The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian

      Prince Caspian (2008)   is bigger, bolder and better than Than The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe (2005). Why it took three years to come up with the second installment in the Chronicles of Narnia series is a mystery. They had best hurry for the subsequent efforts will find the children not children at all. Outside of this criticism I found the film to be greatly improved from the first. I have a scale rather than thumbs up or down that is 1- 10 with 10 being the best. Out of Africa for me would be an example of a movie that I rate as a 10. The Harry Potter movies all fall between 8 and 10 on my scale. I gave The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe a 6 when it came out. 

  Andrew Adamson is the driving force of both of these films as he wrote the screenplay and directed both films. The story revolves around the four Pevensie children returning to Narnia and they are surprised to learn what we saw in the first film that time in Narnia is different than time in England or on our planet. The children return to Narnia the following Summer yet it is more than a thousand years later in Narnia time. Thus Mr. Tunmus is long gone sadly, but is replaced with other Narnians who are colorful as well. Prince Caspian is played by Ben Barns who takes our opinion of him on a bit of a rollercoaster from liking him to intense dislike and back again. 

  The film seemed more real and used the better special effects than it's predecessor. Nature is celebrated with wide panning shots leaving us in awe of the beauty of Narnia and reminded us again of the raw beauty of New Zealand that we encountered in the three Lord of The Rings films. The Castle scenes are filmed in the Czeck Republic. The plot is predictable yet still enjoyable. The film is long at 2 hours and twenty seven minutes. Caspian is rated PG (parental guidance for SOME children) due to violence in the epic battle scenes. I saw the English version that I believe will be expanded in time. My rating? 8 out of a possible 10.