"The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian" takes everything that was good about the first installment and loses the magic to a plodding script and uninteresting characters.
"The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe" stood out with a compelling story, action and actors (the marvelous Tilda Swinton made the evil White Witch someone you'd gladly follow, even onto death, and James McAvoy and Jim Broadbent provided great support). You didn't care that the four leading child heroes (Georgie Henley, Skander Keynes, William Moseley and Anna Popplewell) were just OK actors. They were supposed to be overwhelmed by the strange world around them.
This sequel has the child actors at a semi-better pace, but they have no real support either in cast or script. Swinton has a fleeting cameo that is the film's highlight, but she's gone in a literal flash. Instead we get three ho-hum, unknown actors playing a trio of power hungry villains -- they seek to crush all Narnians and kill the titular hero -- so one-note and interchangeable, I won't even bother looking up any names. Only Peter Dinklage ("Death at a Funeral") makes impact as a Narnian.
"The Lion..." made you feel a magical world was at stake as the White Witch took control of one of the hero boys and the Christ-like lion (voiced by Liam Neeson) sacrificed himself. Nothing comes close here. Oh, there's more action here and better visual effects, but no soul and no drive. God makes a cameo, by the way. There's a third film on the way, let's hope it's better. C
Lean on Pete
6 years ago
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