The Chronicles of Narnia: The Voyage of the Dawn Treader

Chronicles of Narnia: The Voyage of the Dawn Treader
OO 1/2
Rated PG for some frightening images and sequences of fantasy action. 

I am at a distinct disadvantage walking into any Narnia movie because I haven't read the books by C.S. Lewis that the films are based on.  Or maybe that's a good thing, since I can review the movie on it's own terms without nitpicking over whether they included every detail from the original stories.  This is not just idle chatter on my part, because if the new Narnia movie (Chronicles of Narnia: The Voyage of the Dawn Treader) falls short of it's predecessors, as I believe it does, it might be because they tried to include too much.  From the little I have read, of the three this film is the least faithful to its original text, and considerable simplifications were made. But the plot still takes too long to come into focus as they seemingly tried to cram as much as they could into a tween friendly 115 minutes.

The story begins with siblings Lucy (Georgie Henley) and Edmund (Skandar Keyens) living out the final days of World War II with their uncle and aunt in Cambridge while their older brother and sister are off in America (how they got there safely in the midst of the War is a mystery to me, but I'll let that one go by). The returning characters are joined by cousin Eustace (Will Poulter), a budding skeptic who has no patience for his cousins' talk of Narnia and other fairy tales.  Even after he gets swept into the fantasy world by way of a magical painting he doesn't believe what's happening is real, concluding it must be some perverse trick.  Ben Barnes returns from the last film as Caspian, though he's lost his mixed up Spanish-Eastern European accent and speaks as a Englishman.  They are now at sea, though the purpose of their voyage remains a bit murky. 

Since explaining the plot briefly is impossible, I won't. The problem with the story in general is that it takes too much time for the movie to decide on its objective.  We go through about three false starts before our intrepid adventures figure out what it is they were brought back to Narnia for. This was a bit frustrating, because just when it gets my imagination going, the film switches gears and moves into another direction.  Just as the action heats up, it stops abruptly to give us more exposition to set up the next episode.  It's not until the last third of the movie that things really begin to get going, and then it ends. 

That said, I'm recommending the movie, especially for younger teens.  There are solid lessons to be learned about courage, loyalty, resisting temptation, and self acceptance.  The action is solid, especially in the climactic sequence.  The returning actors know their roles, but don't seem bored by them.  While out side of Cousin Eustace there aren't any new characters to speak of, there is a clear passing of the baton that sets up the pictures to follow.  Does The Dawn Treader pale in comparison with the first two movies?  Yes it does.  But on a rainy afternoon it's worth the ride.  I just hope next time they trim the sails a bit.