Starring Ben Barnes, Peter Dinklage. Written and directed by Andrew Adamson, based on the novel by C.S. Lewis. (PG) 144 min. Opens May 16.
With the possible exception of Cronenberg’s The Brood, I’ve never
seen a film so filled with children murdering people as The Chronicles
of Narnia: Prince Caspian. This sequel to 2005’s SNL-Digital
Short-immortalized The Lion, The Witch, and the Wardrobe features a
body count comparable to Total Recall.
Most of the casualties
are the swarthy, crossbow-wielding henchmen of a royal usurper (Sergio
Castellito) with designs on Narnia’s throne; most of the killing is
done by the Pevensie children, who have been re-summoned from 1940s
London to fantasy land by the titular prince Capsian (Brit Ben Barnes,
trying on a terrible faux-Sicilian accent) – the realm’s rightful
ruler. The Pevensies enlist various enchanted woodland denizens in the
fight, but things go poorly until the inevitable appearance of Aslan,
the furry, well-maned Christ manqué given sanctimonious voice by Liam
Neeson.
The Christian underpinnings of Lewis’ source material are
as blatant as ever, but the film is a failure of imagination rather
than ideology. Once again, series director Andrew Adamson mistakes
pandering signifiers of wonderment (swelling music, swirling camera
movements, gape-mouthed actors) for the thing itself — and once again,
he cribs the digital sweep ebb of the ensemble battle sequences from
The Lord of the Rings.