Unlike ‘Tron: Legacy’, I actually had very high expectations for ‘The Chronicles of Narnia: The Voyage of the Dawn Treader’. Only last week I read a short review claiming ‘Dawn Treader’ to be the best Narnia movie so far – quite like with each Harry Potter movie that comes along – so naturally my expectations rose.
There were some major changes in the plot concerning the book in which the movie was based – and not for the best either, in my honest opinion. I mean, green mist… really?! I wasn’t particularly fond of the myth of the seven swords either. Besides, blue glowing swords and green misty islands unnecessarily remind me of ‘The Lord of the Rings’.
Georgie Henley and Skandar Keynes (I simply love his name!) give nice, consisting performances as usual, their roles having been slightly enhanced from the book from what I can remember; but Will Poulter is really the one who gives this movie an added well-deserved star. In fact, to be quite honest Poulter’s character Eustace was always half the fun of this book for me anyway – and he is so in the movie as well. The biggest downsize I suppose is that we don’t get as much insight into Eustace’s hilarious thoughts in the movie apart from the succinct excerpts he scribbles down in his journal.
Caspian’s hispanic accent was dropped, although I’m not sure why; Reepicheep was voiced by Simon Pegg instead of Eddie Izzard from ‘Prince Caspian’ – also not sure why – and Drinian is… well, not how I imagined him at all – though that may just be consequential of my Narnia role playing days.
The storyline is pretty straightforward and easy to follow – a plus for the younger audiences – even if the story felt rather rushed at times. Lucy, Edmund, Eustace and Reepicheep are all nicely weaved into the movie’s main arch: Lucy’s concerns about not being as beautiful as Susan as she grows older, Edmund struggling with the ghosts in his past and never being measured by his true worth, Eustace – the Pevensie’s priggish cousin – coping with the discovery of the magical land of Narnia, and Reepicheep’s endearing encouragement of Eustace that brings forth the seemingly most unlikely of heroes. Ironically, it’s Caspian and the rest of the Dawn Treader’s crew that feel most disconnected from the plot.
The illustrations in the end titles were a nice touch. It was lovely to see Edmund, Caspian and Eustace as they were intended to be: the first two blond and the latter dark haired. It’s silly stupid fan obsessive annoyance, I realize, but quite refreshing all the same – not to mention a lovely homage to Pauline Baynes, illustrator of the entire Narnia series, hand-picked by Lewis himself.
Now I’ve read a couple of reviews saying the 3D in this movie is bad, which doesn’t surprise me in the least. As psyched as everyone seems to be with the recent outbreak of 3D technology – myself NOT included, let it be clearly stated – almost all of recent movies either shot or transformed into 3D don’t seem to live up to expectations. Not warned in advance yet already expecting the 3D effects to be something of a letdown – as I do in all 3D movies – I (rather cleverly, if I may say so myself) searched for a 2D screening – as I did with ‘Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 1′, which I shall yet to review. That being the case, I cannot personally review the 3D aspect of ‘Dawn Treader’.
All in all good entertainment for the whole family; even with all the plot changes it’s guaranteed to please laypeople and Narnia-lovers alike. I’d definitely catch this on cinemas a second time if I could afford it. And I know nothing of talks to produce the next installment of the series, but it would be absolutely lovely to see ‘The Silver Chair’ make it to the big screen! Besides, they were sly enough to insert a wonderful treat right in the last scene by mentioning Jill Pole, so you never know… Wishful thinking from me, for sure!
Tags: Georgie Henley, movie, review, Skandar Keynes, The Chronicles of Narnia, The Voyage of the Dawn Treader, Will Poulter
