A much darker, and more intense sequel to the first book, if not slightly less satisfying.

The Lion the Witch and the Wardrobe is certainly the Narnia book that I remember best of the series. Because of this, when saw this movie I was slightly dissappointed. Although the movie was very grand in scale, and did an incredible job making talking animals look...well, REAL, I felt it was dumbed down way too much as far as the action/realism goes. I mean, there was no blood in the entire movie, and some of the battles scenes where these little kids were tearing everyone up just seemed silly.

Well, here comes Prince Caspian, with all it's darker, dazzling brilliance! Walking into this movie, I expected more of the same. I was very surprised to be treated to a movie much darker and realistic than the second one, with battle scenes that actually felt very fresh! The final battle scene took my breath away, and even though it may draw some comparisons to Lord of the Rings, it did some things I've never before seen in a movie before. To me, this is absolutely essential in a movie like this. I won't give too much away, but lets just say this movie has the most incredibly jaw-dropping water effects of any movie to date. Seriously.

Ben Barnes does a good job with Prince Caspian. Be careful if you take a beloved lady to the show with you... you may hear a few goggly-eyed sighs during the film while he's on the screen! A very handsome actor, who brings more to the table than good looks. The kids bring back another great performance as well, and we can see them maturing and growing up a lot in this one. There is an unexpected romance between Susan and Caspian which I was worried would go to far, but it stayed light-hearted, and brought some humor to the story. I'm really looking forward to seeing the gang grown up even more in Voyage of the Dawn Treador when it's released!

All this said, Caspian definitely doesn't quite have the epic feel of the first movie (Here comes Aslan to save the day!), but it certainly is more entertaining in my opinion. I'm going to go against the flow of the critics, and give it an 82%. However, since we can't do that in reviews, I'll round it down to 80%. this movie is definitely worth paying to see in the theater, whether you're a fan of the Narnia series or not!