Hey, everyone. “Moriarty” here.

So to get ready to write this review, I watched the Blu-Ray version of the first NARNIA movie (very impressive, as are most Disney Blu-Rays so far) and then re-read my original review at the time of release. At the moment that film came out, fandom was obsessed with the competition of NARNIA and KING KONG at the box-office, a subject that always bores me. I don’t think of film as a competitive sport... I want every film to be great and do well. When they aren’t or they don’t, that’s when it’s a drag. I stand by my original review now... I think the first film is problematic, passive and pretty instead of involving or exciting. The central allegory of the Jesus Lion is so on-the-nose that it’s just impossible to take seriously. Despite all that, the first film was a huge hit, and the sequel was inevitable.

What comes as a surprise, and a pleasant one at that, is how much better PRINCE CASPIAN is than the first film. It’s one thing for filmmakers to say that they’re going to make a darker and more complex film that their last one... you should hear what kind of film Andy (THE GAME PLAN) Fickman says he’s making with the new WITCH MOUNTAIN film... and it’s quite another thing for those filmmakers to pull off that abrupt shift in tone or style. I think Andrew Adamson has gotten better as a live-action director, more comfortable with his actors and more confident in his ability to take his time during the character stuff and then to sort of push himself further during the action sequences. He’s also more confident shooting FX sequences in this film, and there’s some lovely and invisible work that makes the unreal quite real at times.

One of the things that nagged at me at the end of the first film was how little reaction the Pevensie kids had to leaving Narnia and suddenly losing decades of their lives, suddenly reversed back to childhood after having grown old ruling all of Narnia together. They just sort of roll with it at the end of the film, which I just found incomprehensible. Yes, I know this is a series. Yes, I hoped they would get back to it at some point. But as an ending for a film? It’s just a flatline.

Well, sure enough, that’s one of the threads they pick up right away at the start of PRINCE CASPIAN. One of the things I’m impressed by is how much of this film is a supposition or an invention on the part of the filmmakers. It’s not that they threw out the novel... it’s just that they took one of the least interesting of the novels and managed to find the right spine in it for a movie. It turns out to be a spirited adventure movie about ethnic cleansing, a surprisingly dark subject for a family film. Yes, there is still a nose-on-your-face obvious subplot about faith involving Lucy and Aslan (Liam Neeson phones in another turn as the Most Boring Incarnation Of God Ever), but it’s minor this time. Instead, most of the movie focuses on Ben Barnes as Prince Caspian, noble born but only just barely holding on to his position as the heir to the throne as the film starts. His uncle, Miraz, has allowed Caspian to live until he can produce an heir of his own, and on the night that happens, he gives the order for his nephew’s death. Caspian’s flight from the castle kicks off the events that draw the Pevensie kids back to Narnia, and it’s an interesting choice to not show us the Pevensies until 10 or 15 minutes into the film. Instead, we get Narnia first, and then we find the kids, only one year older than when the first film ended, but struggling to behave like schoolkids again after having lived long adult lives as the rulers of Narnia. The way they acknowledge that pretty much answered my complaint from the first film, and it continues to play into the way they behave throughout the film. William Moseley and Anna Popplewell are given more to do in this movie, which is only fitting since they’re done after this film. Peter and Susan are the older kids and they both get more action to play. Although everything’s fairly bloodless, there is a startling amount of fantasy violence in the film. Lots and lots and lots of people and creatures and Narnians die in the movie, and the stakes stay fever-pitch throughout the film.

When the kids arrive back in Narnia, having been called by Susan’s horn, they quickly figure out that over a thousand years have passed in this fantasy world. And much of that thousand years has been dedicated to the steady and near-complete genocide of all Narnians by the Telmarines, humans who speak with thick European accents, something that actually turns out to be an important plot point. That’s good, otherwise it would be hard to excuse Ben Barnes’s accent in the movie.

You’ve seen PRINCESS BRIDE, right? Everyone has. One of the early reviewers here on AICN referenced Inigo Montoya when they talked about Barnes, and they’re not wrong. It’s made painfully clear at one point when he threatens Miraz because “you keeeled my father.” I almost blurted out “Prepare to die!” It’s that specific.

Despite that, Barnes does pretty good work. He’s got an easy charisma with the rest of the cast. Peter Dinklage and Warwick Davis make the most of thankless parts, and the various creature performers all work overtime bringing the KNB make-up to life. There are lots of fights in the film, lots of close-quarters combat and action, and it walks a fine line between being exciting but safe and being too violent for the PG. I’m a little surprised this isn’t a PG-13, but I guess it’s because they were so meticulously careful about not spilling any actual blood.

I’m a big fan of Tilda Swinton’s much-rumored reappearance here, and it’s an interesting moment in the film since it’s one of those moments of pure invention on the part of the filmmakers. Theologically speaking, it’s a moment where some of the characters essentially give up on waiting for God to help out and they turn to the Devil for the quick fix. I’m curious to see what C.S. Lewis would have made of the sequence. It also serves to give Skandar Keynes (once again playing Edmund, the Pevensie who had the closest relationship with the White Witch in the first film) a nice moment, one that pays off his entire arc from the first movie.

Overall, I still didn’t go crazy for this film, but I think it is a nice addition to the NARNIA series, and I am curious to see how they handle the next one, VOYAGE OF THE DAWN TREADER, considered by fans to be one of the best books in the series. The change of director means that, no matter what, we’ll see a different approach next time, but within the same world. For now, I’m actually glad I took this return trip to Narnia, and if the box-office collapses on this one (it’s been an underwhelming weekend so far), it would be a shame, because it seems like they really did learn from the first movie and strive to do something better this time. It’s enough of a success to please both fans and non-fans, and may even make a few of the former out of some of the latter.

I’m going to catch a quick nap (even though it’s 5:30 AM already) because I have to be up in a very few hours so I can drive my family in to Hollywood for the very first press screening in LA of INDIANA JONES & THE KINGDOM OF THE CRYSTAL SKULL. I’ll be back with my impressions of the film as soon after the screening as I am physically able to get to the computer.

Drew McWeeny, Los Angeles