NB. If you haven’t seen the film and want to, don’t read my comments on it here, as I might spoil it for you!

I went to see The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian the other night and to be honest I was really disappointed. I’m a bit of a Narnia devotee as I’ve loved the books ever since I read them when I was about 10 years old. I still give them all a regular re-read and I hear God speaking to me time and time again – His character and nature constantly leap afresh from the pages (excuse the pun!) and there’s a part of me which hopes that when I meet my Maker one day he’ll look like the Aslan of my imagination: immense, golden, awesome and full of love.

The first film instalment – The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe – wasn’t a bad interpretation but I’d give it a ‘could do better’ (I know I’m harsh eh?!). Maybe if you haven’t read the books (and where have you been all your life?) you’ll be able to assess The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian for what it is – a film, but my main gripe is that the spirit of the books is missing and as a result the motion picture is just another summer blockbuster, lacking heart. It therefore stands in direct contrast to The Lord of the Rings trilogy in which case it was obvious that the director and many of the main actors had the essence of Middle-Earth pretty well sussed.

There is a good review here and further interesting comment here so I’m not going to do a major dissection of Caspian suffice to say that (spoilers coming up now!) Peter’s character hasn’t improved since the first film – he’s less of a wuss but has no notion of leadership, the timing of key events is all wrong, Aslan hardly features and comes across as seemingly impotent or at best indifferent, Caspian’s speech to the Narnians exhorting them to follow his leadership left me uninspired – I wasn’t convinced he was a true believer in Old Narnia, and the whole ‘let’s storm Miraz’s place’ thing is sheer fallacy adding a good 45 minutes to the film when the time could have been better spent on details missed elsewhere. The one bit I did like that wasn’t in the book was the physical appearance of the White Witch as I thought that scene demonstrated the strength of temptation to reject Aslan’s way. But I also felt sorry for David Walliams’ Bulgy Bear because he only got one line and anyone who hasn’t read the book wouldn’t appreciate the humour of seeing him standing there sucking his paws. Maybe the editing team got carried away and cut out earlier scenes featuring the Bulgy Bears (yet more sacrilege!). So overall The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian showed promise at the start but I think there’s a danger that like the first film, its soundtrack will be more satisfying than what happens on-screen. The long and short of it is that you’ll fully discover the Deeper Magic if you get your nose stuck in all 7 books!