Quick take: The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian

I like the premise of The Chronicles of Narnia, with four kids in World War II Britain finding their way into a magical world. The first movie based on C.S. Lewis's books, The Lion, The Witch, and the Wardrobe, spent a lot of time exploring that premise. The second film, Prince Caspian, bogs down in one big battle after another. We jump into Narnia through a complicated time-warp twist that deserves more explanation. Instead, there's a series of pitched battles and hand-to-hand struggles that are pretty much like those in any generic good-vs.-evil movie. According to an IMDB commenter, the seemingly 45-minute raid against the bad guys' castle was blown up from almost nothing in the book just to make Prince Caspian more of an action movie. Despite the chaste romance that grows between the eldest girl and the handsome young prince (not even very interesting itself), the first film's nice balance between chick-flick fantasy and guy-flick heroism is gone.