The Chronicles of Narnia: Voyage of the Dawn Treader
by Eric Maus
"You have returned for a reason. Your adventure begins now."
This movie disappointed me. Although I wasn't expecting much out of it, since Disney dropped the ball and let others pick up the pieces, I had still thought there might be some hope left, since the book was so good. Sadly, this was far from the case.
Lucy and Edmund get called back to Narnia once again, although this time, their annoying cousin Eustace Clarence Scrubb happens to come with them. They meet Caspian, who is a few years older and now king of Narnia, on the ship Dawn Treader. It seems Caspian is on a voyage to seek out seven missing lords, who vanished many years before. However, a mysterious green mist that stirs up evil emotions inside the heart seems to be abducting people from many different islands. Caspian and the rest, hoping this somehow links to the missing lords, give chase to the mist, hoping to destroy it before it takes hold of Narnia.
Unlike the two previous films, the CG and general appearance of this film was nothing spectacular. Actually, it seems as time within the film progresses, the budget must have gotten lower and lower, as the visual effects and cinematography get weaker and weaker, until we reach the finale with the sea serpent, which is just horrible. It looks like a demented child's bath toy. The acting, too, isn't all that swell. Although Ben Barnes finally stopped with that horrible Spanish accent, and Simon Pegg is great as Reepicheep, the rest of the acting, especially Georgie Henley and Skandar Keynes, who were so good in the first films, seems uncontrolled and forced. It makes it hard to watch.
The only good that came from the movie was Eustace. Will Poulter does a great job of portraying the annoying jerk that Eustace is. He seems very comfortable in the role, and he's funny too. I'm glad to be able to compliment something that came out of this.
The plot is just messy. Lucy is presented as jealous of every other girl she meets; I guess they were trying to make a character flaw based on the scene from the book with the wizard's spells. However, this flaw is never resolved; we're left hanging with a jealous Lucy. Also, the redemption of Eustace, an amazing portion of Lewis's story, is rushed, not really convincing us. Last but definitely not least, the green mist. It was cheesy at best, and we're never intimidated, only amused and annoyed. Honestly, I was more impressed with BBC's version.
Is there any hope for the next Narnia film, if anyone decides to pull it off? I doubt it. Unfortunately, since Voyage was nothing but a sunken ship, I'm not sure if anyone will risk it. But we can always hope.
0 comments:
Post a Comment