The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian

When I first saw 'Prince Caspian' at the cinemas, I still had not read the books by C. S. Lewis of The Chronicles of Narnia. I still really enjoyed the movie, but I have only recently finished reading all the books in the set and having watched the second movie in the series again today on DVD, I am very impressed with how much work went in to stay true to the source material. However, there has also been liberties taken (with the approval of the Lewis family) such as bringing The White Witch back. It is also clear that having read the book, this clarifies some of the plot points and why some people act the way they do. Perhaps this is why the film was not received as favorably as hoped. Perhaps the film makers forgot that while they know the stories inherently, a lot of their audience don't.
Having said all that, I really like these movies and I feel this one is the most mature and darkest, the 'Empire Strikes Back' of the trilogy if you will. While it is full of action, there is a lot of political intrigue which is a bit more adult than the target audience might like (or comprehend) and it is very long at almost two and a half hours (actually a good point for me!). The good guys get their butts well and truly kicked and the final battle starts with almost an hour of the film still to go. Oh and Aslan is hardly in it.
The story involves Prince Caspian escaping his uncle who murdered his father for the throne (how very Hamlet)and ending up calling back the Kings and Queens of Old, I.e. The Pevensie's, Peter, Susan, Edmund and Lucy. While Lucy is the film's connection to Aslan, the rest of the clan get to do some spectacular fight scenes. There are some amazing effects sequences as well.
All in all, this is actually a very good mature film (hence the M rating here in Australia) and a reasonably faithful retailing of the book. I give it an 8/10.