The Chronicles of Narnia: The Voyage of the Dawn Treader (**½)
Directed by: Michael Apted
Starring: Georgie Henley, Skandar Keynes, Will Poulter, Ben Barnes,
Simon Pegg (voice), Gary Sweet, Liam Neeson (voice), Tilda Swinton
Seen: December 18th 2010
**½
Out of ****
The Voyage of the Dawn Treader is the third instalment in the
moderately popular reworking of C.S. Lewis’ beloved series. I say moderately since
Disney gave up rights to the series for financial reasons with 20th
Century Fox taking over. Personally I despised the first movie as it was
chock-full of annoying children whinging about everything they see combined
with some very below par props and special effects. The second movie was
exponentially better, as the special effects were brilliant, the battle-scenes
were believable, and the movie even taught The Lord of the Rings a small lesson
when it came to presenting Ents on screen. The Voyage of the Dawn Treader fits snugly
between the previous two movies if you were to ask me, the special effects
serve the story brilliantly, but the recurring theme of a very annoying kid is
back.
Lucy (Henley) and Edmund (Keynes) Pevensie are now staying with their
uncle, aunt and very obnoxious cousin, Eustace Scrubb (Poulter). If Lucy and
Edmund’s annoying whinging in the first movie was a 7 out of 10, then Eustace
races past 10 in the first few minutes of this movie. He’s a selfish, spoilt
and rotten kid, and when he runs into Lucy and Edmund’s room on yet another
tireless rampage he doesn’t for one minute stop accusing them of everything,
even when a painting on the wall comes to life and the room is flooded and the
three of them are transported to Narnia, where they are rescued from the ocean
by King Caspian (Barnes) on the Dawn Treader.
The group join King Caspian on his quest to find the Seven Lost Lords of
Narnia, who where banished by Caspian’s evil uncle Miraz. The Seven Lords each own
a sword, and all 7 these swords need to be placed on Aslan’s (Neeson) table to
activate a power that can assist them in defeating a dark power that abducts
people and threatens the islands of Narnia with a brooding darkness. En route
they are accosted by various villains and manifestations of their own fears,
and the battles get quite intense.
The first hour or so of this movie felt like an aeon, with the setup
dragging on for far too long. After that however, the pace picks up nicely to a
point where the crew of the Dawn Treader are battling a giant sea serpent. After
this the movie drops a bit again as the end goes in the direction of the long
winded farewell from the third Lord of the Rings movie, but luckily this doesn’t
last too long before the three kids return home, all three of them the better from
their Narnian experiences.
The visual impact of this movie can’t be overlooked, with believable
and menacing battles, good production design, and an interesting ‘journey’ for
Eustace. Lucy and Edmund are much more adult in this movie, and even through
their tribulations the same dread of them possibly picking the dark road is not
revisited here, as you’ve come to trust them over the course of the previous
two movies. The 3D, in my opinion, was good, but still not convincing enough to
not rather opt to just see the movie in normal 2D. The Chronicles of Narnia:
The Voyage of the Dawn Treader is a good movie, and a worthy way to spend a
lazy afternoon, just don’t expect you world to be changed too much…
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