The first installment of this franchise, "The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe" was a fun fantasy film with interesting characters and a good storyline. For some reason, this installment attempts to become the new "Lord of the Rings" and falls well short. The first half of the movie is terribly boring as new villains are introduced and Prince Caspian (Ben Barnes) is also brought onto the scene. That is a huge part of the problem. Although the four kids we followed in the first movie are here, they have been reduced to mostly supporting characters in the quest to restore Prince Caspian to the throne of Narnia. In fact, it can be argued that those four characters did not even need to be in this film. It seems like this is almost a completely different universe with the "Narnia" tag just slapped on it. There is little continuity or connection to the first movie. By the time the epic battle begin, you have pretty much tuned out the movie altogether. Glaringly missing from most of the film is Aslan, the lion, and when he finally appears, it is too little, too late. Even with all of that, this may have been a very good film if the runtime was just tightened up a little. Not every fantasy movie needs to emulate "Lord of the Rings" (you could argue that each of those films were way too long, but I know the die-hard "Rings" fans would have my head for that comment!). Grade: D+
Trailer:
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