I will be totally honest with all of you: I wanted to see Prince Caspian because I thought the lead actor (Ben Barnes) was particularly good-looking. Throughout the entire film, the glorified object in every scene was Caspian’s shining, wavy dark hair. My personal favorite capture of Caspian’s heavenly locks is the scene where he is conversing with Doctor Cornelius, set against a background of lush spring verdure. A light breeze rustles the hair behind Caspian’s ears, which is coiled into luscious springs of billowing grace. It seemed as though the director of this film invested a copious amount of time into showcasing Caspian’s noble mane—it was a bit like a prolonged shampoo commercial. I was half-expecting Caspian to dramatically flip his hair with a slight jerk of his head, produce a bottle of Herbal Essence from his satchel, and wave it victoriously in the blue Narnian sky. Whatever shampoo Ben Barnes uses, it works marvelously for him—I wish I could get my hair to have such a perfect, defined side part. Now, I must assure you that it is not what you think. I did not focus all of my attention on Caspian’s hair on my own accord; the director of this film conspired to magnetically draw my eyes toward his lead actor’s stunning hair. Even when Caspian wields his sword with excellent swashbuckling technique, all I see is hair.
Perhaps the only thing more distracting than Caspian’s hair is his attire. Whoever the brilliant mastermind behind costuming was had the horrifying idea that dressing Caspian in long, flowing gowns would be flattering. I don’t know which princes this costume designer was seeking for inspiration, but I’m positive that his inspiration was drawn from his own bizarre fantasies. The last thing I would imagine any king of Narnia to be wearing is a robin-egg blue fairy dress; however, in this costume designer’s mind, this would be all the rage in Narnia. I am pretty sure that C.S. Lewis never imagined his Prince Caspian to look like the tooth fairy, but I digress.
The sequel to “The Lion, The Witch, and the Wardrobe” is rather dark. There is much more Lord of the Rings-esque violence with the presence of trebuchets, flying lions, and the works. The action scenes were nicely filmed and filled with intensity. For a Disney movie though, it was violent; many soldiers fell dead to Susan’s magical arrows and Peter’s majestic sword. It wasn’t only the graphic nature of the violence in the film that was unexpected; the malicious intent behind the violence was even more surprising. For a good deal of the movie, Caspian is vengefully seeking to murder his uncle Miraz for killing his father, and almost seals a pact with the devil to accomplish this. The dark spirit of the film was surprising, but it showed that the story had matured. The characters are older and full of angst: Caspian is angrily coping with the murder of his father by his cruel uncle Miraz, while Peter loses his temper at innocent comments made by his younger siblings due to a faltering belief in Aslan. The element of magic is almost entirely absent from “Caspian”. No longer are the Pevensie children walking through a wardrobe to reach Narnia; they are whisked away to Narnia in a metro station. That youthful giddiness and wonder in “Wardrobe” is a stranger to this somber, unenchanted sequel. “Wardrobe” is magical and childish, while “Caspian” is dark and mature.
The set of “Caspian” was equally, if not more so, breathtaking as “Wardrobe”. Every scene was artistically filmed, and the soundtrack was in sync with the action and pacing of the movie. In fact, I would recommend the soundtrack for this film, since it features a charming gem from Regina Spektor called “The Call” and a solid track from Switchfoot called “This is Home”.
The young British actors in “Caspian” were well-suited for their roles. William Moseley looks handsome with his long sweeping blonde hair and portrays King Peter Pevensie well. Skandar Keynes particularly stands out for having grown up quite nicely. In “Wardrobe”, Edmund was a bit of an awkward young boy with a love for trouble and Turkish Delight. In “Caspian”, Edmund is taller and leaner, his voice has deepened, and his eyes have achieved this level of heightened intensity and beauty. Keynes skillfully portrayed a matured Edmund. Edmund displayed various signs of maturity by the way he cares for his siblings throughout the film, which is very different from the selfish little boy he was in “Wardrobe”. Susan is annoyingly distracting to Prince Caspian, with whom she shamelessly flirts with and makes puppy-love eyes. It was nauseating to see them exchange such needless public displays of affection throughout the film. And lastly, Lucy was adorable as the little sister who brings a tiny spark of hope to the darkness of the situation. Ben Barnes perhaps displayed the most amount of trouble with acting. Though he was by far the best-looking, in my humble opinion, he was the worst actor. His Spanish accent sounded nothing like a Spanish accent. Barnes’ accent was a strange combination of French, Italian, Vietnamese, and Saudi Arabian. I wanted to jump up from my seat and scream at Barnes, “What are you saying? Why do you sound like a citizen of Dienbienphu? You are Spanish, my love, Spanish!” I would like to say that Ben Barnes is a promising young actor, but I would not want to lie to you. I doubt that he will be able to break out from the pretty boy mold that he fits so flawlessly. However, I do hope that I am proven wrong and that he becomes the Colin Firth of his generation.
With all that considered, I found “Prince Caspian” to be thoroughly entertaining. I enjoyed this far more than I enjoyed “Wardrobe” and I recommend it to any who wants a good laugh and lots of adventure.
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