Don’t Bother With Prince Caspian

By Dan Hudak

The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian doesn’t wow audiences like it could have.

Trees. It all comes down to trees. After 140 minutes of following ambitious English brats as they try to save Middle Earth, err, Narnia from hostile takeover, trees spring to life and land the decisive blow in The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian.

In an ironic way, it’s fitting. Trees are big, imposing and rather boring, which just about sums up this movie: It’s grand in scope and quite long, but also pretty dull on occasion and thoroughly mediocre the rest of the time.

The Pevensie children are one year older than in the 2005 hit The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe, which means Susan (Anna Popplewell) and Peter (William Moseley) are experiencing teenage awkwardness. They, like their younger brother Edmund (Skandar Keynes) and sister Lucy (Georgie Henley), want to return Narnia, where they’re royalty and anything but ordinary kids.

There wouldn’t be a movie if they didn’t get their wish. Hundreds of years have passed in Narnia since they were there, and things are not as they left them. Heir to the throne Prince Caspian (Ben Barnes) has vacated the capital because his power-hungry Uncle Miraz (Sergio Castellitto) wants him dead so Miraz’s newborn son can be the next king. Desperate, the fleeing and fearful Caspian uses a horn given him by Dumbledore look-a-like Dr. Cornelius (Vincent Grass) to summon the Pevensie kids, and is then kidnapped by two little people named Nikabrik (Warwick Davis) and Trumpkin (Peter Dinklage).

One reason the movie feels flat is there’s no sense of urgency or real danger. It takes an hour for Caspian to find the Pevensies, and the methodical pace desperately needs a boost of energy. It’s always difficult to streamline a dense novel, and C.S. Lewis’ source material is full of hearty cinematic fodder. The problem is not with what they’ve chosen, but with how long it takes to depict what they kept; we don’t need four scenes of the Pevensies figuring out where they are when one will suffice.

Director and co-writer Andrew Adamson is clearly trying to make The Lord of the Rings for kids, and the beatific scenery, brick-and-mortar castles, crossbows and sword-fighting scenes do evoke memories of Rings. But they also remind us how much better the story and action could have been.

For example, in one scene, large boulders are catapulted from one end of the battlefield to the other, and impressive CGI work shows the rocks fly through the air. However, the same scene in Rings gave us a close-up of the boulder as it left the catapult, and stayed with it as it flew through the air and made a devastating impact. Seeing the boulder only from a distance in Caspian doesn’t involve or wow us as Rings did, and it lessens the effectiveness of the scene.

Instead of paying good money to see Caspian, go outside and stare at trees for two and a half hours. The end effect will be the same.

Comments? E-mail letters@miamisunpost.com