The Chronicles of Narnia Voyage of the Dawn Treader Movie Review

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Review

© 2010 by Sportscar Projects




The Chronicles of Narnia: TheVoyage of the Dawn Treader

Decmeber 19, 2010

Follow Edmund the Just, Lucy the Valiant andEustace the Irritating to Dark Island (that’s theblack one under the blue star) where Evil andTemptation lurk in the Green Mist! Gather the 7swords from the 7 Lords-a-Searching and toss

them on the dinner table. Yeah, that’ll banish evilforever.

One Word Movie Review: LAME

The Chronicles of Narnia: The Voyage of the DawnTreader continues the Narnia series

with this third adventure into the

fantasy land of Narnia where animalstalk, kings rule and kids from England

can be heroes. This time, the elder

Pevensie kids (Peter and Susan) have

aged and moved to America but

Edmund and Lucy remain behind in

England as WWII rages on. Peter and

Susan ache for escape to fantastic Narnia as theybunk in with their relatives and the insufferable

Eustace Scrubb, a whining little snot of a boy with a

perverse sense of the rightful order of things.




Peter has to (gasp) share a room with Eustace! Is

there no end to the horrors of war-time England?

Luckily, a sea-faring painting on the wall spills out

and swallows our two warriors along with Eustaceand they join the crew of the dragon ship, the Dawn

Treader and the quest to rid Narnia of the Green Mist

of overwhelming evil.

We now see Narnia in glorious 3D, not really well

done except Lucy’s nose is much bigger than I

remember from previous movies. Some of the

beloved characters return including Prince Caspian,The White Witch, Reepcheep the Rat and the great

mythical lion, Aslan. We sail to several islands, fight

slavers, serpents, dragons and invisible trolls with

one foot before finally banishing the green mist and

freeing the captives from its clutches including one

mother reunited with daughter and husband (to make

it personal – an old screenwriting trick).

The voyage of the Dawn Treader is more of a cruise

ship affair, even down to the final destination, an “all

you can eat” buffet table where you lay down your

magic swords and chow down. The afternoon crowd

of families with young kids was silent throughout the

film and I found myself nodding off in Narnia a few

times. Luckily, my duty as a reviewer forced me tostay awake and pay attention until the very end back

in jolly old England.

If you’ve ever been to a movie where one character

spoils the entire show for you, this third Narnia




could be another to add to your list. The young lad,

Eustace Scrubb (played by Will Poulter) grated on

me from his first entrance onto the screen, like nails

scratching on a blackboard. He is meant to be comicrelief (I guess) but misses the mark considerably and

becomes the character I most wanted to strangle into

silence. Thank Aslan he was transformed into a

dragon later on (not soon enough for me) and

couldn’t talk for the last third of the film.

Audiences have been declining for this series and this

is the make-or-break sequel at the box office. As thisis a spiritual metaphor of Christian theology, we

should pray to the heavens for this to be our last trip

to Narnia, especially if Eustace is back again.

The Story

The Chronicles of Narnia: The Voyage of theDawn Treader starts with a church, stained glass

and gargoyle lions before panning down to an

enlistment queue for the British Army. Young

Edmund attempts to enlist (because he’s such a

great warrior/leader in Narnia). One assumes

he’s got hero fantasies at home as well, waving

his sword at the Nazis and saving our world.

However, the recruiter sends the lad packing and

off we go to the Scrubb home and their horrid

little son, Eustace. He dreams of treating “people

like insects, storing them in jars” so we know




he’s got some personality problems. After the

painting floods the bedroom and submerges our

three heroes into the oceans of Narnia, they are

picked up by the great ship Dawn Treader andtold the sad news that peace has swamped the

lands of Narnia.

So Edmund utters the words we all wonder about,

“then why are we here?”

Good thing you asked, young Edmund. You see, there

were these seven lords (a-leaping), as fitting thisChristmas release, thank Aslan. Seven lords have seven

swords that, when united on the banquet table of Aslan,

will vanquish evil from Dark Island, an evil of

temptation within each of us. Yes, to defeat the darkness

on the island, you have to defeat the darkness within

each of us! I hope that’s not considered a spoiler…

And how shall we do this? By following the blue starand most of all, by having faith that everything will work

out for the best. What a plotline! What tension! What

nonsense for an adventure flick!

Anyway, Lucy wants to be beautiful like her sister (the

temptation of being someone other than your own self

and assuming you will be happier – no, you’re wishing

yourself away!) How about gold? Tons of gold! Well,you get the idea. Temptation for everyone!




Everything works out in the end and our heroes land on

the shores of Aslan’s country, a magical place bordered

by an endless wave, dude: apparently a surfer’s heaven.

We get to share some quality time on the beach withAslan (the lion who sounds like Liam) and have our

fortunes told. Lucy and Edmund go back home but are

told to look for Aslan under another name. One assumes

they will now be searching the London Zoo’s lion cage

for another talking deity they can hug and chat up.

Eustace asks if he can return and is told Narnia may haveneed of his irritating remarks again, the bad news for any

sequel if I’ve got anything to say about it. The ending

goes on with more homilies and hugs, feeling as long as

the good-byes in the final Lord of the Rings.

The GenreThe “kids action/fantasy adventure franchise”

genre has been the holy grail of Hollywood

when done right (Harry Potter) and frustrating

when the source material fails to adapt itself

into billions of box office bucks. Wannabe

franchises lay littered along the red carpet, from

The Golden Compass to Lemony Snicket toSpiderwick to Terabithia and on and on.

Narnia’s star may be fading on the horizon as

well.




This third Narnia movie was meant to re-

invigorate the franchise after the drastic box

office drop of the second film, Prince Caspian.

Director Michael Apted was brought on boardto revive the lion and he gave it his best. Too

bad he inherited a lame story and the same

listless group of actors. He did add Will Poulter

and if he wanted someone to play irritating,

then he hit one out of the park with this choice.

Franchises are based on likable characters and re-

invention of the same damn story with every sequel.Harry Potter is a guide on how to do this, as he

chases Lord Voldemort across eight films. Go thou,

Hollywood and learn from the bespectacled master of

magic.

The Overall Quality

The acting is lame, the 3D is lame and the story is verylame. Getting past these to the visuals which are much

better, especially the rendering of water from the initial

flooding of the bedroom to the final Aslan surfer dude

wave of joy, only highlights the quality gap between

the technical skills and the storytelling.

What was magical in the first movie (the rendering of

Aslan the Lion and the great voice acting of LiamNeeson) becomes ordinary now and acts as a reminder

of how important it is to care about these characters

instead of merely observing their 3D presentation as if

they were just another piece of scenery.




Perhaps the list of six writers was a clue to the challenge

of adapting this book for the screen or the confusion of the

producers to decide just how they wanted to revive the

franchise. Whatever the reason, the result falls short of their goals.

Movie/Market Analysis

The Movie Mood for audiences is Negative. The

Chronicles of Narnia: The Voyage of the Dawn Treaderattempts to inspire and amuse but does neither. From the

opening cathedral to the final wave, we realize thehighlight of the movie is Reepcheep the swashbuckling rat

and that’s not enough to pay 3D prices in this market.

MarketBOB's Sentiment Indicators, the GQS (Genre,

Quality, Story) rate Narnia 3 an emotional BEAR. The

Christian fable of triumph over temptation is the

opposite of what drives markets these days.

Craig Forgrave

(MarketBOB) For all my books and

writing projects, drop by my writer site

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feel, go to http://www.marketbob.com/

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The Chronicles of Narnia Voyage of the Dawn Treader Movie Review