Prince Caspian 2008
I saw this on a plane trip and maybe the best thing about the movie is that it ended as we were taxiing to the terminal. Other than ending promptly, Prince Caspian is still a solid movie. In The Lion, The Witch, and the Wardrobe the movie followed the children through those events, but couldn’t possibly also cover the 10-20 years they spent as kings and queens of Narnia. So this movie gets to flesh some of that out, and we see they aren’t that happy about having gone from being kings and queens back to kids in London again, reliving their awkard years despite having been quite successful as adults. We also get to see during that time they became expert fighters and horsemen, so when they are tossed into an unfamiliar Narnia of the far future, they are both at home and once again fish out of water. It is very satisfying to see Narnians realize that these kids are the legendary kings and queens, as if the American founding fathers were to show up today.
So the set-up is very good, but the plot is a little labored. There are huge fights, political manuevering, arguments among the kids, and so on, but the means by which things are ultimately resolved is disappointingly familiar, leaving viewers to wonder why they didn’t just do that at the beginning.
This movie is worth watching. If audiences weren’t already worn out from other big budget mega-series movies like Lord of the Rings and Harry Potter, this would be great filmmaking. Instead of big and familiar, this would seem grand and original. As it is, it is just worth watching. B
Written: 15 Aug 2008