Narnia 3 aka Voyage of the Dawn Treader - Grade,Review,Speculate

[Captain Craig]

This thread is to JUST discuss the film Narnia: Voyage of the Dawn Treader. It stems from a thread discussing movies in the Chronicles of Narnia thread without the Pevensie kids.

This movie is the third modern motion picture featuring C.S. Lewis best selling children's novels The Chronicles of Narnia that have sold tens of millions over the last half century.

The first movie was The Lion the Witch and the Wardrobe.(12/9/05) WW total$745m
The second movie was Prince Caspian.(5/16/08) WW total$419m
Both made by Disney studios in partnership with Walden Media who actually owns the rights. When Disney bowed out due to Caspians modest performance and no doubt its bloated $225m budget they passed on VOTDT. Walden conceeded with Fox, reduced the budget for VOTDT($155m) and moved its release date back to the Holiday season.

Voyage of the Dawn Treader opened 12/9/10 and its current WW total stands at $166m after 10 days.

Fox seems to have mishandled the marketing on this film. Across the net no matter where I post people keep saying I was unaware of this movie or at most 'I didn't see an ad until the week of its release'.

It's North American numbers are not flattering. Which is sad cause frankly, imo, its a really good movie. Creative liberties and all. Spread the word, discuss the movie and follow its progress here but discuss the rest of Narnia without the Pevensie in the other thread such titled.

 

[Admiral_Young]

I gave it a B and was tempted to give it an A. Really enjoyed it.

 

[Saga]

i gave it an A. i was tempted to give it a B, but i really enjoyed Dawn Treader. it was a fun adventure movie, had some nice character growth and development and in the end i walked out of the theater feeling good. these days i feel that, too often, i leave a movie feeling like i've been beat down.

 

[Admiral_Young]

I think out of the three films, Voyage of the Dawn Treader was the most mature. I think the direction in this film was much better than the previous two films. As I noted in the other Narnia thread I was impressed with Georgie and Skandar's acting performances in this movie. They had a tremendous amount of pressure on them as the leads and I think they proved that they could handle it with flying colors. Will Poulter as Eustace Srubb was great too, as was his burgeoning friendship with Ripicheep voiced to perfection by Simon Pegg! The film's CGI was also incredibly good, one of the best rendered Dragon's I've ever seen.

 

[Gryffindorian]

B from me as well. Not as action-packed as the first two Narnia movies, but it's got some thematic elements--courage, faith, self-discovery, friendship.

 

[Captain Craig]

Ah, the obligatory fly by the forum 'F' grader strikes again. At least be confident enough in your dissatisfaction to post the why's of your displeasure. You know assuming you actually saw it.

 

[Admiral_Young]

Yeah, I'd like to know why this person voted "F". It was hardly that bad.

 

[Saga]

Ah, the obligatory fly by the forum 'F' grader strikes again. At least be confident enough in your dissatisfaction to post the why's of your displeasure. You know assuming you actually saw it.

i'd also like to know what fault(s) they found with the movie. its certainly not the best movie ever, but i enjoyed it.

 

[marillion]

I thought it was a really nice movie. Well made and while not as action-packed as the first couple, it was fun and never boring.

Definetely a movie for the kiddos that I'm sure I'll see again.

 

[Greylock Crescent]

The movie certainly has its flaws. As I outline in my personal review, the performances are iffy, the characters often resort to acting stupidly, just to advance the plot (really, how to you spend the night on an uncharted island and not set a watch?), and the production values are middle-of-the-road. But even with those missteps, Dawn Treader is a fine film, plenty of fun, and a genuinely unabashed fantasy film -- something that doesn't seem to crop up that often nowadays. I thought it was the best Narnia film yet.

I voted B.

 

[Captain Craig]

Yeah, when they were all sleeping on the shore when Lucy gets taken by the 'unseen' I was going, "really the best ship in Narnia's fleet, with the KING in tow, and no one is on guard duty thru the night, really?".
I know that was how they advanced the plot but to me that was too obvious a blunder.

 

[Thestral]

^ In fairness, it's also the first ship that's been built in many years, and the furthest abroad anyone's gone in a long time.

Weak excuse, but it's something right? Personally, I thought the decision to sleep on shore at all was the first mistake.

 

[coolghoul]

After not having slept on a non-rocking bed for god knows how long, even the docile characters of Narnia would mutiny at the thought of their Prince making them go back and sleep on the ship with land so close.

Somehow the characters seemed too one-dimensional. The complexity (Lucy's wish to be pretty like her sister) seemed forced. And the plot seemed to be - We have to go to one island, then another and then yet another until Aslan finally shows up and we can end the darn thing.

Having said all that I still gave it a B.

I want more movies.

I haven't read the stories as yet. But I want to be able to see more of this world... I just like being able to see a fantasy movie in the theaters.

 

[Admiral_Young]

Actually Lucy's wish to be pretty like Susan is a rift on Susan's own maturation process and interest in "material" things. The scene at the start of the film where Lucy glances at the young couple is reminiscent of Susan being conscience of her own sexuality in the previous movie. As Aslan pointed out at the end of the movie "You're growing up, dear one". Indeed.

 

[Miss Chicken]

I gave it a B though I would prefer to have been able to give it an A- (or B+). I really enjoyed it though I wasn't oblivious to the faults that have been previously mentioned.

 

[Allyn Gibson]

Somehow the characters seemed too one-dimensional.

I think the character work was better in the first two films, yet I liked Dawn Treader more. After Caspian being such a force in the previous film, I felt that he was shoved too far into the background, and Edmund and Lucy didn't really fill the void. The moment of bonding between Caspian and Edmund near the end, where they admit to their brotherly feelings, also felt unearned. And even though it would have been a departure from Lewis' text, I'd have liked to have seen the dwarf Trumpkin aboard the Dawn Treader, just to give the audience one more familiar face.

As for the plot, even though the events are rearranged (and the slavers are taken from The Silver Chair), the episodic nature of the story is straight from the book. The movie actually connects the events by grafting on the whole "recover the seven swords and defeat the Evil Isle" throughline; the book doesn't even try to link the events together, and the Evil Isle occurs midway through the novel. The screenwriters layered plaster on top of the generally rickety structure that Lewis provided, and even the best patchwork can't mask all the flaws.

Actually Lucy's wish to be pretty like Susan is a rift on Susan's own maturation process and interest in "material" things.

I thought the vision that Lucy had of being Susan at the soiree in America presaged Susan's fate in The Last Battle. Lipstick and stockings.

The scene at the start of the film where Lucy glances at the young couple is reminiscent of Susan being conscious of her own sexuality in the previous movie. As Aslan pointed out at the end of the movie "You're growing up, dear one". Indeed.

Right after they meet Caspian, there's a line from Caspian that made me wonder, for maybe ten minutes, if Caspian were going to make a move on Lucy. (I didn't realize at the time that there's fourteen years difference in age between Ben Barnes and Georgie Henley.)

 

[Admiral_Young]

^ Yep I thought so too when I saw that scene.

 

[Captain Craig]

There may be the start of some Holiday legs creeping into VOTDT. It had a great Monday, its drop from Sunday was only 40%. It took in $2.2m which puts it ahead of even LW&TW as far as percentages go anyway. It's North American total stands at $44.9m

If this movie can make $100m that will mean it had a 4.0 multiplier which is tough. Too bad it's still not a good total considering its production budget.

I'm really curious to see how the movie fares over Christmas weekend.

 

[Saga]

i have hope that it will do good this weekend. i think it will be a good, family, alternative to Tron and True Grit.

 

[Thestral]

After not having slept on a non-rocking bed for god knows how long, even the docile characters of Narnia would mutiny at the thought of their Prince making them go back and sleep on the ship with land so close.

Fair point, yeah.

Actually Lucy's wish to be pretty like Susan is a rift on Susan's own maturation process and interest in "material" things. The scene at the start of the film where Lucy glances at the young couple is reminiscent of Susan being conscience of her own sexuality in the previous movie. As Aslan pointed out at the end of the movie "You're growing up, dear one". Indeed.

Sorta reminiscent but in a different way. Lucy's jealous of Susan's beauty (and this is straight from the book); Susan seems to be actively avoiding it in Prince Caspian (definitely not from the book, but it at least gives her character something to do unlike the book Prince Caspian).

After Caspian being such a force in the previous film, I felt that he was shoved too far into the background, and Edmund and Lucy didn't really fill the void.

Yeah, unfortunately it's more noticeable in the films because he was a much more lively and interesting person in the film version of Prince Caspian than the book; for a King, he's always something of a background character.

As for the plot, even though the events are rearranged (and the slavers are taken from The Silver Chair),

They're not, actually. They're a part of Dawn Treader, and the Lone Islands episode is somewhat larger, with a more direct confrontation between Caspian and the corrupt Governor Gumpas after Drinian and co. free them from the slavers.