The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian Reviews

As a little girl, I adored the Chronicles of Narnia books, and I still do. I also liked the BBC adaptations, done in mini-series format, they weren't amazing, but they were enjoyable and stuck to the books' spirit. As far as these film versions go, I haven't yet seen Voyage of the Dawn Treader, but I enjoyed Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe. Prince Caspian was not a bad film, but it could have been better.

Visually, the film is very well done. I loved the cinematography, while the scenery and costumes are gorgeous. The effects are also good, and Aslan still looks brilliant. The music is beautiful too, with lovely melodies. The end credits song was nice, but I think it should have stayed as an end credits song, it didn't seem right placing it in the final scene to me. The direction is decent too, while the battle sequences are riveting, and the film did begin well.

As far as the acting goes, it wasn't bad but it wasn't amazing either. The best are Eddie Izzard who is spot on, Peter Dinklage who comes close to stealing the film with his eyes alone and Liam Neeson who lends his majestic voice to Aslan, and while her appearance is very brief Tilda Swinton is quite chilling. The four leads are good enough, and in Georgie Henley's case improved. Edmund also has potential. I had mixed feelings on Miraz though, more to how he was written than how he was acted. Sergio Castellitto does make an effort to make Miraz dark and charismatic for the villain of the piece, but the way Miraz is written and developed makes him come across as insipid. The weak link is Ben Barnes. He is handsome and has his moments, but he is rather bland on the whole.

My real problems with Prince Caspian are in the storytelling and pace mainly. The story has a tendency to become too unengaging, the more involving scenes are well done but the slower scenes are close to ponderous. The pace is rather lethargic this time round, while I don't think the film really needed to be as long as it was and the characters come across as shallow. Also particularly with Caspian and Miraz, some of the dialogue is stilted.

All in all, Prince Caspian is not a bad film, but it lacked something. I also forgot to say as an adaptation of the book it is not great, granted the book was not my favourite of the series but I felt sometimes there was a bit too much padding that could have been excised slightly. A disappointment, but on its own terms and for the visuals and music it is worth a look. 6/10 Bethany Cox

“The Chronicles of Narnia” series by C.S. Lewis are some of the most beloved youth novels in the world today. When Disney’s spin on The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe was released in 2005, it was one of the biggest films of the year. Yet other than box office receipts, the reception seemed to be somewhat lukewarm. So when it came time for the follow-up, Prince Caspian, things didn’t go so well monetarily. Ironically, although not spectacular, Prince Caspian is the better film of the two. Returning in the director’s chair, Andrew Adamson shows a more confident and defined vision that works on several levels, however it’s unable to overcome a nagging feel of disconnect that prevented me from fully investing in the film’s characters and their plight.

Siblings Peter (William Moseley), Susan (Anna Popplewell), Edmund (Skandar Keynes) and Lucy (Georgie Henley) are called back to Narnia, the land in which they were once regarded as kings and queens. With Narnia being the magical place that it is, time has past much faster than in our world. Therefore their reign of peace is but a very distant memory. Now Narnia is breaking down and its inhabitants have been driven underground for so long that they’re seen as myths rather than real beings.

The Pevensie clan arrives to find Narnia divided and on the verge of war. Following a power play that mirrors the take down of Snow White, Prince Caspian (Ben Barnes) has been left on the run in his own kingdom. Banding with the Narnians, Caspian fights to restore peace in the utopian world.

Much time in Prince Caspian is spent preparing for the film’s various showdowns. While they are epic in scope once they happen, they take a long time in getting there. Rather than using the time to build an emotional connection to the characters, it feels more like dead space. It’s largely a matter of the vision coming to life but the core – the feelings and development of the characters – is lost. As a result I never felt much of an attachment to any of the characters or Narnia itself. So when the epic scenes happen I was merely watching in awe at what was on the screen rather than rooting for one side and jeering another. I was left indifference as to whether the plot went one way or another. So on that important level, Prince Caspian fails, yet at the same time there’s a definite sense that director Adamson achieved his vision as far as the design of the film.

The moment the action switches to Narnia you get the sense that Narnia is a real place. The sweeping beaches and treed hillsides make for a lush backdrop to the castles, villages and magical dwellings. It also creates a gorgeous distraction for the lack of character depth, as well as some excellent battle scenes.

Although there are the occasional light-hearted diversions, Prince Caspian is a much darker, violent and serious installment in the series. If the action isn’t centered around a battle, chances are it’s setting one up. As a result, the film might not be considered as family friendly as some might expect. There’s not a lot of blood or gory violence, but there certainly is the insinuation of such.

With Prince Caspian there were times when I was completely enthralled. The epic scope alone is a pleasant marvel. However there’s also a cold hollowness to the movie’s lack of development. Gaps are seemingly everywhere. The story makes sense but just barely. Like The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, when Prince Caspian is working, it’s memorable. It’s in the downtime that the film suffers and suffers badly.

Til now is the worser of the saga, Prince Caspian it's a interessant character that lead the chapter very well, left aside, the monotonous side of the first one though. Besides that the movie keep the grace level at technique questions and work very well as family movie. It might not have all the magic of the first, but at question of special effects it's much better, the characters are less understanding and the battles are epic.

Honestly, it is rather surprising that even though the first movie was a huge success, this movie didn’t do so well at the box-office and you could go even further by saying that it was actually a flop. Maybe it was the fact that they waited relatively too long to release this sequel and the hype was gone. I have to admit it, I did see the first one in the theater and saw this sequel only on DVD. Still, usually, when you deal with such high profile book adaptations like ‘The Lord of the Rings’, ‘Harry Potter’, ‘Twilight’ or ‘The Hunger Games’, when the first installment is such a success, the rest follows pretty smoothly. Well, this franchise must be the exception to the rule, I guess. Anyway, even though it wasn’t a big hit, I thought it was not bad at all. In my opinion, the story was actually better balanced this and it was not so rushed like it was in the first movie. However, somehow, I have to admit, I did miss the sense of wonder that I got the first time. Basically, at that point, you have been there, done that and bought the T-shirt a couple of times, I guess. Eventually, 2 years later, they came up with a 3rd installment which wasn't a big success either but they are still talking about continuing to adapt the other books, even though you might wonder if it would be a sensible business decision. Anyway, to conclude, I still think is still a decent, well made and entertaining fantasy feature and if you like the genre, it is definitely worth a look.

After a very entertaining first film in the Narnia series, expectations were high for its sequel. Unfortunately, The Chronicles Of Narnia: Prince Caspian didn't fully satisfy me and it was a disappointment. I mean, as far as production, it has everything that its predecessor has and reached up to that standard but in reality, the film's weaknesses didn't make it as awesome as the filming of it did. I will also admit that it was darker than The Lion, The Witch And The Wardrobe but there were moments involved that made it a lot cheesier and, quite frankly, more chaotic too.


The flaws that Prince Caspian has is that acting was crap from most of the actors, the character development wasn't very good and some of them were pretty annoying, plot became quite chaotic on occasions and I was slowly dying witnessing the 'love' between Susan and Caspian. I mean, romance involved in a film like this is just a 'no, no' and simply doesn't belong in it! I did like the action scenes a lot such as the attack on the castle, the battle in the field near the end and the sword fight between Peter and King Miraz. It may have been darker than the first film but I am afraid to say that it lost most of the magic that the predecessor had.


The four Pevensie children return to Narnia, only to discover that hundreds of years have passed since they ruled there and come back to notice that most of the places in Narnia where they had ruled had either been destroyed or attacked (such as Cair Paravel). The evil King Miraz of the Telmarines has taken charge and seeks to kill the real heir to the throne: Prince Caspian. Miraz is really the younger brother of the real king Caspian IX who was killed by Miraz in order to have the throne. Upon discovering this, Peter, Susan, Edmund and Lucy alongside with the Narnians, Prince Caspian (who is really a Telmarine but seeks to give the Narnians their land back) and the Great Cat Aslan (and former King of Narnia), set out to overthrow the King and be rid of the Telmarines in Narnia forever.


William Moseley, how you disappoint me! For the second consecutive time in a row, you don't bring a heroic or brave side to Peter in any way whatsoever. You have simply made him a muppet who just needs to die. Thank God he isn't not gonna be in Voyage Of The Dawn Treader! Anna Popplewell was just as awful as Moseley was. She was no hero either and she acted like she just wanted the filming to be over and so she won't have to return again. Good job we won't be seeing her in the third film so they are a couple of reasons why that might be better than both of them. Ben Barnes was just so stupid as Prince Caspian! I mean, if he wasn't cast as Prince Caspian, they might as well have cast Robert Pattinson because his acting is about as wooden and plain as Barnes is as Caspian! Shame he's in the third one but at least 2/3 of the pain has gone. Georgie Henley has grown up so quickly after 3 years and she shows once again she is the best actor of the young actors in the franchise. Skandar Keynes slightly disappointed me in this one because Edmund didn't have very much involvement and when he was in a scene, didn't bring out that heroic side to him either so don't think there was any hero in this (except Aslan by the bridge).


Andrew Adamson returns as director and again clearly tries to make another Lord Of The Rings but fails. I mean, The Lord Of The Rings trilogy is one on its own and nothing can replace that so you're gonna make it awful by taking a lot from it. However, despite this I'm not saying it was badly filmed. It was filmed pretty well but just took too much from Peter Jackson. Well, tried to anyway. The script was even cheesier than the first one and this one was even longer than its predecessor anyway but I felt that the film should've been cut by about half an hour.


Overall, The Chronicles Of Narnia: Prince Caspian is a disappointing sequel to its predecessor but it does have its moments of entertainment and charm such as the great effects and make-up, costumes and settings. This is of the Narnia franchise the Attack Of The Clones of the Star Wars franchise and Harry Potter And The Half-Blood Prince of the Harry Potter franchise: not awful, not amazing, in fact not very good, just disappointing. Hope Voyage Of The Dawn Treader will make up for this one.

''You're a mouse.''

''You people have no imagination! ''


The Pevensie siblings return to Narnia, where they are enlisted to once again help ward off an evil king and restore the rightful heir to the land's throne, Prince Caspian.


Ben Barnes: Prince Caspian

Prince Caspian is the 2nd installment of the Narnia series following The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe.
What follows is the Pevensie returning to Narnia after one year has passed for them, they possess all the memories of them growing up as Kings and Queens.
They return to Narnia to find it a new and changed land having endured a gap of 1300 years without them.

We are treated to a new people in the form of the non-magical, Elizabethan Spanish-like, depicted Telmarines.
Prince Caspian played by Ben Barnes, has an exotic Spanish flavoured accent that sounds more like Antonio Banderas. He's a handsome young new comer and a fine addition to a vibrant array of casting.
Sergio Castellitto as King Miraz Caspian's murderous Uncle is a good villain, ruthless and power hungry.

A battle between good and evil takes place in Caspian. Due to the duel aspect of the final battle, the writers decided to add a more straightforward siege to compensate for the machine warfare at the conclusion.
The scene reminiscent of a Minas Tirith battle from Return of the King, adds some nice weight and action, allowing the plot to progress a tad faster and be more interesting than without.

By utilizing it as a chance to show the fallibilities of both Caspian and Peter, it lends more credibility to the idea of resurrecting a former evil to help in the fight against the tyrant Miraz.

Caspian bears alot of similarities to Rings for examples the Telmarines look like Gondor people visually and we have Trees fighting and helping, not to mention a man made of water at a river scene that looked like Arwen's scene in Fellowship.
Although Caspian succeeds in feeling more darker and adult to it's predecessor The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe which was lighter, colourful and more kiddish and magic laden.

Directed once again by quaint director Andrew Adamson who utilizes the land of New Zealand with it's lovely landscapes and settings to breathe life into Prince Caspian the fabled story by Brit C.S Lewis.

Incredible creatures, immense battles, a mysterious Aslan and a White Witch trying to claw her way back into the realms of Narnia. Prince Caspian delivers a family film which can be loved by lovers of the books or family fantasy enthusiasts alike.

Pending Changes...

For me it was just a repetition of the first one: fights, strange creatures and that's all...

And if it's supposed to be for children, it's too violent (although there isn't any blood :D). Otherwise it's too childish, silly. So the viewer doesn't know what public this movie wants to reach.