Through all this, Lucy is the only one who can see Aslan the lion (voiced by Liam Neeson). No one else believes her, and the lion's great advice is "Things never happen the same way twice." This is a far cry from the deeper wisdom dispensed in the first film. In the end, however, he saves them all, in a deus ex machina, and sends some Telmarines back to their world, and the four kids back to the London subway, just at the point they left; hence showing that the whole film was merely a delusion of a moment; one of the oldest plot devices in literature. Furthermore, out of the blue, Aslan tells the two oldest kids- Peter and Susan, that they've learnt all they could in Narnia, and will never return. This is when Susan kisses Caspian, and departs.
Some critics have harped on the fact that the Telmarines are all swarthy Spanish Conquistadore types, while the kids are Anglo whitebreads, but for this criticism to have any weight there would have to be a much more nuanced approach to the characterization. All the Telmarines could have been Girl Scouts, and it would not have mattered, for they all act in such manifestly 'bad guy' ways that their being swarthy Mediterraneans is an afterthought.
Similarly, claims that the film relies too heavily on Christian iconography and a Colonial White Man's Burden mindset are rented by the utter shallowness of the screenplay. Christian/Schmistian — Aslan is just a magical lion, at home with any set of mythologies, not just the Christian one. Furthermore, since Adamson, as director, added story arcs the original book did not have, why did he not make some major changes to add zip to the tale? After all, Miraz is hardly a threat, and the fight scene between him and Peter is rather pathetic. Meanwhile, the minute or two that the White Witch (Tilda Swinton) spends in the film is far more intriguing. She would have been a far better antagonist.
Overall, The Chronicles Of Narnia: Prince Caspian is still better fare, especially for children, than any of the three overblown and pompous LOTR films, but compared to the far superior first entry in this series, it is a profound disappointment. One only hopes that Adamson can parallax the first two films and take the few things that work well in this film, and add them back to the excellence of the first film, so that the third entry, slated for 2010, The Voyage Of The Dawn Treader, is the best of the trio. Elsewise, fans of The Matrix will be happy that their trilogy is no longer considered the most disappointing sci fi/fantasy series Hollywood has produced.
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