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GIVEN the failure of The Golden Compass to convince anyone that Philip Pullman's brilliant books could adequately be brought to life on the big screen, the cinematic fantasy realm is looking ever more reliant on C. S. Lewis and J.K. Rowling.

But Mr Potter is nearly at the end of his run, too, and so it's the seven Narnia chronicles of the former which have been holding the torch for the genre.

Despite some lacklustre reviews for Walden Media's treatment of The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe in 2005, I thought it was more than satisfactory, and so was looking forward to finding out if this follow-up could prove that here was a franchise with Potter-esque box office potential.

It begins back with the four Pevensies, Peter (William Moseley), Susan (Anna Popplewell), Edmund and Lucy (Georgie Henley), who are adjusting to the mundanities of life in England since they ceased being the queens and kings of Narnia, and returned to the real world through the wardrobe.

But a crisis prompts their return to the kingdom. Waiting to board the Tube to go to school, they're instead whisked back to a shore, which they instantly recognise as Narnia, even though their former royal residence has been reduced to rubble.

The key addition this time around is Brit Ben Barnes as Prince Caspian, around whom the plot revolves. The Pevensies have been summoned because the wife of his tyrannical uncle King Miraz (a suitably hiss-worthy Sergio Castellitto) has just had a son. Caspian needs to be disposed of so that Miraz can take over completely.

Escaping to the forest, where all of the thought-to-be extinct Narnians have been hiding, waiting for a chance to overthrow Miraz, he meets a sword-savvy mouse called Reepicheep (voiced by Eddie Izzard) and his friend Nikabrik. Eventually coming into contact, he and the Pevensies team up to lead a great battle to try to defeat the regime, aided - and thwarted - by a few faces from the past.

Judging by the reaction of the young ladies who were present at the public screening I attended, hunky Mr Barnes is quite the saving grace of this instalment. His performance will no doubt ensure his pin-up status, given that it sustains what is often a sluggish film - and one which is far too long for its core audience at two hours and twenty-three minutes.

Thankfully, he'll be back on our screens in The Voyage of the Dawn Treader in 2010, alongside Keynes and Henley, the best actors out of the four Pevensie kids.

This is not a religious allegory to the same extent as its predecessor, but there's still a water episode in there which has definite Moses and the Red Sea overtones.

Its best bits are the little jokes - Reepicheep tying up a cat in the castle - the attempt to take the castle, and The Lord of the Rings-lite battle scenes, one of which ends in heartbreaking fashion.

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