Critics Consensus: Prince Caspian is Movie Royalty

This
week’s only wide release is the second film in The Chronicles of Narnia
saga,
Prince Caspian (starring
Ben Barnes
and Anna
Popplewell). What do
the critics have to say?

Critics
felt 2005’s

The Lion, The Witch, and Wardrobe was a solid,
periodically stirring adaptation of C.S. Lewis’ fantasy world — but fell short
of the cinematic riches on display in the
Lord of the Rings and
Harry
Potter franchises. The critical reaction to the sequel,
The Chronicles of
Narnia: Prince Caspian, is no different. The Pevensie siblings return to
Narnia and discover the land is under the reign of an evil monarch; they also
run across the true heir to the throne, the noble Prince Caspian, who plans to
defeat the tyrant. The pundits say the film is handsomely mounted, with plenty
of visual splendor. However, they also not the film works more as a triumph of
craft than a stirring tale. At 73 percent on the Tomatometer, this
Prince is pretty regal. (Check out

this week’s Total Recall, in which we
count down our favorite talking animals.)

Also
opening this week in limited release:

• How the Garcia Girls Spent Their Summers, starring
  America Ferrara and
  Elizabeth Pena in a tale of three generations of Mexican-American women looking
  for love, is at 100 percent.

• Unsettled, a documentary about six Israeli twentysomethings whose lives
  were changed by withdrawal from the Gaza Strip, is at 100 percent.

• The Norwegian import
  Reprise, a coming-of-age dramedy about a group of
  friendly young literary rivals, is at 90 percent (check out RT’s take
  here).

• My Father, My Lord, a drama about a crisis of faith among a family of
  Orthodox Jews, is at 88 percent.

• Yella, a supernatural thriller about a woman with a troubled past, is at
  81 percent.

• Sangre de Mi Sangre, a mystery about an undocumented Mexican immigrant
  and his search for his father, is at 80 percent.

• Paraguayan Hammock, about a middle-aged couple’s conversations as
  they wait for their son to return from war, is at 50 percent.

Skinheads need love, too.

Andrew
Adamson Movies:
———————————-
75% —
The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, The Witch, and Wardrobe (2005)
89% — Shrek 2 (2004)
89% — Shrek (2001)