THE CHRONICLES OF NARNIA : THE VOYAGE OF THE DAWN TREADER (2010)
Tagline : Take the voyage, live the adventure, discover Narnia like you’ve never seen it before.
In this one, Lucy (played by Georgie Henley) and Edmund (played by Skandar Keynes) Pevensie are in Cambridge, living with their cousin Eustace (played by Will Poulter who is known for being the MAZE RUNNER series) who kind an annoying jerk. Susan and Peter have both gone to the US to live with their parents, so needless to say they are only shown in this movie for brief sequences. This makes sense because we are told at the end of PRINCE CASPIAN that they won’t be returning to Narnia. Lucy, Edmund and Eustace do though after being sucked in through a painting that floods the room they are in. Caspian is the captain of a ship called the Dawn Treader (one of the more rad ship names ever) and that tells the Lucy, Edmond and Eustace that his uncle tried to kill the seven lords of Telmar after rescuing them. They lords fled to The Lone Island seemingly vanished. Caspian decides to seek them out because they were friends of his fathers. During the journey they find out an evil green mist is taking over Narnia. It plays on your darkest fears and wishes. The crew of the Dawn Treader must overcome temptation and place the seven swords owned by the lords at the table of Aslan or all will be lost.
Of the 3 movies made for this particular incarnation of the series, this one is by far the craziest. I mean we’ve got enchanted gold, invisible kidnappers, a dragon and sea serpents in this freakin thing. The lighter moments in the movie and the journey contrast heavily with the final darkness they have to encounter. Even the design choice for the dragon is lighter than the design choice for the sea serpent. This contrast really adds to the movie overall. I mean this sea serpent is epic. It’s something I think that would have been awesome if it showed up in the PIRATES OF THE CARIBBEAN series. There is also a really interesting concept in this movie that ties almost directly to the way the “destructor” was chosen in the original GHOSTBUSTERS movie.
Out of the 3 films in this series, I think I loved this one the most just do to some of the contrasting ideas we get and the concepts involving overcoming temptation and evil in general. It kind of asks the questions of self-worth we’ve seen in other movies, but also takes it from the angle of, asking what are our challenges and desires, a result of? Are they due to a void or something pure? All this is done through a story that is wildly imaginative in a way only C.S. Lewis could have envisioned. You also don’t have to look at this film from a spiritual perspective to gain something from it. On top of all this the movie does more in a shorter time that the other 2 films. The run time is over half an hour shorter and in a few cases we get more character development than we did previously. Because of this the movie moves right along at a pretty good clip.
I can’t give this movie anything higher than a 7 out of 7, but it is the best of the 3 movies for the reasons mentioned and more. It is also able to do this without a central voiced villain or a single stand out performance like the ones Tilda Swinton or Sergio Castellitto.
GRAPHICS ARE THE PROPERTY OF FOX 2000 PICTURES AND ARE USED FOR REVIEW PURPOSES ONLY.
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