Hard to believe that just two years ago, the future of the Narnia franchise was in doubt. In an utterly classless move, Disney announced on Christmas Eve 2008 that it would no longer co-produce films based on the best-selling novels written by C.S. Lewis. A much happier holiday for fans awaited one month later, however, when Walden Media announced a partnership with 20th Century Fox to bring the third book, “The Voyage of the Dawn Treader,” to the silver screen.
So how did the studios do?
Overall, not bad – not bad at all. My mostly spoiler-free review follows.
The source material for the film is better than “Prince Caspian,” and much of it translates on screen. The adventurous “Dawn Treader” plot moves at an aggressive pace. This trait has both good and bad consequences for the film; while it is hard to get bored because of the quick pace, audiences don’t have many opportunities to let breathtaking shots (and there are several) or poignant moments (ditto) sink in. Will Poulter is perfect as Eustace Clarence Scrubb, the boy who almost deserved it, and the supporting cast is good, though something struck me as “off” about Bille Brown’s performance as the magician Coriakin. And thankfully, Ben Barnes’ embarrassingly bad Mediterranean accent has been relegated to the heap of discarded bad filmmaking ideas, replaced with the actor’s natural English tongue.
Regretfully, the film is not above reproach. A subplot involving a small girl in search of her missing mother, which does not appear in the novel, seemed both cliché and unnecessary to the film’s central narrative. While the idea of making temptation a primary theme to “Dawn Treader” is a good one, it’s on-screen execution sometimes falters. The worst is Coriakin’s line “You must defeat the darkness within.” One would think a film with a budget north of $140 million, four screenwriters, and an excellent director could muster something, anything, better than that turkey.
Still, “Voyage of the Dawn Treader” is one worth taking. Some rough market research last week suggested the film had broad appeal (male and female, young and old), and it’s not hard to see why. Essentially, there is something here for everyone: solid special effects, a battle with a sea serpent, better character development, and more than a few emotional scenes between key characters and Aslan, ruler of Narnia.
In the film’s closing moments, Lucy asks Aslan if he will visit her on Earth. I shall not repeat his response here, but take the question in another direction. Will Narnia fans see a fourth film in the franchise? That will depend on the financial performance of entry number three. The ingredients are certainly there for a sure-fire holiday hit, but moviegoers can be fickle. As some of the best stories in Narnia have yet to be told, I hope audiences respond and are rewarded with a capable adaptation of “The Silver Chair.”
FINAL VERDICT: FIVE SHIELDS OUT OF SEVEN. All things considered, “Dawn Treader” may be the best Narnia film yet.
Well, that sounds encouragin 🙂
Just curious, I’m nuteral on the ‘defeat the darkness within’ myself, but for those of you who dislike it, may I ask why? Just out of curiosity? I just want to understand. I’m rather… blank and absent minded. I’m not brilliant 🙂
I think the line is just cliche and without great depth of meaning. However, a whole theological dissertation probably would not fit the movie very well.
I think the “defeat the darkness within” line is okay. It fits in with the movie. It’s like something you’d hear in Harry Potter or Lord of the Ring or any other movie where characters are battling against their own selfish desires or temptations.
Good review. I’m sure there will be things in the movie that I won’t agree with the filmmakers. But it’s to be expected. But I loved the first two. I know I’ll love this one. I pray for a success. I want to see the Silver Chair and the rest of the series.
agreed…
I hope VDT does well, my fav. is the Last Battle and it’ll be an agonizing wait till(and if) the franchise gets that far.
me too
agreed… again…
The Horse and His Boy is my favorite…. and it’s the one I’m REALLY worried about getting made because it’s not “connected” to the other books, ya know?
Let’s all work to make Dawn Treader a success so we can continue to see these books come to life!
It is connected to the LWW, they are still in narnia before they went into the wardrobe to come back into our world. But you are right, I’m very worried about that one! All the people who want a big action movie, unless they make a lot of plot changes, wont get it. pray that it will do well, if they ever get to it!
The Horse and His Boy may be one of the later films to be made, to allow the central actors the opportunity to reach full maturity. If you remember, Susan, Edmund and Lucy are all adults in that one; since it’s one of my favourites, too, I’d rather wait for it & have the original actors do the roles!
I enjoyed reading your review. Here is the link to my review https://narniafans.com/archives/10707
I really liked the Gael subplot. I thought it enhanced Lucy’s character and added more emotional depth to the film.
Wait a minute, you liked the emphasis on temptation. I will keep this comment spoiler free (read my review where I reveal what this is) and say that there is a green something in the film, but it is not the LOTG. This something is what I least liked about the movie. The something was overdone throughout the entire film. The film could have shown the temptations, but this green something was not subtle in the least. It beat us over the head with how obvious it was and found a way to push itself into pretty much every scene of the movie.
Why 5 shields out of 7? I ranked the film on a scale of five shields. I didn’t realize that we used a seven shield scale.
I agree, the “something” was extremely obvious and it was as if the filmakers were babying us in saying “well incase you can’t tell, this character is being tempted.”
haven’t seen the movie yet… but that sounds, well keeping it G, Sounds VERY STUPID!
“I agree, the “something” was extremely obvious and it was as if the filmakers were babying us in saying “well incase you can’t tell, this character is being tempted.””
Exactly!
I think in terms of seven-point Likert scales. (Can you tell I’m in graduate school?) A “five” would indicate “good.”
There are seven books in the Narnia series so seven sounds like a good number. For the next movie we review we should plan on this in advance so that way we are all consistent.
Next movie? I appreciate your optimism!
I hope and pray we can get to the later books. They’d make great films!
5 out of seven shields
5th out of seven books. LOL
Is it the 5th chronologically? (I forgot. I prefer publication order. :D) That’s ironic.
I agree that the dialogue was pretty lame. Too much limpness, not enough CS Lewis.
I have mixed feelings about this film.
I thought this book–more than most of the series–had EXCELLENT potential, based on the plot, nuances, and the cast of characters and subplots with each island visited…when I saw it at a pastor’s screening, I was only slightly disappointed. I thought that, visually, it was stunning (and that was in 2-D). I liked the characters–esp. Eustace. I thought some of the ‘inserts’–as you mentioned also confused the plot a little, and were unnecessary. Overall, though, I think this is BY FAR the best of the 3! Looking forward to packing a theater with our church this coming Friday! FOR NARNIA!
Just saw a trailer on tv and it had comments like “GEORGEOUS!” “EVEN BETTER THAN THE FIRST!” “FIVE STARS” (out of five). That was relieving for me and made me even more excited because I’m not even sure the latest Harry Potter movie got a five star rating, so this was definately good news!
I don’t like the Silver Chair book at all..But I think they should make the Magicians Nephew into a movie or the Horse and His Boy! I love them two.. I can’t wait to see it!
Relieved to hear the 2 year wait was worth it, although I rather liked Ben’s dodgy accent in Caspian!
On the subject of the other books: personally I love The Horse and His Boy, it would make a great film – tho I suspect it would be done by other filmakers since they’ve placed such emphasis on the 4 children in these films (or else have Aravis replaced by Lucy or some similar horrible travesty!) x
Well, you never will be able to see a perfect movie. It just doesn’t exist. And as a amateur film writer myself, I can tell you that it is really, really hard to strike a balance between bringing the themes of your movie out and hammering your audience over the head with them. There’s just this loud, tall voice inside you that screams, “But they’ve GOT to understand what I’m trying to say!” 😛
By the way, does anyone know how to get a picture to appear next to your name in these comments? I can’t figure it out…..
Thanks!
Use Gravatar. http://en.gravatar.com/
do you think this movie is ok for child of 6 years old?
Michelle, I would think so. Most of the action is toward the end, and its nothing worse than what a lot of kids see on TV anyway.
I just saw the movie for the second time (it premiered early in Mexico)and I must say that, as much as I loved Prince Caspian, this one is way better than its predecesors as it has a more mature feeling to it.
I must agree Ben Barnes performance improved greatly now he didn’t have to focus on that weird accent, and I really enjoyed how the writers developed the characters this time.
I really hope Walden decides to produce another movie but I’m concerned on how good it could be as Caspian and Edmund were, for me, the two most interesting characters of the whole story. Do you really think a movie based on Eustace’s adventures will prove itself a success?
i agree, it was an utterly CLASSLESS, oddly cruel stab for disney to announce they were dropping the franchise! what was up with that? sounded like a revenge move to me! anyone have an inside scoop? i hope they eat it now! ha ha i hope the comment better than the first sticks in disney
‘s craw!
dropping it on christmas eve- xmas eve!!!!!!????? glad i didnt hear of it that nite…..
2 years?? seems like an eternity………
Whats in two years?
it seemed like more than 2 years that we have waited, felt more like an eternity
i cant wait to see iy. i see it on saterday with my niec and it sounds great
i heard that the next movie there will be no pevensie.. only eaustace and his friend.
when will the pevensie come back? 🙁
depends which one they do after that… hopefully the one after that, but IDK
i really hope that in the last battle apper Lucy, Edmund, Eaustace, Peter, And Susan i will like that all of them and the litle mouse fight for Narnia
That last paragraph was a dissapointment! Instead of emphasizing Aslan’s great response to Lucy, it seems the author is more interested by the film’s box office performance. Enjoy the film for the good messages of its source material!
You should read the entire review before imputing the author’s motives. “Spoiler free” means not letting on how the film ends.
Have you read the books?
yup
theres a new narnia clip on yahoo its when a dragon attacks the ship u can see it here http://movies.yahoo.com/feature/narnia-voyage-dawn-treader.html?showVideo=1#movTitle
please make the movie of the silver chair and the last battle
do some one knos if there will be a movie for book 6 and 7 or this is the end of this movies???
Hi,
Can anyone tell me where I can get a clip of this scene: To defeat the darkness out there, you must defeat the darkness inside yourselves.’
Regards, Iain.
My problem with the movie is that it subtly introduces other philosophies into the story that Lewis did not (and I believe would not) put there, such as the whole self-esteem thing in the sequence where Lucy wants to try the beauty spell and then in case we didn’t get the message, reiterates it to the little girl. None of that was in the book. In the book, Lucy didn’t want to be like Susan, she wanted to be more beautiful than Susan. Self-glorification is very different from low self-esteem, but low self-esteem is a modern bete-noire and so the filmakers changed it. Another example is that at the end, in the book, Caspian wanted to go to Aslan’s country and the others persuaded him to do his duty. In the film, he comes to this decision on his own. I guess they felt he had to be a hero, and a hero must be totally autonomous. Lewis, on the other hand, wanted to show that even an heroic person can be mistaken sometimes and he should be wise enough to learn from others and humble enough to admit he was wrong. Another example is Reepicheep’s decision to sail to the Uttermost East. In the book, Aslan is not there and there is no assurance that Reepicheep will ever come to land. He sets out on faith alone, bravely assuring the others that he will sail as far as the coracle can take him, and swim from there with his nose to the east as long as his strength holds out. This is very different from being given Aslan’s permission and encouragement to sail to a visible landing. There are lots of subtle things like that, and I think they diminish the movie’s impact, as does the unnecessary collection of the swords (inexistent in the book) rather than having the mission be purely motivated by the decent obligation to find the missing lords. I worry that, like the LOTR movies, these films will become a substitute for reading the original books, rather than a stimulus to do so.
I believe that, while all of your points are valid, there are some things that must be pointed out. First, we should never say what we think Lewis would think, because the only one that would know would be him, regardless of how much of his stuff we’ve read.
Other than that, Lucy’s self-esteem issue, while more modern is also more recognizable. While different in a way, it’s not a big enough change to be completely different. Caspian’s not making a mistake this time is fine with me, because it showed another side and allowed for him to come face to face with the choice. Plus, he’s already made some mistakes in Prince Caspian. This time, he was acting more Kingly. Reepicheep’s departure in the book, while on faith alone, is up to the reader/viewer to decide how to take that. While viewing it as going on faith alone is fine, it’s also very weak when he KNOWS where they are heading. I always thought that was kind of ridiculous, even though I liked it, I think it doesn’t change much of anything with Reepicheep’s story. Reep was a warrior mouse of nobility. That he asked for permission fits his character.
With regard to your statement about LOTR, I disagree wholly with that. It’s the only film series (only) that I have heard people say that they have gone on to read the books after having seen the movies. I’ve never heard that about any other movie, period.
On Tuesday the 14th, I went to see Narnia in 3D at Cineworld. (Rugby) I thought the film was good and lived up to the other 2 movies. (I mean that it was like the other films even though it’s made by another producer) In quality it was still good story wise, but I feel that some things didn’t seem so reliable; so realistic i.e. The dragon; obviously dragons aren’t real but I feel that dragon’s scales could have been better because they can make all the other creatures look real. I think they didn’t have as many magical creatures in it and more men.
I don’t think it was worth seeing in 3D it didn’t need to be. I enjoyed the plot and new character was really good and believable (the cousin Eustace) My friends who went to see the film with me said that there was a lot of water in the film which made them need the toilet (the film is set in the ocean) They said it was good but agreed that it didn’t need to be in 3D. It didn’t make it feel any better being in the cinema watching it in 3D. Georgina and Georgie said at one point they took the glasses off as there was nothing really 3D and it made little difference. We couldn’t tell the difference between the films so having a new producer didn’t spoil our enjoyment.
I felt it was more fun going to see the film with friends. I wouldn’t feel happy going to the cinema on my own but once I was watching it would be ok as you aren’t meant to talk in a film.
Don’t forget that Dawn Treader comes out on BluRay DVD on April 8th! Help support and tell all your friends. Tweet the reminder with #narniavoyage to support!