Narnia: Prince Caspian

Initial Thoughts

            In my last review of the first film, I said that the first movie was a master piece that sets the bar fairly high for the second film. And overall they did fix most if not all of the issues I had with the first film. However new problems are now present with Prince Caspian.

            But does Prince Caspian still have the overall feel and charm of the first film? Let’s find out, here’s Prince Caspian!

Story/Plot 20 out of 25

            Let’s start with the story. The story, while good, still had some plot points that have been used a lot in other films, such as Prince Caspian having an uncle who wants his throne, blah, blah, blah. But what separates this storyline from other similar storylines, is the amazing plot devices used all throughout. Let me explain, even though we have all seen this idea before, in other instances, the two kingdoms would be separate and of equal strength, not so here, the Narniaian’s are now rebels within the realm of Narnia now being ruled by the Telmarines. And the Narniaian’s are now bordering on being classified as savage beasts, lurking in the forests, stalking there pray, and stuff like that.

           

            That was just one example of how the clever and well placed plot devices and plot elements help cover up the over used story ideas.

            Also the pacing in this movie as to when all the events occur is especially important, pacing is crucial in many if not all films however it is very important here. Why? Well because the pacing of the plot and story elements determine when and where the characters will interact with each other, especially later in the movie. For example, when Prince Caspian meets all of the Narniaians, the begin treating him like he’s their king, however when the “kings of old” come around, the army almost immediately shift there attention away from Caspian almost indeffently. This creates a lot of tension between the kings of old and Caspian, making for some interesting dialogue and interactions. But if the kings of old had somehow seen the Narnian army before Caspian (Maybe they could have stumbled across them I don’t know) than even if Caspian had shown up, the Narnians wouldn’t have paid as much attention to him at all, and even though he may become jealous of the kings of old, he wouldn’t have any reason to personally hate them for de-throning him.

So all in all, very clever way of covering up an overused story, by using amazing pacing and fantastic new and fresh plot devices, elements, and twists.

Characters 30 out of 30

            Even though the storyline was a little bit worse than the first film, the characters defiantly pick up slack. Even though a lot of the movie is focused around the kings of old, it still isn’t as much as it was in the first film. Prince Caspian and the Telmarines are the main, main focus of the film. And I must say that Lord Miraz is running for the best villain award. This bad guy is far more intimidating than the white witch for one main reason.

            Power. Even though the white witch was the “queen of Narnia”, she never really did anything that would suggest her right to rule. Sure she did cruel things and had a pretty awesome looking army, but she didn’t really feel that powerful. Lord Miraz on the other hand has not only a professional looking kingdom, but it’s also established that Narnia is not the only place that the Telmarines currently inhabit, Miraz also has a pretty impressive army as well, but the difference is that you see him interact with the army’s where about’s and movements, you also see him concentrate on the task at hand rather than simply walk around being evil like the white witch had a tendency to do.

            Prince Caspian, Miraz’s rival, is competing for the throne against Miraz. However He is not the only rival that Prince Caspian has, high king Peter is also a close foe of Caspian Mainly because of the consistent power struggle that is almost consistently occurring between Miraz, Caspian and Peter.

            Right from the very beginning Caspian and Peter loath each other, why? Because of the throne of Narnia. At first it seems like Caspian will be leading the Narnians because they establish him as their leader first, however once the high king comes along, Caspian goes through de-thronement, that and Peter’s extremely prideful personality in this movie leads to Caspian Loathing him. Which creates some interesting scenarios between the two as tensions build more and more every single scene there in, which also creates lots of suspense.

            One last point, the four kings and queens of old have also changed a bit, for example, instead of Edmund being the rebel, it seems as if Susan has become the rebel, and Edmund has found his place within Narnia. Susan feels like a rebel, because she is consistently talking about how she misses England, and unlike the first film, she is looking out for herself more, rather than her trying to keep the family safe. This creates a little bit of contrast between her and the rest of the group, and creates emotions for the audience as they tend not to want to see characters leave the scene.

Soundtrack/Battle Scenes/Writing 40 out of 45

            In my previous review I mentioned how some soundtracks seemed out of place, and a little recycled, well that’s not the case here! There were many freshly composed scores composed for this movie, and each one fit the scene perfectly! 

Also a complainant in the first film was the lack of epicness in most battle scenes, but again, not the case here. The battle scenes and SGI effects have been made so much better, at some points it seems better than LOTR! They do this by adding in thundering sound effects, a brand new epic soundtrack, and tons of different camera angles for the viewer to look at the action from. And finally the duel between Peter and Miraz feels so much better than the first films duel between the witch and peter because of the listed reasons.     

And finally the writing, the writing in Prince Caspian is defiantly more eventful than the first movie. Even though the film still went into great detail about each characters mind and what they were feeling and such, it still feels like most of the writing was focused on the events, there were many different events which occurred during Prince Caspian, defiantly more than what was in the first film. This gives it quite a different overall feel; it makes this trip to Narnia feel much more drastic and eventful, because of this writing style.

Final Verdict

90/100

Magnificent

Just like how Prince Caspian followed in the footsteps of his father as being noble, this movie followed in the footsteps of its legendary predecessor. And although it didn’t get a higher mark than the first movie, because of its interesting take on the story and cool plot devices, and the amazing characters, and the fantastic heart stopping combat, this movie defiantly earns the rank of Magnificent!