As a result, the new characters have gotten blander. Newbie hero Caspian, evokes confusion rather than self-doubt. He’s unbearably naive. Yet in the battles, he morphs into a hotheaded swordsman out of The Princess Bride. Barnes, who plays Caspian, seems cast for his looks. His forlorn locks are great for entrancing 12-year-old girls and their moms.
The only endearing characters we meet are the dwarf Trumpkin (Peter Dinklage) and the mouseketeer Reepicheep (Eddie Izzard). Heroes of the first film, the Pevensies, have lost most of their personalities. Only Lucy preserves her wide-eyed wonder at Narnia. Like before, Georgie Henley brings another joyful performance as Lucy.
Fairy tale villains are hated, feared, but secretly liked. King Miraz is a wimp compared to the White Witch. All he does is slap a dwarf around and kill a couple of insolent subordinates. In the first movie, The White Witch was nothing less than Satan. She turned Narnia’s version of Jesus into a fur coat; now that’s evil!
After making more than a billion dollars on the first movie, the filmmakers forgot about faithfully translating C.S Lewis’s themes to film. Nor did they remember to write developed scripts and characters. Prince Caspian is such a transparent character. I can only hope he’s better defined as a king in Voyage of the Dawn Treader, the next movie in the series. I hope that one is made with more care.
Grade: C
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