Prince Caspian (Ben Barnes) prepares for battle in The Chonicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian. (Murray Close/Walt Disney Pictures)

Early on in The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian, a dwarf named Trumpkin (the excellent Peter Dinklage, in an embarrassingly munchkin-like role) warns the four Pevensie children that Narnia, the magical land that they once ruled, might be “a more savage place than you remember.” If only.

Instead, the world they’ve returned to — 1,300 years since they were its kings and queens — is devoid of much of its magic, real menace and fun. Not long after the Pevensies were unwillingly whisked back to wartime England (where only a year has passed), an invading army of Telmarines – Mediterranean-looking no-goodniks with pointy beards and accents borrowed from Hank Azaria’s Guatemalan houseboy in The Birdcage – has colonized Narnia and driven its talking beasts, dwarves, minotaurs, dryads and other fantastical creatures into hiding. The lion god Aslan (Liam Neeson) has disappeared, too, tempting some embittered Narnians to turn to evil to help them overthrow their conquerors.

And so, just as Peter (William Moseley), Susan (Anna Popplewell), Edmund (Skandar Keynes) and Lucy (Georgie Henley) Pevensie were beginning to adjust to their mundane schoolchildren lives, having given up hope of ever seeing Narnia again, they are summoned back to save the kingdom by the blast of a magical horn. In a neat visual effect, a London tube station peels away to reveal a seaside cave and the ruins of the castle of Cair Paravel, where the children once lived.

Prince Caspian is a moody sequel to The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, and it borrows unabashedly from other moody fantasy sequels, including The Empire Strikes Back, The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers and the later Harry Potters. There are flashes of interesting themes at work here: the loss of faith and the bittersweet necessity of growing up and leaving behind the fantasy life of childhood. Mostly, though, Prince Caspian offers up the cringe-worthy sight of actors playing awkwardly against CGI talking animals and the sort of drawn-out battle scenes that were eye-popping when Peter Jackson filmed the Lord of the Rings trilogy. Now, the hybrid griffins and centaurs, the clanging medieval armour, the catapults and the Roman-style formations just feel rote. The only thrilling fight in Prince Caspian is an old-fashioned man-to-man sword battle – as low-tech and as lively as it gets.

The beckoner that the Pevensies have been called to assist is the Telmarine Prince Caspian (British stage actor Ben Barnes), who has been usurped by his power-hungry uncle Miraz (Sergio Castellitto). Caspian is sympathetic to the Narnians’ plight, having been raised on stories of Ye Good Olde Days by his tutor, and wants to reclaim his throne. Barnes is a ringer for a young Keanu Reeves and he looks dreamy while riding a horse – watch your back, Daniel Radcliffe – but Caspian is a little too green to lead Narnia on his own. Still, even he’s surprised to find that the legendary military and spiritual leaders that represent his last, best hope are four kids. Of course, those kids prove wiser and nobler than the grown-ups around them.

A couple of the creatures of Narnia, played by Peter Dinklage, left, and Warwick Davis, right. (Phil Bray/Walt Disney Pictures)

That’s the genius of the series of novels from which this movie franchise has been adapted. Author C.S. Lewis understood how compelling adulthood can seem to kids — provided it was an adulthood of their invention. It has to be one in which wars are fought against goblins and ogres, not flesh-and-blood humans, and where a little courage and gung-ho could make you a queen or king. Even the shifts in time make perfect sense; in a child’s mind, a year can seem like a millennium. For Peter and Susan, it’s a millennium too long; now adolescents, their adventures in Narnia will end with Prince Caspian. Real life and adult responsibilities await them.

When returning director Andrew Adamson resists the cheap pleasures of talking CGI animals – Eddie Izzard is mostly wasted playing the mouse leader Reepicheep – he smartly taps into the longing children have to both grow up and stay young forever. Peter’s naïve, brave willingness to fight to the death for Narnia is all the more poignant given that back in Europe, boys just a few years older than him are dying in battle on the beaches of France. If only Adamson had lingered in this territory a little longer. Growing up has its own kind of magic, which no amount of special effects and battle sequences can match.

The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian opens across Canada on May 16.

Rachel Giese is a Toronto-based writer and editor.