The Chronicles Of Narnia: Prince Caspian (2008)

(In theaters, May 2008) So, is that it? Barely more than five years after the first Lord Of The Rings, has media fantasy become so commonplace that utterly generic products like Prince Caspian are crowding the screens like the middle-volumes-of-trilogies than infest the fantasy shelves in bookstore? I haven’t read the book and that may be just as well, because this adaptation tries its damnedest to hammer everything distinctive into the 21st-century template for fantasy films, down to the inevitable climactic battle-between-armies. There’s little that’s specifically wrong about Prince Caspian (well, maybe the half-hearted romance, the deus ex leo ending and the homicidal mice), but there’s a lot that feels so familiar as to be barely worth attention. Just tough it out and look at the pretty CGI until the lion comes along to save the day.