I was really excited when I heard that the Prince Caspian movie was coming out; that was about one year ago. I had been keeping up with it fairly regularly for several months on The Lion's Call website, and I thought it looked pretty neat, except for Caspian's hair, which appeared too long and sissified. My dad took me and my sister to see it at the theater the day after it came out, and at first I liked it a whole lot, even though there were some things that were very silly, especially where Caspian and Susan kiss. But then, after watching it two more times on dvd, I began to realize that they had really flopped on this movie. Here is my opinion of it:

Characters
Peter is one of my favorite characters in LWW and PC, but they really messed up his character in this movie. In the book, Peter has a very good attitude most of the time. He is courteous, and he follows Aslan. In the movie, however, he is a selfish, bratty boy who fights at the train station, argues with Caspian, and goes against Lucy's warning that they should wait for Aslan. He acts as though all he wants is to be king again, even though Caspian is the next king in line. He acts like an idiot, saying sarcastic things to Caspian. In the book, he says to Caspian, 'It's your right to the throne that we are fighting for.' In the movie, though, it is his own personal glory that it seems he's fighting for. Such as when the attack on Miraz's castle has failed, he tries to open the gates so that his soldiers can get through. "I can still do this!" he exclaims. "Just who are you doing this for?" Susan asks. The answer is plain: he is doing it for himself.

Susan is not really too much different. She acts as though Narnia is not important to her, and she acts like a 'wet blanket'. But my biggest thing against her is how she falls in love with Caspian. If anything was ever hinted at less in the books, I haven't found it. There is no mention, hint, clue or anything like that to suggest that she felt anything for Caspian other than friendliness. And when she kisses Caspian, that is so disgusting to me that it makes me angry.

Edmund is fine; he has some really good moments on screen, especially fighting scenes. I like how he uses his flashlight.

Lucy is fine as well. She plays the part good, and she seemed like Lucy to me.

Caspian is pathetic; I don't mean his hair, because it isn't as bad as I had thought it would be. I mean his whole character, his age, and his lines. I have always liked Caspian, both from the books and the old BBC movies. But in this movie, he is what? seventeen? According to C. S. Lewis' timeline, he would have been a year or two younger than Susan, yet they have him about three years older. We all know why, too: so that they could fall in love and kiss. Anyways, Caspian is a revenge hungry teen who endangers Peter's whole battle plan for revenge. He does not appear to really love and care for the Narnians: he just cares about himself and getting his rightful throne back. In the books, Caspian 'loves the old things'. In this movie, I don't think he believed that Old Narnia even existed. "Your'e supposed to be extinct!" he tells either Trufflehunter or Nikabrik; I can't remember which.

Trumpkin is very, well, I don't know. He seems very shallow and unTrumpkinlike. He is always sarcastic and, to me, he acts stupid. I don't like how he looks or his voice or how he acts. Sure, they kept some of his lines from the book, but he doesn't do them justice.

Storyline

They completely messed up the storyline of the movie. I understand that some changes have to be made, but they just made way too many
1. It starts out with Caspian escaping from the castle. Why? To avoid flashbacks. Who cares if there are flashbacks? In the old Prince Caspian movie, made by BBC, they have it where the Pevensie's story is alternated with Caspian's, so that there is no flashback, but we still get the story. As a result, in this movie, we miss a huge part of background story; why do we care about Caspian? We don't even know who he is!
2. Then, he is chased by Miraz's soldiers! They aren't supposed to know that he has escaped until some time later.
3. He wakes to find himself outside Trufflehunter and Co.'s cave, with two dwarfs coming after him. Trumpkin runs out to attack/distract the Telmarines, while Nikabrik knocks Caspian out.
4. Trumpkin never even meets Caspian until the children get there with him; instead, he is captured by Miraz's men almost at the start of the movie. For some strange reason, although the prince knows nothing about the horn, he puts it to his lips and blows it as the dwarfs rush at him.
5. Instead of a 'sleepy, quiet country railway station', it is some huge station with lots of people. Peter gets into a fight, Susan lies to some boy about her name, and the Pevensies are snappish to each other. Susan acts like she could care less about going back to Narnia.
6. The way they go to Narnia is extremely strange: the train rushes by them really fast, and everything starts tearing off the tunnel, and suddenly they find themselves in a cave looking out at the ocean. But this is not too bad; it is one of the least of my complaints against the movie.
7. They find out that Cair Paravel was attacked, which is certainly not what they discover in the book; but again, this is not too bad.
8. Caspian first meets Reepicheep when the mouse jumps on him and threatens to kill him. They do not have a counsel on the Dancing Lawn; in fact, all that happens is a bunch of animals and weird looking centaurs surrounding him, yelling 'Kill him!' or something. Caspian gives a very fake sounding speech to them, whereupon they decide to help him.
9. We learn that he will have minotaurs and several other evil creatures in his army. But in the book, Trufflehunter says, "No indeed! We should not have Aslan as a friend if we took in that kind of rabble.' And Caspian agrees.
10. The second time that Lucy sees Aslan, she finds out that it is just a dream. Aslan is conspicuously absent throughout nearly the whole movie.
11. The way they find Caspian is when Peter is about to attack a minotaur which he sees walking around in the woods (since he doesn't know it is in Caspian's army); Caspian blocks Peter's sword, and they start to fight until Susan comes up and yells, "Stop!"
12. They arrive at Miraz's camp on the edge of Beruna, and there is a strange exchange between Miraz and the General (Glozzelle; but he's never named in the movie). Miraz asks how many of the General's men were killed in 'this bloody Narnia attack', and reluctantly said General replies, "Three."
13. After the Pevensies with Caspian arrive at Aslan's Howe, (even though in the book, Susan and Lucy stay with Aslan while Peter, Edmund, and Trumpkin go on to find Caspian), they all sit in the place where the Stone Table is and discuss what to do. At last, it is decided that they will attack Miraz's castle. This is ridiculous! The only hint that they would do this in the book is at the Dancing Lawn, when Reepicheep and his mice suggest it. That is the last you hear of that, because it is too ridiculous to even think of it.
14. Cornelius is not with them, even though in the book, he finds them at Dancing Lawn and goes with them the rest of the way.
15. Of course, the whole castle attack sequence is a complete departure from the book. Caspian learns from Cornelius that Miraz murdered his father, whereas he had known this for a long time in the book. Prunaprismia supposedly was a good enough person and did not know that her husband had killed Caspian's father. In the book, it says, "Caspian had always wondered why he disliked his aunt, Queen Prunaprismia; now he saw that it was because she disliked him." In other words, she was not a very nice woman.
16. When they get back to the Howe after the castle attack, Caspian and Peter nearly have a swordfight.
17. The part about Sorcery and Sudden Vengeance is changed a whole lot. Caspian is in the room with the Stone Table by himself, except for Nikabrik. The dwarf offers to help him win the war, and the hag and werewolf come in. Caspian is held tightly while his hand is cut by a knife; a wall of ice comes up, covering the engraving of Aslan on the wall. The White Witch is seen through the wall of ice, and Caspian's hand is pulled towards hers. "Just one drop," she says. "That's all. Just one drop of a son of Adam's blood." Peter, Edmund, and Lucy burst in, and a fight ensues. Peter knocks Caspian away, and then is nearly ensnared by the witch. Edmund goes behind the ice wall and shatters it, telling Peter: "I know: you had it sorted."
18. Miraz's army arrives, and Caspian, not Peter, suggests that there be a single combat.
19. As Peter is fighting Miraz, Lucy and Susan ride off to find Aslan and procure his help. On the way out of the Howe, Caspian offers Susan her horn back, and we get the first real hint that she is in love. She says, "No, you keep it. You might need to call me again." As they are riding out, Lucy says with a laugh, "You might need to call me again?" and Susan replies: "Oh, shut up!" Very stupid part.
20. Telmarines follow the girls, and Susan has to be rescued by Caspian (how sweet!). Lucy rides on alone until Aslan rescues her.
21. Miraz is supposed to be king already, but he is crowned in the middle of the movie, and you hear lots of people chanting "Lord and king! Lord and king!" Actually a kind of neat scene.
22. Susan and Caspian return to the Howe as Peter and Miraz are fighting. Miraz is killed by Sopespian ("I'll deal with you when this is over," says Miraz. "It is over," says Sopespian with a smile, and stabs one of Susan's arrows into the king's back.) The Telmarine's fall back to prepare for an attack. Susan is in charge of the archers, and she yells in a very unladylike way: "Hold your arrows!" "Fire!!" and such like.
23. The Howe is destroyed by catapults. The Telmarines run to the Ford of Beruna and Lucy appears at the other end of the bridge; she draws her dagger and Aslan comes up beside her. Glozzelle rides towards them, and the river god comes up, tosses the bridge into the air, and brings the General up to his face, then throws him into the water.
24. As the children are about to leave, Susan lingers by Caspian, and says she is sorry that they didn't have more time together. Then, as they are leaving, she turns impetuously and gives Caspian a long, sensual kiss. It is the most disgusting scene in the whole disappointing movie.

Acting

The acting seemed very stilted to me. Whereas in the new LWW, the children's acting was very natural, in this they were obviously trying too hard. It did not come out naturally as it did in the other movie. Such as when Peter and Miraz are fighting: Peter grunts and makes a lot of noises, obviously trying to imitate how he did when fighting the White Witch. In LWW, the fight between him and the witch was very convincing. In this, however, it seemed very forced.

Good Parts

There were a few good moments in the movie, but they were way outweighed by the overall pitifulness of the movie. Here they are, though, so that you won't think I'm just trying to pick on the movie:
1. Susan tells the boy at the train station that she likes to be left alone. "Me too!" the boy says cheerfully. "What's your name?" "Phyliss," she replies. A few seconds later Lucy runs up and says, "Susan!"
2. The fight between Edmund and Trumpkin was well done.
3. The part where the mice tied up the cat was hilarious.
4. The part where Edmund's sword has been knocked out of his hand, and he is standing on a battlement. The soldiers come towards him, and he falls backwards, then a gryphon catches him in its claws and carries him away. I thought that was a neat scene.
5. I liked how Reepicheep was attacking the Telmarine soldiers just before you see him for the first time.
6. I like how Lucy is always telling them to wait for Aslan.
7. They kept some of the lines from the book, more than in LWW.
8. At the end of the movie, as they are boarding the train, the boy who had been talking to Susan says, "Are you coming, Phyliss?"

Random Stuff

The animals:
I didn't really like how they did any of the talking animals. They are too cheeky and kind of cartoony. It seems like Adamson thought they were only for comic relief. The same thing for Trumpkin. I didn't like him at all. Reepicheep was the best one, and even he was never serious; he was always cracking a joke or being dryly humorous. Once or twice is alright, but all the animals have the same exact characters: goofy, unserious beasts.
Centaurs:
If the centaurs were weird looking in LWW, they were three times weirder in PC. I think that they look absolutely ridiculous.

Minotaurs:
Minotaurs on Caspian's side? That's all I can say.

Telmarines:
I liked their accents, and some of them were good actors. My favorite was Sopespian.

So, my overall opinion? The movie was a big, money-wasting flop. I am not planning on watching it again in the near future, and when I do rewatch it, I am not going to be more impressed with it. I will probably find more stuff to complain about. Maybe, since (allegedly) Andrew Adamson is not directing The Voyage of the Dawn Treader, they will do better on that one. I certainly hope so.