talk about the plot. They mostly adapted the story from ‘Prince Caspian’ the novel in a respectful and faithful manner. There are some changes here and there, but for the most part, the film is a good adaptation. I really liked the ending which was as emotional as it was in the book and I loved the beginning and how it started in a different way than the book, but in a still very intriguing and cool manner with good action scenes.
Speaking of action, yes, that is the major problem I’ve had with this movie. This is a typical modern adaptation in all the wrong ways. The director decided to add one entire action scene, basically a war scene, to the picture in order for it to last two and a half hours and feel more epic in scope. And what he did is actually make it feel less special and more of a stupid blockbuster. Andrew Adamson has never been a good director. He wasn’t good for ‘Shrek’ and he most certainly wasn’t good for this movie and he ruined it with his stupid ideas.
That whole sequence that was invented here was just the worst. But I also didn’t care for the final action sequence as it was once again very short in the book and here it was extended beyond any reasonable length. The hinted romance between Susan and Caspian was very annoying and the very late arrival of Aslan was quite frustrating. Those kind of changes really affected this otherwise solid movie.
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For all of those reasons, ‘The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe’ ended up being infinitely better than this second installment. But that is not to say that Prince Caspian is a bad movie. It is a solid movie affected a lot by those poor choices mentioned above, but all of the other scenes worked wonderfully. I really enjoyed the scene with the werewolf and the witch as it was pleasantly mature and dark. The whole movie was too mature in my opinion, but that sequence I really liked nonetheless.
The acting again isn’t the strongest, but the kids are much more likable this time around, albeit Caspian is as boring of a hero here as he was in the book. King Miraz was a solid villain and all of the Telmarines were well depicted, but the decision to cast them as Latino characters is admittedly very problematic. Dr. Cornelius is so underutilized which is a shame as he is one of my favorites in the original novel, but Trumpkin is very likable and Reepicheep was very well depicted and quite funny at times.
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The pacing is awful and the film is way too long. Action took over the characterization and dialogue in a very ugly manner. But the special effects continue to be exceptional and I absolutely adored the cinematography as the scenery was just beautiful to behold, especially the sea. And once again the score is just magnificent and so moving and perfectly accompanying the action on screen. The action itself is solidly executed, but not as great as it should have been, especially having in mind that it was incredibly important as that was the approach taken here. But even though I was disappointed in this movie a lot, it is still solid and has its many strengths.
