Product: The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian (Two Disc Edition + BD-Live) [Blu-ray] (2008)
Rating: 5.0
My name is Prince Caspian. You killed my father. Prepare to die.
Without going into too much detail about the movie, I think that it's an overall success. Many can nitpick from beginning to end, but this is a fun, well-made movie that follows the book very closely.The four kids have grown up after a few years away from Narnia - even though the ratio of Earth years to Narnia years is roughtly 1:1300. During that time away, the Narnians have been under siege and face the threat of extinction. In fact, humans from that age, the Telmarines, believe the Narnians to be extinct since their ancestors have savagely attacked the Narnians for centuries.At the presetn Narnian time, Prince Caspian is about to be usurped as the ruler of Telmarine, because his uncle Miraz has just had a son who is the potential heir to a throne. As medieval custome would have it, an assassination attempt is about to ensue.Naturally, Prince Caspian ends up summoning the Pevensies back to Narnia where they team up alongside the Narnian animals to fight against the xenophobic Telmarines. Just as the first movie, it's still great to see the animals on the side of the humans; the fight scenes take a ton of imagination and some very believable CGI. From gnomes to minotaurs, fawns to sphinxes, and even non-mythical animals that can speak, it's one for all and all for one. Speaking of that philosophy, the Musketeer theme, a swashbuckling mouse stole the whole show. From the minute he appeared, he reminded me of the cat in Shrek, with prim and proper attitude, incredible swordsmanship, and a sense of dignity as a fighter.The sweet innocence takes a back-seat in this sequel. Whereas they were children before, the Pevensies are now much more mature - on screen as well as in real life. It's similar to the Harry Potter series; the kids can't stay the same age and the story must evolve. As a result, there is quite a bit more action in this movie, the battle scenes are harsher, and there is obviously some killing going on...some of which at the hands of the children. Personally, I like this change.There are only two problems I had with the movie, both of which have been mentioned by other reviewers. The river scene was stolen straight out of the LOTR movies, as was the tree fighting scenes. Although, the trees didn't have faces in this version, and used their roots as strangling tools, whips, and bats. I don't care when the books were written and who came up with the original idea first. When someone comes out with a thunder-stealing movie before yours is supposed to be created and/or release, it should be modified for originality. Nontheless, it's a great movie, and I'll happily devour every book-to-movie translation of the series.