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First NarniaFans.com Review of The Voyage of the Dawn Treader

David Sutton David Sutton

David Sutton Give the Voyage of the Dawn Treader a Thumbs UpAn Enjoyable Journey Into Narnia

Four of Five Shields

4 out of 5 Shields

After a long journey of film production, waiting, anticipation, and even more waiting; it is now time to journey to the movie theater to see the latest film adaptation of The Voyage of the Dawn Treader. I have had the privilege of seeing The Voyage of the Dawn Treader twice at advanced screenings. Now that the film has had its world premiere, it is now time for me to share my official review of the movie. I liked the movie because the film is a very entertaining journey from beginning to end. The first or second paragraphs of a movie review will typically summarize the plot of the film without any spoilers. Because I am writing this review for fans of the book, I will instead use this section to summarize the ways that the movie differed from the book and my opinion of these changes. This section of the review will contain spoilers, but the rest of the review will not. In order to read the spoiler section of the review you must hold the review up to a mirror so you can read the text that was written backwards. If you don’t want to know the spoilers skip down and continue reading.

The spoilers are: This movie is farther from the book than the previous Narnia films. The first islands visited are The Lone Islands. These islands were changed significantly from the book, but I thought it was changed for the better. When the characters are in prison they meet Lord Bern. The way that Lord Bern, Caspian, Edmund, Lucy, and Eustace are rescued is through a battle where the crew of the Dawn Treader use their sword skills to free the prisoners. This scene is not like in the book, it is better than in the book. I think the book has a marvelous chapter involving Governor Gumpas, but it would not translate very well into a film. The action sequence is very short, but it is one of the best couple of minutes in the movie. The fast-paced fight scene was good, but what made the scene exceptional was the soundtrack by David Arnold, which did a great job of drawing viewers into the pulse of the action. Governor Gumpas was in the movie, but only as a cameo role. On The Lone Islands Rhince joins the Crew of the Dawn Treader to search for his missing wife Elaine (who was sacrificed to the green smoke monster). Rhince’s daughter Gael sneaks on board the Dawn Treader. Before leaving The Lone Islands, Lord Bern gives the crew of the Dawn Treader a magical sword which was one of seven needed to save Narnia from a green smoke monster. The order of the islands was changed from the book and a few islands were combined, but I did not mind this change because all of the key parts of the book were in the movie. There was one awful line of dialogue in the film where King Caspian talks about his romance with Queen Susan. When I heard this line, I cringed. Aslan turns Eustace back into a boy near the end of the movie after dragon Eustace fights a sea serpent. The transformation was presented in a way that would be more family friendly to give the movie a PG rating and showed that Eustace did not earn his salvation. Spiritual themes from the book were intact including the “in your world I have another name” dialogue. Ramandu was not in the movie. The film did not have enough time or depth to fully explain the mythology behind Ramandu. The White Witch makes a minor cameo on the Dark Island as Edmund’s nightmare, but this was not as out of place as the trailer makes it seem.More spoilers are: The MAJOR change in the movie was not the seven swords, it was the existence of an evil green smoke monster. The worst scene in the entire movie is when the main characters are in prison and they look through the window of the cell to see a boat full of slaves drifting into the ocean. The boat is then swallowed by a green smoke monster as part of a sacrifice ritual. This was an awful way of introducing the smoke monster, but it got even worse after that.This smoke monster comes from Dark Island and is the central villain of the movie. The green smoke is used to represent temptation and anytime a character is tempted the smoke monster is present in the scene. The smoke monster can be seen lurking in the pages of the magician’s book tempting Lucy to become beautiful like her sister, the smoke monster is hiding in the pool of Death Water tempting Edmund, and the smoke monster is concealed in the treasure that tempts Eustace to become a dragon. I don’t know how they could have beat us over the head with the film’s overuse of the smoke monster any more than they already have. The inclusion of a green smoke monster was an absolutely terrible addition. The seven swords were not as big of a change as I thought they would be, but the smoke monster was just as bad as I imagined it would be from the first time I heard about the addition. The smoke monster was not very effective, but it is important to know that the smoke monster did not completely ruin the movie because I enjoyed the film in spite of this change.

From this point on the review will be spoiler-free. I enjoyed this movie. The Voyage of the Dawn Treader was an entertaining character-centered movie with humor sprinkled throughout the film. The movie had a perfect pace that was able to include all of the key parts of the book in a much shorter amount of time. The Lone Islands were presented in a different way than in the book, but I thought they did a very good job with that section of the movie. The Dufflepuds were just as funny as they were in the book, and most of the parts of the book I loved were shown in the film. The film ties everything together in a wonderful ending on the beach that leads into Aslan’s Country.

Unfortunately, the film had some major changes from the book. There was one particular change described in the spoiler section which was overdone throughout the entire movie. The film was not very subtle and there were points in the film that were blatantly obvious about the themes of the characters’ temptations. I enjoyed the first half of the sea serpent attack, but did not like the rest of it because it dragged on too long.

The primary difference between this film and the other Narnia movies was that this film relies less on action and focuses more on the characters of the film. Will Poulter was perfect as Eustace. He portrayed Eustace just like in the book and added humor throughout the film. I loved the voice of Eddie Izzard as Reepicheep in Prince Caspian, but I liked the new voice by Simon Pegg even more. Simon Pegg sounds similar to the original Reepicheep, but has more character depth and emotion. There was a new character Gael, played by Arabella Morton, who was a fantastic addition to the movie. Gael had a very emotional role that enhanced the film and added some great interaction with Lucy. Lucy was not very subtle in her desire to be as beautiful as her sister Susan. Susan makes an appearance in the film as well as Peter and the White Witch, but they are limited to minor cameo roles that do not represent significant changes from the book. The movie was very character-centered and has fantastic portrayals of Eustace, Reepicheep, and Gael.

The voice actor for Reepicheep was not the only person who was changed from previous films. The new movie features a different director and composer. The soundtrack by David Arnold is good and fits very well with the Harry Gregson Williams soundtracks because of the repetition of themes from the previous movies. The computer graphics for dragon Eustace, Aslan’s country, and Reepicheep were amazing. One of the movie’s strengths was that it was a visually stunning film. The cinematography was fantastic and featured gorgeous landscape shots which should be enhanced by the use of 3D. The music and cinematography were both strengths of the movie.

The Voyage of the Dawn Treader is a good movie, but how does it compare with The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe or Prince Caspian? The previous two Narnia movies were more faithful to the book than this adaptation. The first time I watched The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe and Prince Caspian I was absolutely blown away by those magnificent films. When I watched this movie I enjoyed it from beginning to end, but did not have the exact same reaction as I did to the previous films. The most noticeable difference between this movie and the previous films is that this movie does not center around a battle. This movie has a few small action scenes, but it is far more character-centered than previous films which is a very good aspect of this movie. This movie is more humorous and entertaining than the previous films. I liked The Voyage of the Dawn Treader, but I did not think it was as good as The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe and Prince Caspian.

The Voyage of the Dawn Treader was a very enjoyable film. The film was an entertaining character-centered movie, but it has several changes from the book. The characters of Eustace, Reepicheep, and Gael were fantastic. The music and cinematography were great. Overall this was a good movie, but it was not as amazing as the previous Narnia movies. The journey of waiting and anticipation has finally come to and end, it is now time for you to journey into your local movie theater and see this film opening weekend so that you can experience this movie for yourself in 3D.

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