My Movie Review on The Chronicles of Narnia: The Voyage of the Dawn Treader · 5:03pm Jan 20th, 2020
Salutations, my friends.
This is your friendly film, TV show, and episode reporter here with another movie review.
And today, for my 105th film analysis, I'll be giving you all my take of "The Chronicles of Narnia: The Voyage of the Dawn Treader".
Here's the summary of this tale:
Three years since their last visit to Narnia, Edmund and Lucy are forced to stay with their relatives the Scrubbs, while Susan and Peter stay in American with their parents.
However, Edmund and Lucy, along with their annoying cousins, Eustace, are suddenly transported to Narnia on a high seas adventure aboard a ship called the Dawn Treader.
At first, it seems like everything's peaceful. As it turns out, though, the Pevensies, Eustace, and the crew of the ship must combat a dark force that threatens to overtake the world, the force being an enchanted green mist. To beat it, they must travel the seas and collect seven magical swords of seven lords and place them on Aslan's table, as well as combat the darkness within themselves.
Will the heroes be able to destroy this ever-growing darkness before it becomes invincible? Or will Narnia be doomed?
After all this time, I can hardly believe that I've reached my analysis on the third and final Narnia film to date. But, I have. And let me just say that I found this to be a solid film every step of the way, even if 20th Century Fox was its distributor instead of Disney.
For instance, the acting, casting, characters, and character development were all as incredible as ever.
Admittedly, I did feel that Simon Pegg was an odd choice to replace Eddie Izzard with for the character of Reepicheep, but yet...he brought outstanding charm to the role, and he did a great job at capturing the spirit Izzard brought to the character in the previous film while bringing something of his own in. Will Poulter likewise gave a brilliant performance as Eustace Scrubb, even if his character was a stick-in-the-mud Edmund 2.0 much of the time. Plus, Lucy, Edmund, Eustace, Caspian, and Reepicheep each had strong developments throughout the film.
The direction by Michael Apted, and the screenplay by Christopher Markus, Stephen McFeely, and Michael Petroni, were likewise quite stellar. Among the most awesome of things about Apted's direction was that he was able to make the film unique from that of its predecessors, providing it with a welcoming sense of humor while still incorporating astounding emotion and heart on the side. It may have even seemed all over the place in some ways, but the quest to defeat the mist and gather the swords tied everything together wonderfully.
The themes of the movie were amazing too. What came to my mind regarding the film was its themes on temptation, faith, and sin. The Green Mist was an accurate representation of sin and the darkness present in the world, and the temptations that the mist was influencing the characters into reflected what sin itself tries to lead one towards. The faith that everyone held for Aslan and how important it was to do so greatly reflected our needs to have faith and trust in Jesus.
If I was a teacher of some sort, I'd be proud to award an A+ to the film's special effects. They were not only realistic-looking and groundbreaking, but they carried a sense that the effects team put tons of hardworking and passion into it all. The effects used with Aslan, the dragon, and the mist were my personal favorites.
Finally, the music that was composed by David Arnold was absolutely splendid. He's definitely no Harry-Gregson Williams, but he created music that was immediately worthy of an Oscar. It carried such emotion and power, and Arnold gave it an astounding balance of living up to Williams's work in the previous films while making it all his own. The song "There's A Place For Us" was a heartwarming element that I was proud to hear with my own ears, and Carrie Underwood was perfect as the singer of the song.
In conclusion, "The Chronicles of Narnia: The Voyage of the Dawn Treader" is a sequel that proves itself to be a delicious treat that's worthy for everyone to try, and it was a solid conclusion for Lucy and Edmund too.
So, I rate "The Chronicles of Narnia: The Voyage of the Dawn Treader" five out of five stars.
I know that the chances are highly unlikely nowadays, but...I deeply hope that a sequel to this movie will happen soon.
Fun Fact: The Green Mist was supposed to be foreshadowing for the Green Witch from The Silver Chair. Sort of a first strike, if you will.
I hope so too.
Even if the movie didn't exactly follow the book, one thing I really liked was when Eustace effectively utilized his abilities when he turned into a dragon! Especially against the evil serpent in battle.
Also this a great way to do it on MLK Day!
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Did you mean that this was a great idea or a great way to celebrate MLK Day?
I couldn’t help but feel confused because of the ‘to do it’ in between ‘way’ and ‘on’.
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Interesting. I remember learning about that one time, but I guess I forgot.
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Both actually.
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Oh.
Well, thank you.
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You're most welcome!
Y'know, I realize that this one did kinda deviate from the book, but for what it is, I enjoyed it. And I like how they at least kept the majority of what happens in the book in the reworked plot.