The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian

The second Chronicles of Narnia film, directed by Andrew Adamson, isn’t quite a disaster, but it comes pretty darn close. If only this film had come in a world without Harry Potter, I think it would have been loads better. Harry Potter was the beginning of the edgy books and films for young people and everyone has been trying to copy their success ever since, with the Chronicles of Narnia films being one of them. The book, Prince Caspian, by Christian theologian C. S. Lewis, was a charming little book, like all of the series, except maybe The Last Battle (I want the series to survive just so I can see what they do with that book). There was danger, but nothing a young child couldn’t handle, and a happy ending was always assured with Lewis’ version of God, Aslan. Now, with the new edgy Harry Potter teens, the film-makers had to make a darker version of Prince Caspian than was necessary. With extra battles and lots of throat cutting and a couple beheadings, the film is an odd mixture of darkness and the light happy ending of the book.

In Prince Caspian, the Pevensie children; Peter, Susan, Edmond, and Lucy, return to Narnia to find that hundreds of years have passed and the Narnians have been nearly exterminated by the evil Talmarines who, in probably the worst decision of the movie, all look like Mexicans. The good Prince Caspian is the rightful heir to the throne of Narnia, but his throne has been seized by his evil uncle, Lord Miraz. Now the Pevensies must help Prince Caspian reclaim his throne and bring peace and prosperity back to the land of Narnia.

The problem with this movie is its contradictory mix of darkness and lightness. Some parts of the movie are all dark, like the failed invasion of the Talmarine fortress; High King Peter must retreat and leave behind half his army to be slaughtered by the Talmarine archers. Other parts of the movie are all lightness, like Lucy’s search for the god of Narnia, Aslan. If the makers had elected to go one way or the other, it would have worked much better. If they had decided to go the darkness route, they could have thrown in some moral ambiguity, you saw a hint of that anyway. Instead, the movie skips over the “wrongs” that Peter commits, instead of arguing whether they were really wrong. If the movie had gone the lighter route, they would have ended up with something more approximating the original story, without half the epic battles, but a lot more heart. The movie would have worked either way, but with choosing neither and trying to walk the line between them, the film-makers spelled the doom of this movie.

The first movie was charming, but this one veers from that to make something a little more adult than its PG rating would imply. Many have said that the Narnia franchise should have died when it lost its distributor last year; I’m more willing to give the series a second chance, but only one. Voyage of the Dawn Treader had better impress me.

-J