The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian (PG)

Director: Andrew Adamson

Starring: 
Ben Barnes ... Prince Caspian
Georgie Henley ... Lucy Pevensie
Skandar Keynes ... Edmund Pevensie
William Moseley ... Peter Pevensie
Anna Popplewell ... Susan Pevensie

Telmarine’s King Miraz wants to take over Narnia, but to do that, and keep the throne in his familiy's blood line he has to kill the true heir to the throne Prince Caspian. Caspian is forewarned by a college professor and he runs away into Narnia. He thinks that all the Narnians are dead but he soon discovers that his assumptions are wrong. In the face of danger he blows Queen Susan’s magical horn which brings Peter, Susan, Edmund and Lucy back to Narnia. Whilst they are there, they have to save Narnia from King Miraz, they are in the deepest trouble and everyone is likely to die and still Aslan hasn’t arrived.

After watching the boring adverts and gave up wondering why a friend had taken a book with her (“I don’t like adverts,” was her reason) and got all my loud friends to be relatively quite I settled down to enjoy Adamson’s 144 minute master piece.

I thought Prince Caspian was a great fantasy film. The animation was fantastic; some of the animals weren’t totally realistic (the mice and a cat) but it worked very well as they were more comical characters. The mythical Centaurs were created very well with just the right mix of horse and human. There was a very big fight scene that had a lot of CGI animals but the graphics were really good and very believable.

The lead mouse reminded me very much of Puss in Boots from Shrek which only added to the comical moments especially with his response to Caspian’s line: “You’re a mouse,” and his conversation with a certain lion at the end was very funny too. The funny moments weren’t as funny as to destroy the film though, but they made the whole theatre laugh and made the experience all the more enjoyable.

The relationship between all the characters is portrayed very well as there is a high standard of acting throughout. Susan (Anna Popplewell )is in some amazing screen shots but the one that I think is the most memorable is when she is alone in the forest and faces a group of Miraz’s men alone with just her bow and arrows for protection. She just stands there ready to fight, knowing that she'll probably not survive. She’ll do anything to save Narnia. The fight sequence was thrilling to watch, the choreography is captivating as she meets her end the tension in the audience grew and grew. That was only one of the tense moments that had the whole theatre spell bound.

The music only added another level to the atmosphere, all the songs worked perfectly with the scenes that they were placed with.

I thoroughly enjoyed this film even though I didn’t see Narnia, but having read the book helped me to understand what was going on. I wouldn’t say that knowing the story of Narnia is necessary to fully understand what’s happening but it does help. I’d recommend it to people over 9 or 10