Product: The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian (Two Disc Edition + BD-Live) [Blu-ray] (2008)
Rating: 5.0
A million times better than the first film
I still remember all the hype surrounding the first Chronicles of Narnia films,The Chronicles of Narnia - The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe (Widescreen Edition), and for all that hype, for all that attention it received (due mainly to the success of The Lord of the Rings films) it ended up being nothing more then a kiddy version of Peter Jackson's epic masterpiece, Lord of the Rings, for kids as it were. I never understood the hype about the first Narnia movie; it really wasn't anything more than a 3 star film, hardly worth gushing over. Not Prince Caspian though, the second installment of films based on C.S. Lewis's classic booksThe Chronicles of Narnia.1,300 years have passed since the kings and queens of Narnia, Peter the High King, Lucy, Susan and Edmund left Narnia. In the time since, a race of men called the Telmarins have invaded the peaceful nation of Narnia and driven the magical inhabitants, the talking beasts, the dwarfs, centaurs, minotaur's, griffins, everything into hiding, fearing for their lives. Prince Caspian is the rightful heir to the thrown of Telmar but his scheming uncle Miraz has just had a son, a son he hopes will someday become king. In order to make this happen, however, he must first get rid of the rightful king, which sets off a chain of events eventually leading to an uprising of the Narnian people against the savage rule of the Telmarin rulers.Prince Caspian is a magical film which is, in every way, the previous films' better. Beautiful landscaping is so common in epic fantasies like this that it's almost a cliché but here it doesn't seem like a mere LOTR copy like so many others. It's landscaping is neatly done, playing up the differences between Lewis's fantasy world and Tolkien's. The ruins of Cair Paravel, the beaches, Aslan's Howl, are all wonderfully realized. The story begins when our four kings and queens of old are summoned to Narnia, when Caspian blows Susan's horn. They are transported to their former dwelling, the castle Cair Paravel, only to find it in ruins and decay. Meeting up with a dwarf they rescue from death, they make their way across the wilderness of Narnia to meet Caspian.The power struggle between Caspian and "High King" Peter gives this movie great tension early on. Caspian is somewhat unsure of himself, having never led men into battle, and allows his will to be overturned by strong opponents. While Peter, by contrast, seems is too sure of himself because of his former status as "High King" and often times refuses to take the advice of others, namely Lucy, whom as testified to in the previous film should always be believed. Peter also refuses to heed Caspian, who's command Peter tries to usurp out of pure spite and pride. It destroys the moral of their soldiers to see their leaders do nothing but bicker and for a while this is all that these two "wannabe" kings accomplish.But the show stealer for this film is not the kings, the centaurs, the giant castles or even Aslan the lion but Reepicheep, a buccaneer like mouse who refuses to let his tiny little size get in the way of glory, honor and pride. Running through the ranks of Telmar soldiers he cuts them off at the knees, asks them for their final words and when they mention the obvious, "Your a mouse" he frustratingly replies, "oh, you humans have no imagination." There are few characters in any movie that are as fun to watch as Reepicheep, his antics and overly prideful sense of himself, despite his size is, as Lucy says, "so cute," but don't say that in front of him. I cannot wait to see him back in the next film, The Voyage of the Dawn Treader. Combine all this with some amazing choreographed fight scenes and this is one amazing film.The only fault I can find in Caspian, if you can call it a fault, is that it comes AFTER The Lord of the Rings. So many plot elements have already been used in LOTR, unfortunately. So although I don't want to penalize this film for that, it does come up repeatedly. Peter and Caspian reaching for power like Boromir reaching for the ring, Susan pulling off her best Legolas impression, the water figure washing away the Telmar horses as they try to cross the river. Yes, it's true to the book for the most part, but it did seem very ringish in many parts.Prince Caspian is not going to be the best film of the year when all is said and done, but it does stand a high chance of standing up there with the best films of 2008. Although it does hold a lot of LOTR elements, I can't really fault it for that since LOTR pretty much did everything, and did everything well. I can only hold my breath for when the much awaited film, The Voyage of the Dawn Treader comes out. I will be waiting for this, The Silver Chair, and possibly The Last Battle.Replay value; High.