Review of The Chronicles of Narnia: The Voyage of the Dawn Treader (2010) by Kman5473 — 12 Jan 2017

Starts out more promising than it finishes. I was hoping that with a new studio picking up the franchise that there would be a move to make the films less melodramatic and more focused on the fantasy, but they failed.

And thus, we will not see another sequel in this rendition of the book series. The CGI throughout the film has very cheaply and poorly composited; shadows and lighting don't quite match up, and the rendered textures don't properly match the grain of the film.

The result is: everything looks too smooth. On top of this, the scenes are acted out to be more and more melodramatic. Very small aspects from the books are blown out of proportion, because! DRAMA!!! It doesn't work.

And it's such a shame because I genuinely believe that the actors that play Eustace and Lucy are pretty solid actors. It's only the material that they are given to work with that stinks. I really wanted the main creative liberty the writer/director/studio took with the plot to work.

I thought it was a great idea to give more of a driving force for the central plot beyond just, "We need to find the 7 lords because I want to." However, it falls flat due to too many creative liberties being taken.

The book is about exploration for the sake of an exciting adventure, and it noticeably conflicts with our interest in watching through the film and caring. Furthermore, the book plot reinforces a state of wonder--CS Lewis asks us the question, "What is beyond? What is at the edge of Narnia?" which gives us a sense of freedom and pure adventure.

Whereas, this heavy plot introduced by a Wizard who is not doing anything to fix the antagonist makes no sense (why hasn't he already resolved this issue, being that he is a powerful sorcerer?). There is far too much weight put on Lucy's character to want to be "the beautiful one," considered both that she is already better looking than the actress that plays her sister, and this shouldn't be such a big deal as it is depicted.

In the book, it is written like a typical growing pains/adolescence conflict. In this movie it becomes the core flaw of her character. I genuinely believe the BBC mini series version is so much better.

Better actors, better direction, better practical effects, and much more integral focus on the true essence of what make the Chronicles of Narnia great: fantasy and story. NOT melodrama and cheap thrills.