The first "Narnia" movie was much discussed in terms of C.S. Lewis's Christian symbolism, but the new film is unlikely to provoke such discussion. Much more so than its predecessor, "Prince Caspian" is an action film – too much of an action film. As the battles pile up, the lyrical atmosphere wafts away and what we get is a more standard recipe. Director Andrew Adamson, who also made the first film, was director of the two "Shrek" films, and he still seems not altogether at home with live action. He can't quite work up a magical atmosphere – especially when the film is constantly
being grounded by such leaden lines as "The throne is rightfully mine." The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian" takes place one year after the events in "The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe," the initial film in the series derived from the C.S. Lewis religio-fantasy series. In Narnian years, however, that one year represents about 1,300. Fortunately, watching this movie doesn't feel quite that long. Once more we are unceremoniously plopped into the world of the Pevensie siblings: big brother Peter (William Moseley) and little brother Edmund (Skandar Keynes), big sister Susan (Anna Popplewell), and little Lucy (Georgie Henley). They find themselves transported, via a World War II-era Tube station in Trafalgar Square, to Narnia, where last time out they dispatched the White Witch (Tilda Swinton) and were elevated to royalty. (The White One makes a brief cameo here, but she is sorely missed.)
