Now let me be clear before I continue… the chemistry between the actors was dead on, even King Caspian (Barnes) feels at home with the Pevensie children. This is not the problem. Also, the visual effects were creative, quite extraordinary, and did add a third dimension to this magical world. The problem is the story. It feels so cliché for this series, the Pevensies return to Narnia through a different magical portal, fight some villains and then go home. This is the plot put in its simplest form for The Voyage of the Dawn Treader, and the previous two adaptations.
I’m not saying that Dawn Treader was a bad movie. I actually quite enjoyed the last hour of the film. The movie begins with Edmund (Keynes) and Lucy (Henley) left with their obnoxious cousin Eustace (Poulter) and his parents. The older two Pevensies are now somewhere in America with their parents. As Edmund, Lucy and Eustace are squabbling about some other useless problem the children notice a leak from a painting. In a matter of seconds, the painting fills the room of water (which in my opinion is much cooler than a wardrobe or a train station for a portal to the magical world of Narnia). Oddly enough the ship in the painting ends up in the middle of an ocean as well as the Pevensie children and Eustace.
It turns out that the ship is the Dawn Treader (hence the name), led by King Caspian and his group of fellow Narnian sailors. Edmund, Lucy, followed by Eustace have returned to the glorious realms of Narnia because it is once again in danger. A mysterious green smoke which resembles the pure evil and sin of Narnia is consuming crowds of people, releasing it’s horror like a disease, making hoards of people disappear. The only way to stop this monstrosity is to destroy it at its base, the dark island, by finding and recovering the seven different swords belonging to Aslan’s table along with the seven kings in which the swords belong to. Only then can its true power be weak enough to strike a final blow and destroy the terror forever.
Another thing missing from this film that the prior Narnia films had was that sense of pure, warm magic. Even in a normal scene, say for example, the Pevensie children are talking, there was always this warm, magical tone resonating off of it. I guess that with the exchange of movie companies (the first two were presented by Walt Disney Pictures and this third film was by 20th Century Fox Pictures). Fox took control of the franchise but left out one key piece included in this series, the warm tone that the magical world of Narnia radiates off (especially because Narnia resembles heaven).
I do have to applaud Poulter for his portrayal as the annoying Eustace Scrubb. It turns out that when Eustace is a grumpy, childish boy the movie is completely dull, disconnected and unrelated to the magic of Narnia. When Eustace transforms into a dragon, so does his personality as well as the tone of the movie. This of course was unintentional but nevertheless I quite enjoyed Eustace’s quirkiness that Poulter delivered quite effectively. The film suddenly entranced me, the snake monster that resides in the dark island at the climax, slithers onto the screen and introduces the most menacing and darkest scene of the entire saga. I quite enjoyed this scene, the action rumbled along, nicely, the snake monster looks so real, almost creepy in fact.
When reviewing this movie we have to remember that this was a Disney released film series and that this is the first Narnia movie to be done by 20th Century, so of course it’s not going to be a perfect addition to the series. It is disjointed and disconnected from the previous ones but it did surpass my expectations as satisfactory.
It may not be Michael Apted's best motion picture but it is a good adaptation of the book. The script is well put, clean and good for this day and age of Narnia. In my opinion it may not be the best Narnia movie but the family will enjoy it for its visuals, its humor, and its buccaneering action. Lets face it, for the next Narnia film (we don’t even have to ask, it’ll be out in the next three years I’m guessing), they’ll have understood and learned from their mistakes and quite possibly make a Narnia movie ranking with The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe.
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Could have been worse
Written by Guest on 2011-01-19 23:23:14
Despite the very compressed nature of the film, and all of the other shortcomings you’ve pointed out, it certainly could have been worse.
I’m a HUGE fan of the books, and one who doesn’t go to many movies. I didn’t read the series until I was an adult.
The dashing, chivalrous Reepicheep inspired me to write a song several years ago, after reading the book. The primary inspiration was Reepicheep’s yearning to travel to Aslan’s country at the end of the world, a main theme in the book that, unfortunately, was mostly absent from the movie.
I pitched the song, “Eastward,” to Twentieth Century Fox hoping they would pick it up as a trailer for the movie… but alas it was not meant to be. And after seeing the movie, I realized that the song would have made little sense to viewers unfamiliar with the book.
If you’re interested, have a listen here: www.nickmilos.com/music.htm
Will Poulter was outstanding as Eustace!
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carol
Written by Guest on 2011-02-03 05:25:15
love this movie ! |
carol
Written by Guest on 2011-02-03 05:40:44
¹þ¹þ£¬ºÃϲ»¶Ben Barnes£¡  |
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