HOLLYWOOD MASALA NARNIA

It hardly seems possible. The same people who made "The Chronicles of
Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe" into one of the best
films of 2005 have turned around and made one of this year's biggest
disappointments. The second installment of C.S. Lewis' "Narnia" saga,
subtitled "Prince Caspian," is exactly one minute longer than its
predecessor, but it's a dragged-out exercise, with no epic scale and
no spirit worth talking about.


The filmmakers fall into the same trap that the makers of "The Golden
Compass" did. They take a fantasy story and simplify it to the point
that it's just a war movie - about a war that never happened,
featuring a side that can't lose. The stakes aren't particularly high,
either. It's not a battle between absolute evil versus absolute good.
Rather it's a battle between ruthless pragmatism versus ineffectual
idealism.


Ben Barnes, who was so good in "Stardust," plays Prince Caspian, the
rightful king of Narnia, as little more than a haircut, with a
Keanu-esque fuzziness around the eyes. In a free election, a plausible
case might be made for his nemesis, King Miraz - played by the great
Italian actor Sergio Castellitto - who is square-shouldered and
decisive and, by medieval king standards, probably not all that bad.
His beard may be too pointy for virtue, but he's hardly evil enough to
make it worth yanking the Pevensie siblings out of 1940s England.


But yanked they are. They get their summons in a London subway
station. In a nice visual sequence, the walls shake, reality cracks
and the station falls away as the subway train disappears into the
horizon. Next thing they know, the kids are on a Narnian beach,
scampering around, really happy to be out of England. They don't quite
realize that there are other vacation destinations in the world that
don't require killing people.


It's sad, but let's just say it: This time out, the kids are about as
interesting as Chekov in a "Star Trek" sequel. Susan (Anna Popplewell)
is sullen and unpleasant, and Peter (William Moseley), the eldest, is
pompous. Edmund (Skandar Keynes) was shady last time, but he's learned
his lesson, so now he's boring. And Lucy (Georgie Henley) is no longer
a little girl with a cute character face, but a pretty young lady on
the brink of puberty. As such, she no longer effortlessly embodies
spiritually gifted innocence.


It takes about a half hour for the bad news to sink in: "Prince
Caspian" has little character interest and depicts no earthshaking
moral conflict. The Christian allegory, unmistakable in "The Lion, the
Witch and the Wardrobe," is nowhere to be found in "Prince Caspian."
Not even its former outlines are apparent. Alas, Lewis without
Christianity just isn't Lewis.


In all 144 minutes, there are only about two or three that hint at the
feeling that the whole movie needed to possess. Lucy gets up in the
morning and finds Narnia as it used to be. She finds the trees no
longer retreating into themselves, but alive, animate and welcoming.
Animals speak. She walks along an enchanted path and talks briefly to
Aslan, the great Lion. Then she wakes up and takes the same walk in
present-day Narnia, and finds it no longer the living, breathing place
of spirit that it once was.


That's what the movie needed throughout, a feeling of the consequences
of living in a world without the presence of benevolent creation.
Those are the true stakes of the battle, not whether the kingdom is
ruled by a pointy-bearded guy or by a lightweight who looks like Keanu
Reeves. The movie needed to be about an unseen but palpable force of
life - it didn't even have to be denominational or identifiably
Christian. But it needed some of that grandeur and ecstasy. That's the
true source of epic scale. This has none, just choruses and French
horns on the soundtrack telling us we should be feeling things that
we're not. Very sad.


Of course, there are centaurs. That's something. They're fighting with
the good guys, and they're very serious, these centaurs, as if they're
overcompensating for being attached to a horse's backside. Who could
blame them?


Actually, there is one performance to take from the movie, and it's
that of Peter Dinklage, as Trumpkin, a Narnian dwarf, who joins the
Pevensie children in their struggle against King Miraz. Crusty and
taciturn, Trumpkin has a softness underneath that enables him to
particularly appreciate Lucy, and this Dinklage suggests by subtle
means. He sees something in her, and he makes us almost see it, too.


The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian: Adventure. Starring Ben
Barnes, Georgie Henley, Skandar Keynes, Sergio Castellitto, Anna
Popplewell and William Moseley. Directed by Andrew Adamson