This movie caught me out a touch. I initially sat there comparing it closely to The Lion, The Witch & the Wardrobe and its source material in the C.S. Lewis books, combing it for every inconsistency, plot flaw or misfire in character development.
However about 20 minutes in, I really got into it, booing at the bad guys and cheering on the good ones. I wanted to bop Caspian on the nose for being such a pill, I wanted to take part in a plot to poison Miraz’s wine for being such a treacherous and short sighted leader.
On the other hand my appreciation of the Narnian’s in exile was heightened at their decimated numbers.
The only short coming in this movie are the population numbers of people & soldiers.
Any time you watch any sort of ancient times armies massing sort of movie like the Lord of the Rings, Troy, Gladiator, Kingdom of Heaven, 300 etc, you really get the sense that entire nations are rising up to bear arms and fight for their respective cultures, history and way of life. Prince Caspians army looked like it had 500 people. And the Telmarine army looks like it has maybe 3000 soldiers. Hardly what you would think a “nation” would pull together. At its height the Spanish Armada had some 55,000+ men & 200+ warships.
Aside from this sense of scale, which is always going to irritate me, an entertaining movie.
The Culture Mind 