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The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian (2008)

Rating: 2 Stars (out of 4)

Yawn-nia

By Jeffrey M. Anderson

Buy The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian on DVD

Our four kings and queens, Lucy Pevensie (Georgie Henley), Edmund Pevensie (Skandar Keynes), Peter Pevensie (William Moseley) and Susan Pevensie (Anna Popplewell), return to Narnia. Even though very little time has passed in England, hundreds of years have passed there. When his treacherous uncle Miraz (Sergio Castellitto) tries to have him killed, Prince Caspian (Ben Barnes) escapes and summons the Pevensies. He also discovers that the Narnians are not extinct, as he has been taught, and that his family, the Telmarines, have wrongly taken power. He also learns that his uncle killed his father. With such a one-dimensional bad guy for an uncle, Caspian sides with the Narnians, consisting of little people, centaurs, talking mice and other creatures, as well as the Pevensie siblings. From there, it's basically a war, with arguing, strategy sessions and long, boring battle sequences, and very little in the way of character development, humor or joy. Andrew Adamson directs with no personality or glee, framing the conflict as if it were already played out rather than happening before our eyes. He copies everything from the current playbook, using sweeping camera angles when he wants to show off his CG sets and switching to clunky hand-held for fight scenes. The actors are lost in all this mess; they simply react, mouths agape, to special effects that they obviously can't see. The only good thing about the last film, The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe (2005) was Tilda Swinton, who showed genuine disgust for the sheer incompetence all around her, but she only turns up for a few moments here, and there's no one else to take her place. (Eddie Izzard comes close, providing the voice for a swashbuckling mouse.) The picture is a dud, but that won't stop it from making a fortune. Also available on Blu-Ray.

AskMen.com: The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian

Starring: Ben Barnes, Georgie Henley, Skandar Keynes, William Moseley, Anna Popplewell, Sergio Castellitto, Peter Dinklage, Warwick Davis, Vincent Grass, Pierfrancesco Favino, Cornell John, Damián Alcázar, Alicia Borrachero, Simón Andreu, Predrag Bjelac, Eddie Izzard (voice), Liam Neeson (voice)
Written by: Andrew Adamson, Christopher Markus, Stephen McFeely, based on a novel by C.S. Lewis
Directed by: Andrew Adamson
MPAA Rating: PG for epic battle action and violence
Running Time: 144 minutes
Date: May 16, 2008