Genre: Family/Action/Adventure
Released: 2008

The only thing worth seeing in The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian is the ending battle scene. The rest of the film is just plain boring. Is it me or are all of these epic type/fantasy movies just starting to blend together? I honestly walked in the movie tonight thinking that I was seeing a sequel to The Golden Compass. I couldn't remember because all of these movies are exactly the same; including the Harry Potter films, which I actually enjoy, especially Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban. Now, when it comes to Narnia, I don't really buy into it that much. The first film, The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe, was so freaking overrated. Yes, the visuals were pretty amazing, but it was a little long and a little boring. The second film is a little bit more boring and has an extremely slow first half. I found myself having a hard time remembering everything that went on in the first film, so I was lost some of the time. The action scenes are pretty stunning though. We all know that these films are based on the VERY popular books by C.S. Lewis, who writes a lot of religious undertones into his stories. I guess you kind of have to look for them. There's always controversy surrounding any of these types of films. Controversy=money. I wouldn't be surprised if the film companies start half of the rumors so that their films do better in the box office. The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian brings back the original four cast members; Georgie Henly, Skander Keynes, William Mosely and Anna Poppleweed. The film also stars Ben Barnes (Stardust), Sergio Castellito and the voices of Liam Neeson and comedian Eddie Izzard.

I had to do a little research to understand some of the stuff that was going on in this film. This film takes place 1 year after the first film, but apparently that is 1000 years in Narnia time. Can someone explain that to me? Well, in the first one, these four brothers and sisters find a magical wardrobe which transports them to this magical world of Narnia where they have to help save Narnia from an evil Queen (Tilda Swinton) and they become Kings and Queens of Narnia at the end of the film after a massive battle scene. Now, they have gone back to London and it is a year later. Back in this "world," where Narnia used to exist, there is an evil King now who has basically wiped out all of Narnia. He goes by the name of King Miraz (Castellito) and before he becomes king, he was trying as hard as he could to have a son to be an heir to the throne. The only remaining heir to the throne is Prince Caspian and if Caspian is out of the picture, he becomes king. Miraz tries to have Caspian killed, but Caspian escapes into the woods and meets the last remaining Narnians. He makes it a goal to restore Narnia and it's people and take back the kingdom, but he will need help from 4 people who know these Narnians better than him. He blows this magical horn and the four brothers and sisters, Lucy, Edmund, Peter and Susan arrive to help them take back Narnia. That is the vaguest plotline that I can give you. A lot of the film confused me but all you are really there to see is the battle scenes.

Overall, the first half of the film are really slow and just drawn out, but once you actually get into the meat of the plot and the battle scenes the film picks up. Think of if this way. You are sitting in a hot room and the AC is not on yet. You can stand it but it is getting really hot and you want to turn on some cold air. Once you finally get the cold air turned on, you feel that refreshing feeling. Well, that is kind of how it feels when the battle scenes start. It makes the movie feel so much more refreshing. I suggest buying a ticket to The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian, going to grab a bite to eat for the first hour of the film and then heading back to the theatre for the amazing ending battle. In fact, as I am sitting here writing this review, I just saw a trailer on TV and THEY ONLY SHOWED SCENES FROM THE ENDING BATTLE SCENE. They are selling the whole movie on that battle scene. The water monster was pretty amazing though!

One horrible thing that I want to point out and I have to give my fellow critic Tim Gordon some credit on this as well, is how bad the ending song is. The song starts up right before the movie ends and there are actually lyrics and vocals to the song. We both looked at each other and started laughing hysterically. It was just awkward, because the rest of the film had songs without lyrics and vocals. Then this one starts up and Tim is reciting the lyrics and how ridiculous they were. They just did not fit the film at all. I can tell what they were going for because the lyrics revolved around what had just happened but it was just really awkward.

I will admit that the ending battle of the film is amazing. The way it was done was very clever and looked phenomenal. That pretty much saved the entire film for me. It was very cool and had a LORD OF THE RINGS feel to it, especially with the trees. Now, what they did differently with the trees in this movie is that they used their roots to mess things up. That was really cool to see. The water monster was bad-ass too.

I almost want to give the film 4 BDKs, but I am going to limit it to a 3 BDK rating because the beginning is so freaking slow. I almost fell asleep three times. You have seen epic battle scenes like this before as well. It really isn't anything new. I would say you are better off waiting for the rental. Yes, the battle scenes are great to see on the big screen, but it is really only the ending. I don't know if it is worth 2 1/2 hours of your life to sit in a movie theatre. I would honestly rather go watch IRON MAN again.