One year later, the Kings and Queens of Narnia find themselves back in that faraway wondrous realm, only to discover that more than 1,300 years have passed in Narnian time. During their absence, the Golden Age of Narnia has become extinct and Narnia has been conquered by the Telmarines and is now under the control of the evil King Miraz, who rules the land without mercy. The four children will soon meet a curious new character: Narnia's rightful heir to the throne, the young Prince Caspian, who has been forced into hiding, as his uncle Miraz plots to kill him in order to place his own newborn son on the throne. With the help of the kindly dwarf, a courageous talking mouse named Reepicheep, a badger named Trufflehunter and a Black Dwarf, Nikabrik, the Narnians--led by the mighty knights Peter and Caspian--embark on a remarkable journey to find Aslan, rescue Narnia from Miraz's tyrannical hold, and restore magic and glory to the land.

If you took everything that worked for the Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe and then took out a number of things that did not work for the film what you get is Prince Caspian. Still capturing that fantastic journey and otherworldly experience minus a lot of the bad child acting and over the top performances and mix in a more spectacular specials effects laden cast and the movie is two fold better than its predescor. I was a fan of the Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe because it had such an otherworldly feel to it and was pure fantasy I am even more a fan of Prince Caspian. The movie seems to have grown up like its main characters, which are supposed to be on year older if not the wiser. Gone are the sulky childlike performances and replaced with it is a more adult friendly film all the while still capturing that childhood wonder and excitement the first film pulled off so well.

One of the things that endeared me to this movie is all the side characters and magical CGI creatures. Not just a side note this time around the characters take a much greater role in the story and the plot and advance the story so well. From hulking Minotaurs to miniscule mice with rapiers the character give the movie life, they breathe into it the fantasy and pure escapism that the first movie was missing at times. They are more believable, they have bigger parts and they add so much fun to the movie. The kids can laugh at the antics of sword fighting mice and fast-talking badgers and the adults can enjoy rampaging Minotaurs in numerous battle sequences.

Something that completely surprised me and that amazes me is that this movie got a PG rating. I mean there is no way that this movie should be rated PG and the very least it should have garnered a PG-13 rating. It seems like we don’t want to scare away more family friendly audiences even though the movie features a beheading and numerous scenes of violence. Sure there is no gore and blood but how do you explain away all the deaths, and killings whether they are gruesome or not. It seems that all of Hollywood and the ratings board is completely out of whack and god forbid you would want to scare away any families. The movie does benefit from its ability to be more realistic as far as the battles and fights go but still the double standard kind of bugged me as the Golden Compass drew a PG-13 rating and wasn’t even close to the level of violence that Prince Caspian got away with. I love the realism the violence gives the movie and it makes it a better movie but if we are going to have a ratings board it needs to be fair and Prince Caspian is a Pg-13 movie do be wary about bringing the younger kiddies to it.

Another thing the movie greatly benefited from is the child actors aren’t so young nor green this time. They have already gotten a movie under their belts and they don’t pull you out of the moment and escapism of the film like they could at times in the Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe. Much like the Harry Potter actors these kids should only get better with time and each new film that they make and the series much like the Potters should get better with each movie. One of my least favorite actors from the last movie Skandar Keynes ended up being my favorite in this movie. Gone is the whiney and annoying Edmund that so personified the first movie at time and replaced with a likeable character this time around. I wasn’t too much of a fan of Ben Barnes who places Caspian in the movie as he seemed like just another pretty boy to draw in a movie female crowd like Legolas in Lord of the Rings, as he really doesn’t add a whole lot to the film. But overall Prince Caspian was fun, entertaining and twice as good as the previous film.

Grade: B+