Dir.
Andrew Adamson, US, 2008, 147 mins
Cast: Ben Barnes, Georgie Henley, Skandar Keynes, William
Moseley, Anna Popplewell
Review by Matthew Rodgers
Much has changed since
the cupboard quietly creaked open for 2005’s rather wooden The
Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe. As well as the notable absence of
the stained, teak gateway to Narnia, the Pevensie children
this time are summoned back to a very different world from
the faun-filled landscape of Andrew Adamson’s original.
The good news though is that Prince
Caspian slashes away the memory of that successful, yet
bland, start by dropping the religious allegories, darkening
the tone (something of a pre-requisite for sequels to kids’ films
these days) and upping the comedy and acting chops.
Stepping to the forefront is newcomer Ben Barnes as Caspian,
who exudes the required good looks of a would-be king even
as he struggles with a faux-Spanish accent. He is, however,
a square jawed fulcrum on which to hang the film's admittedly
slight plot. This time set around 1,000 years later in a
world in which all Narnians, who have been driven away by
the militaristic Telmarines, hide and await the return of
their monarchs from the land of Finchley.
He is aided by a much improved quartet
of kids who have matured in the intervening years. Both
Popplewell and Moseley were barely passable first time
out, but have developed beyond their dumbfounded looks
and “stick up the back” pronunciations
to achieve an acceptable level of acting prowess. Keynes’ Edmund
also has more to do than scowl this time round and his rapport
with Wardrobe’s shining light Henley provides the only
believable relationship in the film (James McAvoy’s
Tumnus is sorely missed).
It’s down to the non-human – and for that read
CGI, or caked in make-up – to supply Caspian with its
real pulse. Peter Dinklage is fantastic as grumpy dwarf Trumpkin.
Perhaps a little clichéd as far as dwarfs go, his
addition dilutes the overtly serious dialogue spouted by
the young actors and raises a smile on each occasion. Add
to the menagerie Eddie Izzard's feisty turn as swashbuckling
mouse Reepicheep, a rodent who would need more than a lump
of cheese and wire frame to bring him down, and you have
the light-heartedness missing from the over-earnest original.
The quality control improvement also
applies to Adamson’s
direction with the blinding palette of the first film replaced
with the weather worn look of a slightly grim alternate world.
It’s the sign of a film-maker much more comfortable
with the huge set-pieces and borderless canvas that Lewis’s
imagination provides.
What the movie does lack however is
a real sense of threat, not just because of the bloodless
harmlessness of the choreographed battles but mainly thanks
to the absence of a real villain. Gone is Tilda Swinton’s
perfectly cast and performed White Witch only to be replaced
with King Miraz, a political tyrant whose cowardice means
he barely rises above pantomime villain
A step in the right direction before Michael Apted takes
us on The Voyage of the Dawn Treader in 2010, Prince Caspian
is enjoyable enough to make that a journey worth anticipating.
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