All the magic of the first film is gone in Prince Caspian, the second screen adaptation of C.S. Lewis's beloved Chronicles of Narnia series of juvenile novels. The first movie was endowed with an epic spiritual significance. This one pushes most of its allegory to the side and is more of fantasy adventure film, to its detriment.
Perhaps the movie obvious problem is with the villain. In the first picture, it was the White Witch (Tilda Swinton), who was a clear metaphor for the Devil. In this film, the bad guy is Miraz (Sergio Castellitto) who is merely trying to steal the throne of the Telmarine Kingdom, which rightfully belongs to Prince Caspian (Ben Barnes). There is step down in the gravity of the conflict from the literal embodiment of evil to an over ambitious monarch. The second kind of story has been told better in many times, from Shakespeare to Robin Hood to Braveheart
Returning director Andrew Adamson certainly succeeds in giving the movie an impressive look of spectacle- Narnia and Telmarine look real, and we accept them as physical location. The art direction, makeup and special effects are magnificent- the CGI does not look phony as it so often does. It is the fact that this picture is so pleasurable to look at that I give it a recommendation. It needs to be seen on a big screen to have its full impact. But Adamson fails in giving us much of a reason to care about this story or the characters, who are rather shallowly written. The worst of all is Caspian himself, who is given little to do other than other than run, fight with his sword, and occasionally get mad.
This is certainly not the fault of Barnes or any of the actors. Some of the younger children, who came off as fake in the first film, have clearly improved. Rather, it's the fault of a script that trapped between real psychology driven characters and archetypal, and choosing an awkward compromise in the middle.
Much of the appeal of the Narnia books and films is that they of course are strongly influenced by Christianity (although neither overtly proselytize to the audience and can be enjoyed be people of all faiths). While I found the first film a somewhat spiritual experience, I found the metaphor here painfully simplistic, or perhaps I just didn't get (I have not read the book). Either way, I was unmoved by this film. After you've seen a struggle for good and evil, it's kind of hard to get excited about one for petty political power.
The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian (2008)