‘Prince Caspian’ stays true to spirit of C.S. Lewis’ series

In theaters

THE CHRONICLES OF NARNIA: PRINCE CASPIAN, directed by Andrew Adamson, written by Christopher Markus, Stephen McFeely and Adamson, 132 minutes, rated PG.

Andrew Adamson’s “The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian” gets off to a shaky start, but after a while it finds itself, strikes a more consistent tone and comes through with a movie that gets increasingly better as it unfolds.

Christopher Markus, Stephen McFeely and Adamson based their script on the second book in C.S. Lewis’ influential series, and while they haven’t fully captured the richness and complexities inherent in Lewis’ prose, they’ve nevertheless done an admirable job in staying true to the bones of the source material while steering clear of the gimmicks that might have cheapened it.

As the film begins, a year has passed in the lives of the four Pevensie siblings – Peter (William Moseley), Susan (Anna Popplewell), Edmund (Skandar Keynes) and Lucy (Georgie Henley) – all of whom are living pedestrian lives in London as World War II rages around them.

Growing into adulthood is Susan, who now attracts her share of bothersome boys, while scrappy Peter is seen working through some rather telling anger management issues by picking his share of fights. Edmund is as restless as ever. Lucy is starting to grow into her lips.

In other words, adolescence reigns here, but that soon will change as the weight of another war starts to press down on them. Back in Narnia, the mystical land in which the Pevensies became kings and queens at the end of 2005’s “The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe,” 1,300 years have passed and that land is in a state of disarray.

Without warning, the Pevensies are unwittingly called back to Narnia by Prince Caspian (Ben Barnes), the dull yet rakish Telmarine prince who is rushed out of his castle by a friendly professor (Vincent Grass) when a son is born to Caspian’s evil uncle, Lord Miraz (Sergio Castellitto).

Babies are cute and all, but not if their presence could lead to your own demise, which is the case for Caspian. After all, should he somehow be (cough) mysteriously knocked off, Miraz’s infant son would be next in line to become king.

And so that’s what Miraz sets forth. He organizes his men to kill Caspian, but before they can do so, Caspian already is rushing into the woods on horseback, where he eventually meets the underground inhabitants of Narnia – dwarfs (one appealingly played by Peter Dinklage), centaurs, minotaurs, a wealth of talking animals and more – and comes to defend them against the Telmarines with the help of the Pevensies. And, yes, even Aslan (voice of Liam Neeson), who is not as present as he was in the first movie, and whose lack of screen time works to tone down the Christian allegory – not to mention the firestorm of controversy it created in the first film.

Several scenes in “Caspian” recall the greatness of the previous movie, a good deal of which is bolstered by the superb special effects.

The final battle scene, for instance, is tight and involving, with a well-executed surprise tucked within the action that’s a delight. Another scene in which gryphons take to the skies for a nighttime flight over Miraz’s castle is alive with menace and beauty. Tilda Swinton’s cameo as the wicked Valkyrie warrior, Jadis, makes you realize just how much her presence is missed here. Finally, the scene in which Peter recklessly pushes forward into war without fully knowing his enemy (the present-day echoes are obvious and intended) is the movie at its most haunting and powerful.

There’s plenty to recommend here, but working against the movie (and the books) is the fact that death can be prevented with a drop of Lucy’s life-giving elixir. That’s a calming concept, to be sure, and while I understand that all of this is meant to be fantasy, one of the strengths of the fantasy genre is that it has the ability to see through the clutter of reality, highlight the truth and make it uncomfortably clear, in this case through the vehicle of allegory.

The addition of that elixir always has been something of a flaw of Lewis’ own vision. Here, that flaw is especially heightened because, stripped of nuance, this cinematic retelling of Lewis’ tale is first and foremost a war movie, and one that arrives at a critical point in our own war. Certainly now, even the film’s target audience of young people know that when a soldier takes to the field, there’s no such thing as a magical cordial to rescue one from a fatal wound.

Where is the danger in battle if a cure-all is at hand? While for some, it’s likely comforting to know that a bottle can hold the kiss of life for, say, an ailing dwarf or a feisty mouse you’ve come to love, you also have to wonder how much more stark, thought-provoking and true this movie and the books would have been had those characters not conveniently cheated death when death otherwise would have stolen them away from us.

Grade: B-

WeekinRewind.com is the site for Bangor Daily News film critic Christopher Smith’s blog, video podcasts, iTunes portal and archive of hundreds of movie reviews. Smith’s reviews appear Mondays, Fridays and weekends in Lifestyle, as well as on bangordailynews.com. He may be reached at Christopher@weekinrewind.com.