The Chronicles of Narnia: The Voyage of the Dawn Treader

This film is about the Pevensies and their cousin entering Narnia again, in order to help Prince Caspian gather all seven swords of the lords to fight against dark forces.

"The Chronicles of Narnia: The Voyage of the Dawn Treader" is a good film. It has elements for everyone to enjoy, such as clean humour, excitement, dangers and also psychological elements. The plot is straightforward and easy to understand. It is also filled with excitement, especially the battle with the dragon is quite breathtaking. The plot and the characters engage me a lot. This time, the Pevensies have matured, and hence are a lot less annoying. They even become interesting characters as they battle to overcome their own inadequacies. This subplot is aimed at adults, but it still can be understood by children at face value.

The 3D though, is a lot less thrilling than the film. Most scenes do not have noticeable 3D effects. The scenes that do have 3D are quite underwhelming. There are little scenes in the film that makes use of the 3D technology. I can safely say that watching the 2D version would be just as enjoyable than the 3D version, and you can save a few dollars by doing so.

Perhaps the most moralistic of C.S. Lewis' Narnia novels would be 'The Voyage of the Dawn Treader', which is episodic in style with the Dawn Treader's aimless journey through Narnian seas. Michael Apted takes the helm of direction and brings this adventure to us in 3D; the first for Narnia.

Susan and Peter (King & Queen) have grown up now and reside in America where Narnia has no access. The teenagers Lucy (Georgie Hensley) and Edmund (Skander Keynes) who are in Britain in the midst of WW2, along with their unnerving cousin Eustace (Will Poulter) catch the moving waters in a painting in their room. Soon, the water flows into the room and in a spectacular fashion, they are underwater, only to be pulled up by Prince Caspian in front of the hull of the Dawn Treader. Welcome to Narnia! The trio are briefly introduced to the ship's crew that include the swashbuckling mouse Reepicheep and a Narnian buffalo sailor. Their initial inquiry about Narnia's state of affairs and the Dawn Treader's voyage reveal the book and film's weakness - Prince Caspian admits that there are no problems in Narnia. Peace rules the lands and barring the exploration of the farthest stretches of the waters where Aslan's country mythically exists, the ship has little to do on its voyage. Thus, they decide to go island hopping where, just on the first one, they are taken as prisoners and almost sold as slaves until a heroic rescue by the crew saves the day. It is within the walls of the prison that Prince and Edmund find out about the 7 missing lords and their magical swords. Oh and there's a LOST like smoke monster that devours boats full of slaves.

The most striking aspect about 'The Chronicles of Narnia: Voyage of the Dawn Treader' is that it lacks the mystery, build up and joy of discovery of the first movie. At the same time, it eliminates the excessive CGI and Lord of the Rings inspired battle sequences from the second installment and thus proves to be a closer- to- book adaptation. The focus is on retaining Narnia's adventures as an escape for children with funny bits that are memorable especially the endless picking of Eustace by the witty Reepicheep and the monopodial dwarfs on the island. Deeper into the story's entertaining layers, Evil tempts the protagonists in different ways and overcoming the lure is the didactic experience of C.S. Lewis' edition that is well captured by Michael Apted. Lucy's battle against her temptation to be as beautiful as her sister, Edmund's envy of Prince Caspian's position as the leader and Eustace's greed that draws him to hidden treasures are all lessons to be learnt in the battle of good v/s evil. On one hand, the white witch tempts Edmund to join the evil forces while Aslan, in his Christ like rendition guides Lucy on the right path.

The special effects involving the sea serpent in the cove are excellent and provide an ugly yet thrilling experience in 3D while the magical touches through the book of incarnations and entry to Aslan's country are simply enchanting to look at. Discovery of the 7 lords and their swords is itself a moral journey for everyone and while C.S. Lewis did brilliantly in detailing those aspects, Apted is short of time and just like all Narnian films, this one too falls short of the book's magical effect. But then again, Michael Apted is no Peter Jackson.

The climax is a sad farewell to what we were introduced to just 2 movies ago but The Silver Chair may prove to be an altogether different experience with Eustace. Will Poulter's brilliantly convincing portrayal of the annoying kid is the highlight of the film and the focus on him is a well thought out plan for the upcoming movies. Georgie Hensley IS Lucy as C.S. Lewis had once imagined and therefore, her presence is always charming. The rest of the cast could've done better with more focus on their characters had it not been for the time constraint; which, Apted has wisely been strict about. The shortest of the 3 films, yet least action packed, 'Voyage of the Dawn Treader' betters its predecessor by being closer to the book with moral implications and child-like adventures. The film is beautiful to look at but it leaves you craving for more fun, more adventure and sometimes, more heroism. It is by no means uplifting and we do miss Aslan in action at the required times. This is Aslan's shortest time on screen and that is a tragedy for the film indeed. Nevertheless, for loyal fans of Narnia, this is purely Narnian in essence but not an epic by motion picture standards.

• 7.033 on a scale of 1-10.

If it weren't for the ending I would've given this movie 4 out of 10. Since I am a fan of the Chronicles of Narnia books, I kind of had to see this one. The other two movies which were made by Disney weren't bad, but weren't the best. Twentieth Century Fox gets a try, and well... they don't do good.

The movie doesn't really make much sense. This really bothered me since I read the books, and I was expecting something along certain lines, but the movie doesn't really follow it. The acting really wasn't all that good which was really distracting, and the dialog wasn't all that better. None of the characters except for possibly Reepacheep, and maybe Eustace when he was a dragon, were likable.

For some reason when reading reviews I keep on reading silly comments about how this movie had good visuals. This confused me greatly, because when you see the green mist for the first time it looks awful. I mean really bad. Actually the green mist looked bad in every scene. Why did it look bad? It's mainly because it wasn't integrated well into the scenes. You could tell the mist was put in badly, so when someone looks at the mist floating overhead it looks like the mist isn't even on the same plane. Since the mist was a big part of the movie, seeing it constantly really ruined it for me. The dragon was cool at some scenes, but in others didn't look too good. Now the serpent was pretty cool, but it seemed a bit cartoony, along with the dragon. That was my biggest issue is that both of the monsters in this movie look cartoony, and really bright. Now the water effects in this movie are real good, especially near the end, and when the serpent is splashing.

Probably the biggest issue in this movie was the camera. Let me tell you I have never seen camera work this bad. The scenes flowed horribly, and the camera angles were all boring. There were no dynamic camera angles, and emotional shots except for maybe one which was near the end. The camera was also really shaky. I was kind of wondering why they didn't try getting a crane, or something for moving shots. But in all of the moving shots it is someone holding the camera, and when the person holding the camera moves the camera starts rocking back and forth. This was unbearable during conversations, or sword fighting sequences.

The scenery was also a bit stale in this movie, especially in the city on the desert island place. It just seems like this movie could have no vegetation which really got old fast. The sets seemed boring, and just ordinary. Only (again) near the end did the sets get a little bit more interesting like on the ancient forest island.

IF there is one thing everyone can agree on, it's that the slave catchers battle was incredibly bad, and put together horribly. None of the people in the battle look like they are taking it seriously, and there is almost no threat. The slave capturers just run around, it doesn't seem really intense. The sword combat is pretty lousy, and their moves seem slow. So bad combat scene+bad camera really makes this scene even worse.

Now the movie didn't really explain the plot really well, so it wasn't until about the last 20 minutes of the movie did it make some sense. Still it seemed like the plot was thrown in. Why not just keep the plot of the original? I guess it wasn't good enough. Either way the movie did get much better in the last 20 minutes as well. The combat improved with a goofy looking serpent, in a well done dark mist realm that was not green mist. Though since the dark realm did have green mist in it, it started forming green figures that looks quite off. The movie does get better at the end when talking with Aslan and the nice water effects.

All in all the movie was a real let-down. This movie has almost no artistic perspective with camera shots, so the movie is overall boring to look at. The effects are good when they need to be, but they are generally bad. I feel like this is evidence that WETA must make all action movies' effects which they already do. The plot was changed, and this left the movie quite confusing. I really feel bad for having to review this movie with a low rating, but trust me, if it weren't for the final last 20 minutes, this would've been a 4/10 and I'm still arguing with myself if I should change it to that.

It's been an overdose of fantasy for me in the last few days I guess. First, in anticipation of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part I, I watched all the previous ones at a stretch. For this, I had to do a similar thing. Else how would it make any sense ??? The Narnia series, it seems, is shaping up to be the replacement of the Harry Potter series. We all know that Harry Potter is gonna be done with by the next year. That will leave us with the Narnia series, and with four more movies to go, I suppose that's gonna last a long while till another fantasy movie series pops up.

The movie begins with the Pevensies being transported to Narnia "least when they expected". This time, they have their cousin Eustace with them who takes some time to accepting the Narnian world filled with talking creatures and other such wonders. He reacts similar to how the Pevensies did when they first saw Narnia, only he's more scared than surprised. Since they've landed in Narnia unexpectedly, there has to be a reason for it. And there is, and a supposedly good one - one which will not only test their battling skills what with dragons, serpents and storms on the way, but also bring them face to face with their inner demons and fears.

As far as the similarity of the movie's plot with the book goes, I frankly admit to having no idea regarding that. I've viewed the movie as a movie, as a sequel to the first two and as such, won't be able to comment on how well the movie follows the plot of the book. On the surface of it however, the plot is fairly basic but filled with too many characters to confuse someone who isn't familiar with the books. All the cast members perform well though the star of the show has to be Reepicheep the mouse - he is so endearing that you'd often find yourself rooting for him. And then again there's Aslan the Lion who, in my opinion, is the best (CGI) wonder ever created in the Narnian movie universe. His mere presence in a frame makes it stand out. He appears responsible, wise, calm and like a father figure to the Pevensies and others - the character is so greatly conceived that his mere sight makes you respect him. He truly has the aura of a king and rightfully deserves to be one. And Liam Neeson does a fabulous job of voicing him as do the animators on making him appear life-like. And when the soft and soothing background score plays in the background during his presence, you're bound to feel a lump in your throat. You'll definitely hear a child scream "Aslan" in the movie theater when he first arrives.

Visually, the film is simply outstanding. Such is the richness of the effects that it makes me wonder how on earth can the film be made on a budget of "just" $140 million. I mean, the amount of visual effects present in the film and the quality of each shot is simply brilliant - from the dragon to the serpent to the wide shots of The Dawn Treader to the Islands to the waves to Reepicheep the mouse and finally, the great Aslan. Lighting, it seems has improved to the point that it is difficult to tell what is CGI and what is real. The main musical themes have been recycled from the past films which is a great thing since those themes were simply heart touching, especially Aslan's. The set design is also good although as mentioned, it is hard to distinguish between real and digital sets.

Like many movies with excessive VFX, the movie tends to give a slightly more focus to the effects (maybe because it is a children centric film). Although made for children, adults shouldn't find this a reason to stay away from the movie. The movie might tend to get a bit boring at times. And the biggest drawback of the movie is the 3-D which, quite simply, is as good as not there. By all means, you'd be better saving some bucks and watching the movie in 2-D; it might as well also save you a headache. As a matter of fact, the commercial shown during my movie screening had better 3-D that that found in this movie. Despite its drawbacks, it is a good movie and can make for a good viewing with / without family. If not for anything else, I recommend it, For Aslan !!!

Score: 6.5 / 10

The third installment in the big budget Narnian films gives us a more or less solid film with impressive special effects wasted on a hackneyed script and mediocre acting. There are a couple of exceptions in the acting department. The boy playing Eustace hits his mark and the voice work for Reepicheep is handled well. The special effects are dazzling; merging reality with digital almost seamlessly. But my critique of this film is exactly the same as the Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe film (I never saw Prince Caspian): The atmosphere is all wrong.

Lighthearted whimsy is exchanged for somberness. A slow paced voyage is traded for a rapid fire adventure that moves so fast, we cannot enjoy the characters nor the moment. This isn't fantasy, it is a special effects reel. Added negatives include the actors, none of whom (Reepicheep excepted) capture any semblance of the royalty they attempt to portray. The actor playing Caspian is especially dimwitted in playing a king. He seems more like a befuddled commoner who learned a few royal gestures at school somewhere. At no time do you feel nor do his men feel like they are in the presence of a great king (which was the case in the book). The movie takes great liberties with the plot of the book, opting instead for a silly new plot about an evil mist which sucks away slaves in boats. This brings about a couple of new side characters (a father and daughter), neither of whom make much of an impression.

What this movie series need is to RECAPTURE THE MOOD OF THE BOOKS and avoid throwing out the plot for a newer one. They can keep the special effects, but temper them with a story that takes its time and is as entranced with its surroundings as the passengers aboard the Dawn Treader were. Are the producers afraid to elevate the material up to the audience, instead of pandering down to short attention spans? It sure seems so. While taken on its own terms the movie is professionally handled, I guarantee the movie would have stuck in the minds of the audience more if greater pains were taken on a good script and good acting. As it is, you watch the film, leave, and then don't remember much afterward.