Friday 24 December 2010

Film Review: THE CHRONICLES OF NARNIA: PRINCE CASPIAN (2008)


NOTE: This is a revised review I originally published in 2009, having recently seen the film again, I thought it warranted a bit of a re-write.


Director: Andrew Adamson
Running time: 150 mins (approx)
Certification (UK): PG

UK release date: 26th June 2008

Watched on TV Friday 24th December 2010.

PLEASE NOTE: THERE MAY BE SPOILERS IN THIS REVIEW.

Although I have not read the Narnia books, apart from ‘The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe’ (misplaced childhood I suppose), I quite enjoyed this film. A great adventure with superb special effects, locations, costumes and musical score. But I digress, here’s a short summary before I tell you what I really think (summary haters please wait on the platform while I write the next paragraph).

The Pevensie children, Peter, Susan, Edmund, and Lucy return to Narnia when called by Prince Caspian. Many hundreds of years have passed since they left. The Prince has escaped after his uncle tried to kill him and claim his throne. The ancient Kings and Queens are needed to rally all the creatures of Narnia against Miraz, Caspian’s evil uncle and the Telmarine, Prince Caspian’s people. They also seek the help of Aslan who seems to have forsaken the creatures of Narnia. It’s quite a long and complicated plot, but a very well made film.

Some great locations were used, mainly in the Czech Republic, New Zealand and Poland and the score, I found, was just right. There was a lot of use of CGI, essential to tell this story, which was all done to a very high standard. Great performances again from Georgie Henley as Lucy, Skandar Keynes as Edmund, William Moseley as Peter and Anna Popplewell as Susan, all reprising their roles from The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe (2005). Also, Ben Barnes was excellent as Prince Caspian. Honourable mentions go to Sergio Castellitto as King Miraz, Peter Dinklage as Trumpkin and Eddie Izzard as Reepicheep (voice), the comic relief.

Over all, a tremendous fantasy adventure and great family entertainment with a really good story. Fantastic locations, a great score, some great battle scenes, a very well produced and directed film, although I felt it wasn’t as good as its forerunner, The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe (2005) and did get a little bogged down in the middle, but still… recommended.

My score: 7.4/10

LINKS:
IMDb Page: http://uk.imdb.com/title/tt0499448/
Trailer: http://uk.imdb.com/rg/VIDEO_PLAY/LINK/video/imdb/vi1793261849/

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