At the very outset let me state I did not much like The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, not that it was bad, but it was aimed at the kids and that’s something I am not any longer. I went in to watch Prince Caspian without any expectations, and this probably helped the movie since it did deliver on many fronts. Prince Caspian thankfully is not completely geared towards the kids like The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe. It has a more darker mood and deals with issues like greed, power hungriness, betrayal, and general distrust of anything that’s different from us. While these issues are aimed at the kids, they do also elevate the movie from being purely kid stuff.
Coming to the story, it would be worth your while to rent out 2005’s The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe if you have not seen it. It’s not that The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian will not make sense or that you will not enjoy it, but catching up on The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe will put things in perspective and set things up nicely for Prince Caspian.
The movie opens with the Pevensie kids in our world in 1940s London Underground. The Pevensie kids played by Georgie Henley, Skandar Keynes, William Moseley and Anna Popplewell are back at school and wishing they were back in Narnia. Well wishes do always come true so they are whisked back to Narnia right from London Underground, but the Narnia they arrive to is nothing like the Narnia they knew from The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe. Instead this Narnia is desolate, overgrown with weeds and even berefit of magic. The reason is Telmarines (us humans in Narnia) have gone about destroying all things non‑Telmarine since they absolutely abhor all things magical, mystical and fairy like since they are things they do not understand. Of course it has taken the Telmarines 1300 odd years to accomplish this and it is to this Narnia of 1300 years later that the Pevensie kids return to from London Underground of the 1940s. The kingdom of Narnia is being ruled by Sergio Castellitto who has killed his own brother the actual King of Narnia and is now out to kill the heir in line to the throne Ben Barnes his nephew. Ben Barnes is warned of the danger to his life and helped to escape by his tutor Vincent Grass who tells him to run into the woods since no Telmarine will enter into the jungle rightly so. Once in the jungle, Ben Barnes comes into contact with the original inhabitants of Narnia like talking animals, dwarfs and other mystical creatures and promptly blows the trumpet that belongs to Anna Popplewell to summon the Kings and Queens of Old i.e. the Pevensie kids.
The rest of the story is how the Pevensie kids, Ben Barnes and the original inhabitants of Narnia get together to overcome the Telmarine army and destroy the evil king Sergio Castellitto. Also, Lucy played by Georgie Henley is on her own quest to find out the whereabouts of Aslan the Lion from The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe the central character of the series and also the original King of Narnia since she believes Aslan will come to their rescue and also rescue the kingdom of Narnia just like he did in The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe. Aslan does show up and does help the kids in their quest, but also explains to Lucy and the rest of the kids that things don’t always happen the same way and they should not expect to be rescued the same way always. With the battle against the evil king Sergio Castellitto won its time for the kids to return to London Underground again, but not without important lessons about life learnt in Narnia.
Prince Caspian could have done better with a more menacing villain since we do miss   Tilda Swinton (the witch) from The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe who is shown only in a cameo in Prince Caspian as is Aslan (the Lion). The visuals are breathtaking all around, the performances are good and the two battle scenes are captured very well and are reminiscent of The Lord Of The Rings trilogy though not in the same league. The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian is a good time at the movies and will not disappoint many.
Good review… you seem to be watching a lot of movies
Btw, just in case you haven't subscribed to my RSS, could you pls do the same? (Will help me in having regular readership)
Ajith
Btw, check your RSS module…it doesn't seem to get updated? I am still seeing two weeks old posts
This seems to be fixed now. I did not do much posting this month so guess FeedBurner too was caught napping, but now its showing all the lastest posts. Thanks for informing.
Yeah, watch a lot of movies right from my childhood. Thinking of starting a movies review site but need more time on my hands to maintain it. Will subscribe to your blog immediately.
the makers of Prince Caspian kept to the original story surprisingly well… i heard they were going to make it into a silly pure-action flick, but thankfully this was not the case
Thanks Patrick for stopping by. I did read in a review that the first battle scene was written in by the director and the script writer and that the original novel has only the last battle scene. The first one was written in to make things more entertaining it seems. I for myself have not read any of the Narnia books so cannot say for sure, but I do remember coming across this bit.
This movie is just great
much better than i expected
I am a fan of narnia series now
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Totally agree with you Scott. I found the 2nd part to be darker and more geared towards adults or young adults and not children though.