The Chronicles of Narnia: Voyage of the Dawn Treader

Voyage of the Dawn Treader is the third book, and now the third film  of the Chronicles of Narnia series. The film opens similar to the book  with Edmund and Lucy staying in England with their cousin Eustace, who  is a real brat that they don’t get along with at all. Peter and Lucy are  in America. A strange painting appears in Eustace’s house, which is of a  ship at sea. Suddenly water pours out of the painting and the kids are  washed away to Narnia. They are taken aboard the Dawn Treader commanded  by Prince Caspian (from the last film and book).

From here they all embark on a journey to find seven lost swords to  stop a great evil rising in the land. There’s not a specific villain in  the film per say, but each character must face their temptations for the  quest to succeed. Lucy, who is growing older, wishes to be beautiful  like her older sister Susan. This leads to a short but sweet nightmare  like sequence where she becomes Susan in a reality where Lucy was never  born.   Edmund still fears the White Witch from the first film, who  makes a cameo in his nightmare. He is also fears he’s been second fiddle  to Peter, and now to Caspian. Part of him wishes to rule his own  kingdom. This is appropriate for the character but in the narrative  seems to come very fast. Caspian fears that he let his father down, but  this is a very weak point in the story, not developed very well. Also  the mouse character Reepicheep makes a interesting decision at the end  that I felt the arc could have built up to more.

The book features several random journey’s of the Dawn Treader that  are more streamlined for the purposes of film.  Peter and Susan have  brief cameos, and everyone plays their parts well. Eustace is a great  annoying twerp who provides comic relief and matures by the tales end.  It was interesting to the the White Witch reappear, as she did in the  last one as well. Edmund’s flashlight from the last movie appears as  well. The effects are good, there’s a cool looking sea monster providing  a good action sequence at the end.

I was hesitant to see this, as I didn’t care for the last movie, and  remember not liking the third book as a kid. Pleasant surprise. 8.5/10

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Last updated: 2010-12-22 07:32:35 by jemurr

Director: Michael Apted
Running Time: 115 minutes
Australian Release Date: 2 December 2010
/</gispan style="font-style: italic;"/>/giReview by Tom Clift

</span>The <span style="font-style: italic;">Chronicles of Narnia</span> movies, based on the books by C.S. Lewis, have always been something akin to a red-headed stepchild in the world of the epic fantasy film. The movies have always been profitable, but have (rightfully) never achieved the same level of audience or critical enthusiasm as the far superior <span style="font-style: italic;">Lord of the Rings </span>and <span style="font-style: italic;">Harry Potter</span> franchises, whose successes were largely responsible for the <span style="font-style: italic;">Narnia</span> series being green-lit in the first place. The third and most recent entry in the series is <span style="font-style: italic;">The Voyage of the Dawn Treader</span>, a movie that owes a lot to the <span style="font-style: italic;">Pirates of the Caribbean</span> films in addition to the ones previously mentioned. Falling somewhere in between the enjoyable <span style="font-style: italic;">The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe</span> and the very weak <span style="font-style: italic;">Prince Caspian</span>, the film is entertaining thanks mostly to the unsurprisingly impressive visual effects and a fun performance from young newcomer Will Poulter, but ultimately does little to distinguish itself from the dozens of other post-<span style="font-style: italic;">Potter</span> cash grabs that have littered our screens in the past few years.
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Michael Apted (the<span style="font-style: italic;"> Up! </span>series, <span style="font-style: italic;">The World is Not Enough</span>) takes over the reins from previous series director Andrew Adamson, but mostly retains the style and tone of the earlier films. The story begins, as always, when the Pevensie children Edmund (Skandar Keynes) and Lucy (Georgie Henley), along with their objectionable cousin Eustace (Will Poulter) are transported from their everyday lives in WWII era England to the magical land of Narnia, for reasons that are never quite made clear. Once there, they join King Caspian (Ben Barnes) and Reepicheep the mouse (voiced by Simon Pegg), along with a horde of other Narnians aboard Caspian’s ship The Dawn Trade, on a voyage to relocate seven mystical swords whose power will help Caspian defeat the malevolent forces of the Dark Island, and the evil green mist that is kidnapping his subjects. In a series of poorly connected action beats, the crew of the Treader do battle with slave traders, dragons and sea-serpents, encountering new mission and obstacles as the script necessitates, often just as the prior conflict is conveniently wrapping up.

One of the biggest problems with the film is its very formulaic script. From the requisite last minute rescue sequence, the training duel in which a previously inexperienced character finds himself suddenly an expert swordsman, to the cringe-worthy scene where Edmund and Caspian almost come to blows over leadership, there is nothing in this film from a narrative stand-point that we have not seen many times before. This is a film in which characters learn their lessons at precisely the moments one would expect, and where deus ex machina reigns supreme. Edmund continues to be tempted by the spirit of the White Witch (the great Tilda Swinton getting rolled out again in another thankless cameo), while Lucy is plagued by insecurities that she will never be as beautiful as her older sister Susan. The latter could have been an interesting sub-plot, but is mostly abandoned after the halfway point and then called back in an atrociously cloying scene at the end of the film.

The dialogue is also very stilted, and does not allow the actors much room to maneuver. Ben Barnes is fine if rather unexciting as King Caspian; he natural charisma and good looks do most of the work, while Keynes and Henley remain only mediocre as the Pevensie children. Simon Pegg brings some life to the film as the voice of Reepicheep – at the very least you can tell he’s having fun. The standout however is Will Poulter as the charmingly irritating Eustace Scrubb. A rude and pompous English schoolboy who does not believe of Narnia despite being trapped on one of its boats, Poulter has almost all the entertaining dialogue in the film, and although he plays an enormous stereotype (one can almost imagine the directors notes to Poulter – “more British-y” they’d read), it is definitely an amusing one. Of course by the end of the film his character learns the error of his ways and becomes just as noble and uninteresting as his relatives.

The other big gripe I have with the film are the painful religious undertones; although it might seem slightly redundant criticizing the Christian messages of a story by C.S. Lewis, the moment in which Aslan tells the children that he exists in our world by another name, and that they need to learn to believe in him, was insultingly unsubtle. Likewise, having a character descend from the sky with an ethereal glow when our heroes are in need is both thematically questionable and narratively lazy. Most troubling was the treatment of Eustace; jokes about his obnoxious personality aside, as the only character in the film who puts stock in science, he is an object of ridicule and scorn to both audience members and characters within the film, and only becomes a hero when he abandons everything he believes in and instead embraces faith.

Unsubtle and uncreative writing aside however, I cannot deny that I still had a fair amount of fun with this film. The special effects and production design are all top-notch and often very creative, and there are several exciting if unrealistically bloodless action sequences and moments of swordplay peppered throughout. Most importantly, director Michael Apted, in what is probably his biggest creative contribution to the film, brings the story in at just under two hours as opposed to bloated running times of the previous films. As a result, even if you do not entirely buy the story or the actions of its characters, you will probably be engaged enough to find something that you like.

More reviews at http://reviewsbytom.blogspot.com and http://rowthree.com