A year after their return from Narnia, Peter (William Moseley), Edmund (Skandar Keynes), Susan (Anna Popplewell) and Lucy Pevensie (Georgie Henley) have cabin fever in wartime London when, while awaiting the tube, they find themselves transported back to the land of which they were once kings and queens.

Here though some 1300 years have passed and along with it the Golden Age. Now it's ruled by the human Telmarines who have all but eradicated the talking animals and mythical creatures, forcing survivors to retreat into the woods. The trees no longer move and Aslan's been gone for a century.

The foursome have, it transpires, been unwittingly summoned by a blast on Susan's horn from Prince Caspian (Ben Barnes), noble heir to the Telmarine throne, who's fled for his life after being usurped by his murderous uncle Miraz (Sergio Castellitto).

Joining forces, the Pevensies, Caspian and the myriad Narnians have to overthrow Miraz and restore Narnia to its former unity and glory. It's a question of whether courage and faith is enough to sustain them through petty rivalries, setbacks and despair in the face of overwhelming numbers.

A relative US box office flop, falling short of The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe, it's not that surprising. The first film was athing of wonder, blessed with a charismatic villain in Tilda Swinton's White Queen and packing an emotional punch in the sacrifice of Aslan with the young cast's performances in tune with the naivete of their characters.

This time round they just look like weak acting, especially given the standards set by child stars Abigail Breslin and Dakota Blue Richards. Henley again proves the best of the quartet, but, given precious little to do, her inexperience is no less evident. There's also no emotional conflict among the siblings who come across rather blandly, like Enid Blyton's Famous Five, while, priggishly superior and arrogant, Peter proves actually quite unlikeable.

It's Caspian who's really the narrative focus but while a heartthrob with chiselled features and flowing locks, Barnes doesn't have the dramatic charisma to elevate this to the Lord of the Rings level to which it aspires.

Castellitto does well enough as the ruthless Miraz, but at the end of the day he's just another scheming tyrant and when Swinton puts in a brief cameo you can sense the anticipation rise. It's a hope quite literally dashed.

Good news then that. as grouchy dwarfs Trumpkin and Nikabrik, Peter Dinklage and Warwick Davis are in fine fettle, the former providing sardonic humour even if lines like 'you've got to be kidding me' seem a little unNarnian. Eddie Izzard's fun too as swashbuckling mouse Reepicheep, but it's hard not to be reminded of his more enjoyable feline equivalent in Shrek 2 which, of course, was also written and directed by Chronicles head honcho Andrew Adamson.

It looks impressive though, with a vast improvement in the CGI and the many battle scenes effectively handled; the abortive assault in Miraz's castle particularly dark and thrilling. But too often the linking passages are just so much dead air in which you can almost hear the cogs grinding to sustain involvement while you're left wondering what sort of psychological after-effects cutting people down with swords and a seemingly inexhaustible supply of arrows might have on 14-year-old boys and girls.