battles

• Chronicles of Narnia, The: Prince Caspian directed by Andrew Adamson (2008)

  [7/10]

  "Director Andrew Adamson again does an excellent job bringing the spare details of C. S. Lewis's Prince Caspian to epic proportions on the screen."

• Fablehaven: Grip of the Shadow Plague by Brandon Mull (2008)

  [7/10]

  "The slow-moving first half of the book disappointed me, but I still find the Fablehaven books one of the most interesting and well-written adventure series around."

• Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows by J. K. Rowling (2007)

  [7/10]

  "Rowling has created an interesting universe and a story that surely will never go out of print. I certainly will probably read the entire series several more times in my lifetime, in spite of the numerous problems that a more careful writer would have addressed."

• Mongol directed by Sergei Bodrov (2007)

  [6/10]

  "Director Bodrov clearly wants to paint a different picture of young Temudjin than most people have from from reading about the savage Gengis Kahn. Mongol paints a picture of a stubborn, religious man devoted to his wife and determined to create a great empire for the benefit of all Mongol people -- 'even if half of them have to die for it.'"

  Average score: 6.75