Movie Review: The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian
Quick Plot Summary: The four Pevensie children are summoned back to a much different looking Narnia.
Rating: Great
Suggested Ages: 10+
Version Notes: This review is for the 2008 movie released by Disney.
This is a highly entertaining, adventurous, action-packed Hollywood-blockbuster type film! Though the first Narnia movie (The Lion, The Witch, and the Wardrobe) before it enjoyed great public reviews, this one did not do as well. One reason for that is that this movie is a bit darker in theme and has more of an action presence than the "magical wonder" presence of the first movie and thus was not quite as much of a "family movie" which threw some people off. Hence why I've moved the suggested age for this movie up a bit. This one is more likeable and appropriate for tweens/teens and adults than for young children. But that doesn't mean that it's not a STELLAR movie, because it most definitely is.
Another criticism it has garnered is that it takes a lot of liberties as compared to the book. Since I haven't read the book, I'll just assume that is indeed true. But even if that's true, this is a good movie in its own right that has LOTS of good Christian-oriented messages and themes! So if you have read the book, if you can separate yourself from it and just view this as a movie in its own right, that might greatly affect how you feel about it.
Obviously since this is the 2nd movie in the Narnia series, it will be highly advantageous that you've seen the first one before seeing this one.
Whereas The Lion, The Witch, and the Wardrobe's main theme was "redemption", this movie's theme is "faith." It really showcases in clear visual terms the folly of doing things our way, rather than having faith in and submitting to God and doing things His way. Talk about a needed message for today!
Once again, Disney was involved with this movie, and once again, I'm amazed. This movie stands in stark contrast to the type of "believe in yourself" messages that it seems can be found in the vast majority of Disney movies - the message of this movie is "believe in something greater than yourself" - i.e. "have faith in God". That doesn't mean that there aren't a few theological errors with this or the other Narnia movies - unfortunately a few things did get added/changed here or there when going from the books to the big-screen (there's one in particular in this movie that does frustrate me). But when you consider the totality of what these movies are, you can easily look past the relatively few (and mostly minor) issues.
Reviewed by Christopher Long,
BodEquip Ministries