The first “Narnia” movie wasn’t bad, but it also stopped well short of being good. “The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian” went above and beyond the first movie in the series and was a resounding success.
“Prince Caspian” picks up one year after the end of the first film, “The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe.” But the one year that the four main characters went through in our reality was more than 1,300 years in Narnia. When they’re summoned by young prince Caspian to come help the Narnians in a battle against a foreign invading power, they discover a much darker and crueler world than they remember.
And it is that darker tone that makes this movie so much better than the first. Even the color palette is darker in this film, spending much of its time in dark castles and caves.
The characters, too, are significantly gloomier. Where the first chapter portrayed almost all the characters as childlike and simplistic, this movie portrays them as deep and able to exist somewhere between purely good or evil. It allows for plenty of surprising allegiance switching.
The movie also does a fantastic job of dealing with being a sequel. A few sets from the first movie have been modified and reused so as to provide continuity and some nifty looking set design. Some characters from the first film are allowed to redeem themselves, and characters from the first film make important comebacks, including a certain deliciously evil and icy villain.
This isn’t to say the movie doesn’t have its problems. There are a few moments toward the middle in which it lags, and the violence and gore have been kept to such a minimum that sometimes it seems almost silly. When people fight a duel to the death and there is only one bloody cut shown, it stretches the imagination. But the well choreographed and exciting battle and duel scenes more than make up for those few flaws.

The special effects also help make the movie fun to watch. The animal characters are rendered with more skill than in the first film, so they don’t seem nearly as silly during the fight scenes. There are even a few animals that seem more impressive in their fighting prowess than the gifted human warriors. Of course, the animal characters still occasionally veer into cutesy Disney territory, including a particularly stupid bear and a supposedly adorable mouse. But as this is a Disney film, and at least partially marketed to young children, that particular flaw can be forgiven.
The only thing about the movie that is more difficult to forgive is the overt Christian propaganda that occasionally surfaces throughout the film. For most of the movie, the Christian themes don’t overwhelm the movie, and are consistent with the C.S. Lewis books that the film is based upon. But there are moments when it feels less like a Hollywood film and more like a bible story for children. The film is much better when it stays away from this “VeggieTales” territory.
So the movie has a few flaws, but overall this film succeeds in ways that the first film failed. This sequel seems to have taken a cue from the success of the “Lord of the Rings” franchise, and has decided to darken the tone and double the battle scenes. It was a wise decision.
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