The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian

What’s it about?
Following the highly successful first instalment, The Lion the Witch and the Wardrobe, CS Lewis’ dusty prose are given the Hollywood treatment once again. After their adventure in the first outing, which to my mind was pretty mediocre, the Pevensie siblings are magically transported back to Narnia to do battle with a murderous king who is hell bent on usurping the titular Prince Caspian.

Is it any good?
It’s truly spectacular. Not only is it a visual treat, with lavish amounts of special effects, but the cinematography and photography are on par with the Lord of the Rings trilogy. The Pervensie siblings also have come to life in this follow up. Gone are the mannequin like performances that plagued the predecessor and in come a believable, charming and quite likeable family.

There are many set pieces in this that can only be described as jaw dropping. All are delivered at a pace and in a style that leaves you wondering whether the 140mins allocated to this magnificent spectacle was sufficient. It’s a tall task to ask the films intended audience to sit through well over two hours, however, this is probably why the film will be a phenomenal success on its release. You do spend a lot of time getting to know the family the pay off for your investment is a set of well drawn and thought out characters.

Never has the phrase parental guidance been more relevant to anything more than it is here. It’s dark, exceptionally so.

You’ll remember this bit?
Did I mention that it’s dark? Epic battle scenes aplenty you’ll sit agahast as the family lay waste to hordes of invaders…now this is where you may have a conflict of conscience. What do I mean, well…given the spate of teenaged violence that the media has paraded on its front pages over the last six months or so, it may be particularly hard going to watch as the Pevensie’s hack and slash to wild abandon.

E.T.A: 26.06.08