The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian

Well it is now week 3 in the summer 2008 lineup and we have another big-budget film debuting this week. The movies title is The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian

To review so far. Week 1. Iron Man B+. It is a hit.
Week 2. Speed Racer B. Huge miss, I do not know how much $ this film will lose.

Now this film is part 2 of a planned 4 part stories based on the series of novels,The Chronicles of Narnia written by C.S. Lewis in the 1950s. The film deals with what happened to Narnia while the 4 kings were away.

The Narnia series has always been hard for me to watch at the movies and even harder for me to review. The reason is that I haven't read any of the books in over 30 years. I have no idea if they are faithful to the source and what if any changes were made to the material.

So I do this review without any knowledge of the book.

"Prince Caspian" is a much slower pace than the last film and for some people this will be a huge turn-off. I found it to be as, one would watch pawns on a chess board, moving slowly but with a goal. It was slow but it has to be slow. What I liked about this slow pace was "Peter" He is the High-King but he is so unsure of himself. It was nice to see him grown into the leader that I thought that he could be.

What was also nice is when Aslan does finally show up, its not over the top. It was like a child who believes in him would and that part of the film so worked for me.

What I really liked was the mouse creature, Reepicheep (Voiced by Eddie Izzard). Looking at this fighter one is never sure what he actually is but it works.

Please do not stay for the credits, there is no surprise at the end.

The film works for me because I believe the story that I am seeing and you see the whole of the men, with their flaws and all. It came across as people trying to save the day but not really sure how.

Please see it when you can.

Grade B

Opened in Korea 15 May 2008