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The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian

(2008)

144 min. Buena Vista Pictures Distribution. Director: Andrew Adamson. Cast: Peter Dinklage, Anna Popplewell, Ben Barnes, Georgie Henley, Skandar Keynes.

"Things never happen the same way twice, dear one." Sage advice from a talking lion—though the Christ-like Aslan refers to the latest fate of human children in the strange land of Narnia, he might as well be talking about the film he's in: The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian. Director Andrew Adamson got away with 2005's The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, a story that's conspicuously difficult to damage, but, y'know—what the lion said.

At first, Prince Caspian seems smartly realized, hewing closely but not slavishly to C.S. Lewis' children's novel. But with the lion's share of the book used up by the halfway point, it becomes evident Adamson is willing to jettison Lewis' "quaint" (I'd say loveable) whimsy and mythical acumen in favor of more martial sequences that'll sucker in the Lord of the Rings crowd. The problem with Americanizing (or Disneyfying) the likes of Lewis and Tolkien is that it's difficult to imagine the characters pausing in the middle of a quest or battle for a spot of tea and cakes—though that's exactly the sort of thing that happens in the books.

Anyway, Adamson and co-screenwriters Christopher Markus & Stephen McFeely start out on the right feet, by tapping into the first film's strongest virtues: the well-chosen ensemble of youth actors, a coterie of colorful supporting characters (among them the always-great Peter Dinklage as dwarf Trumpkin) and talking beasts (including mousy swashbuckler Reepicheep, voiced by Eddie Izzard), and gorgeous location photography round about the Czech Republic, New Zealand, Poland, and Slovenia. And don't discount the strong contributions of special creature and makeup effects by Howard Berger and Greg Nicotero.

With little concession to uninitiated audiences, the film begins by alternating between the backstory of Narnian "heir to the throne" Caspian and the return to the land of dearly departed royalty: Queen Lucy (Georgie Henley), King Edmund (Skandar Keynes), Queen Susan (Anna Popplewell) and High King Peter (William Moseley). In London, they're kids grudgingly awaiting a train to boarding school; back in Narnia, they're heroes whispered of in legend. Though only a year has passed in London time since the kids returned home from a lifetime on the Narnian thrones, 1300 years have passed back in Narnia. Finding their beloved palace of Cair Paravel in ruins, the kids realize they've been called back for a reason.

The Narnians are living under the thumb of a conqueror: King Miraz of the Telmarines (Sergio Castellitto of Mostly Martha). Miraz's moral-minded nephew Caspian (Ben Barnes) learns he's marked for death, so escapes to head up the Narnian resistance. (It doesn't help talented Brit Barnes to be saddled with an exotic Euro accent and generic dialogue—he comes out the grinder seeming bland.) Meanwhile, when Lucy—and Lucy only—gets a glimpse of Aslan (voiced again by Liam Neeson), no one will take her word on faith. This bit of theological noodling has the potential, reached in the novel, to be richer than the previous story's rather basic Passion play, but Adamson is too busy careening toward big battle scenes (a reference to the enemy's "war machines" is an especially ominous sign of the outsized bombast to come).

And thus Prince Caspian loses its way, indulging Adamson's yen for majestic heraldic pomp and epic sweep instead of providing unbroken character arcs. The film doesn't convey strongly enough what has been lost in Narnia over the years since its "Golden Age" prime and, therefore, what there is to gain in the high-stakes battle for the land (a battle so tied to the environment, in fact, that the land and sea themselves rise up to liberate Narnia). As for principal villain Miraz, he could've used more of the comic bluster with which Lewis quickly imbues him on the page—on screen, he's a deathly dull menace.

Granted: interpolations to the novel are a necessity, but some of the omissions are senseless. By not depicting Caspian's boyhood awakening, Adamson guts his hero's journey from blindness to sight. Gone are scenes of Lucy waltzing with trees and Caspian romping with fauns, scenes that had a chance of recapturing the first film's essential sense of wonder. And why cut Lucy following an invisible Aslan back onto the proper path, a scene of Lewis' that suggests a deft homage to Mary Stevenson's "Footprints in the Sand."

Lewis' Christian allegory, though present, seems much quieter in the much noisier screen Caspian. And though Caspian's source material isn't inspired or diverse as The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, the prose remains as effortless seeming as Adamson's film feels labored. The filmmakers seem only dimly aware of what makes the novel continue to work today: not spectacle, but vision. Engaging the imagination is essential on the page, but can be a test in the literalizing, visual medium of film. For Lewis' charmingly twee style and light touch with character motivation, it's time for us, like the Pevensie children, to hit the books again.

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