The Chronicles of Narnia-Prince Caspian is better than the first one, but darker

* * * (out of 5)

I saw the first "Chronicles--The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe" on video and remember enjoying it, but did not remember too much about it. So I had to catch up quick when I saw Prince Caspian, because the makers of this film assumed that people would remember what happened in the last one. I watch fantasy movies, but they've never been my favorite, even when I as a child, because I hate when a character relies on magic to get out of a sticky situation. For me the Star Wars series started going downhill when the Force became strong in Luke Skywalker. If a character can rely on something other than his brawn and his wits, my mind starts to check out. That goes for religious stories as well. Jesus magically increases the amount of fish, bread and wine at a wedding, ehh okay. But Jesus stops a band of idiots from stoning Mary Magdalene by talking them out of it, that's much cooler.

So a little girl with a bottle of little drops of bring-back-to-life juice doesn't grab me as much as Prince Caspian literally taking out the ground from beneath his foes. When the four Pevensie siblings from the first movie are brought back to Narnia in this movie, they are a year older in London time, but Narnia is 1,300 years older. All the good they accomplished in the first movie is for naught as the evil General Miraz has effectively killed off most of the woodland creatures we came to love. Now he is after the head of Prince Caspian, the rightful heir to the throne. With him dead, Miraz can become king.

Now the kids must reclaim their positions in this world and their armor and prepare to fight the human Telmarines, lead by Miraz. It won't be easy since they are far outnumbered. They could use a wizard like Gandalf to help with matters, but the great lion Aslan appears to be dead. So it is mostly left up to the growing egotist and oldest brother King Peter and the older and more charismatic Prince Caspian to hatch a plan. The humans are much less interesting in these films than the creatures. Well almost all the humans. Trumpkin the dwarf (Peter Dinklage) has a world-weary way about him that counters the high-spirited kids. But there is a great skunk, squirrel, bear and especially mouse who are both brave and funny and add tons of fun to some otherwise gloomy scenarios.

With Lord of the Rings, its most obvious comparison, there was a single storyline that carried you through all three movies. That ring had to reach Mordor or the world would be ruled by evil. You could say it was stretched out unnecessarily, but at least you knew that would be the finale. But with Narnia, there is no reason I see to make another movie. What more can be achieved? I understand I haven't read the books, but I didn't need to read any Star Wars books to know that the Evil Empire had to be destroyed. Darth Vader still lived after Star Wars and Han Solo had to be rescued after Empire. Narnia doesn't have an end game that is clear to the casual viewer. And after its meager box office returns it might not have a chance. Disney shot itself in the foot when it turned down the opportunity to make the Lord of the Rings trilogy and now it's making a series of films that few people seem to care about.

The Freditor