• BEST IN STATE—Senior Courtney Schoen Lewis was named Best PR Student in Utah. Story

‘Narnia’ returns in heart-warming high-seas adventure

December 11th, 2010 Posted in Opinion

Chronicles of Narnia: Voyage of the Dawn Treader

Reviewed by Alison Ostler

The Pevensie kids are back in this third installment of C.S. Lewis’ classic Chronicles of Narnia trilogy, and this time their adventure is on the high seas.

In Dawn Treader—possibly the final film in the franchise—Lucy and Peter set out with their old Narnian friend King Caspian to rid Narnia of the evil that has taken hold of the fantasy land. As they sail from Narnia to different islands, the heroes face not only physical foes like sea monsters and dragons, but must fight against their own temptations as they cross vanity, greed and evil itself.

The new movie unceremoniously drops off old beloved characters and introduces new ones, leaving Peter and Susan at home. This may rub viewers who have grown used to the formulaic consistency of the movies the wrong way.

Their absence is especially evident in the many scenes with Eustice, Edmond and Lucy’s obnoxious cousin. Within the first few seconds, he is already in the running for the most annoying film character ever. By the end, however, he grows on the viewer and you might, against your will, actually start to like him.

King Caspian, a.k.a. Prince Caspian from the last movie (played by Ben Barnes), is back this time with more screen time and better acting skills. His ghastly Spanish accent seems to have morphed into a British one—an inconsistency between films that viewers will gladly overlook.

Even at a running time of 1 hour 52 minutes, the film feels short and rushed. There is no shortage of edge-of-your seat moments and action-packed scenes, but the scenes seem short and fast-paced.

The film is much darker and more intense than its two predecessors, and may not be a good pick for the little ones. But it still has as much warm-fuzzy moments in it, as is to be expected from a Narnia movie, and heartstrings are sure to be tugged.

TP

Tags: ,

Sorry, comments for this entry are closed at this time.