Friday 4 July 2008

The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian


The first film based on the book by C.S. Lewis ‘The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe’ was absolutely fantastic. Walt Disney created a family masterpiece from the world famous books about the world of Narnia. The second film based on the second book Prince Caspian: The Return to Narnia came out this summer and is set to be a great summer family smash.

The film directed by Andrew Adamson always had a hard task following the first film which undoubtedly will go down as a family classic film. To begin with the film wasn’t really filling its potential despite the fantastic settings but as the story went along the film gradually was improving. What Prince Caspian did fantastically was build the story of the film to a thrilling end which obviously you don’t appreciate at the beginning of the film when the story is a little slow.

Peter, Susan, Edmond and Lucy are waiting for their train home from school when suddenly they are taking back to Narnia after Prince Caspian (Ben Barnes) blew the horn when he was in trouble in the woods. The way in which the film took you from Strand tube station to the land of Narnia was definitely an impressive technique, using the train to provide the “Wardrobe” from the first film.

Sergio Castellitto played the bad guy and Prince Caspian’s uncle King Miraz and his performance was really impressive. He played the bad King tremendously well which is surprising when you hear that Sergio has never read any of the books or knows little about the novels. Of course the four children played their roles well like they did from the previous film and Prince Caspian’s performance was good too. Characters such as Reepicheep played by Eddie Izzard, Nikabrik played by the fantastic Warwick Davis and finally Peter Dinklage the cynical dwarf Trumpkin were all on top form and provided a great cast.

Throughout the whole film you are waiting and expecting the arrival of Aslan (voiced by Liam Neeson) and he finally appears in fantastic fashion. It is the relationship between Aslan the four children and all of the Narnians that makes the films and the novels so special for everyone who likes a good fairytale adventure film.

As previously said the film builds the story wonderfully to an epic finish between King Miraz’s troops and the Narnians, Prince Caspian and Peter, Susan, Lucy and Edmond. Having said this, the story does not quite live up to ‘The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe’ but it has provided a great summer family blockbuster.

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