Tuesday, July 29, 2014

Movie Review: The Voyage of the Dawn Treader

 The Chronicles of Narnia: The Voyage of the Dawn Treader (2010)
 




~ Skander Keynes as Edmund Pevensie ~



















~ Georgie Henley as Lucy Pevensie ~



~ Will Poulter as Eustace Scrubb ~
















~ Ben Barnes as Caspian X ~













My Review (5 stars):

     It's a little different than the first two... the main thing being that Peter and Susan are in America, not England or Narnia with Edmund and Lucy. Then we meet Eustace Clarence Scrubb, who is hilariously portrayed by Will Poulter. Diving into Narnia, these three board the Dawn Treader and reunite with Caspian and Reepicheep. Aw, how wonderful. :)

     Why does everyone hate on this movie? I loved it! We have the same Edmund and Lucy, who are even more grown up. But that's to be expected and even anticipated; they have new struggles and little different adventures. Lucy is finally old enough to carry her own sword now, J. Plus we have the all-together entertaining Eustace; Will Poulter did SUCH a good job with him. He was perfect. We go back to Narnia... long waited for! And a lot of the tale takes place on a neat Narnian ship. New and fascinating places are explored. Altogether different concepts are brought up. There's a little more of the magic feeling. Peace has come for the people of Narnia, so there are no big battles; yet there's a mysterious evil out to destroy everything… so there's battles, just a little different from the first two movies.

     The Chronicles of Narnia: Voyage of the Dawn Treader (2010) explored the whole temptation thing; Enemy whispering lies in your ears that sound like logic; and having to “defeat the darkness inside yourself” to defeat the evil green mist. A pretty cool message overall.

     Loved journeying along with Lucy, Edmund, King Caspian, and Reepicheep, as always. Eustace even became a loveable part, :). Then he had to go turn into a dragon... I could have used more time with him as a boy; but... so goes the story. Speaking of that part, the dragon definitely had a computer-made look; but you get over it pretty quickly, at least I did.

     I would say Voyage of the Dawn Treader (2010) wasn't as violent as Prince Caspian (2008), and probably not as intense or gruesome either. Well, we do see a nasty-looking sea serpent near the end. But it probably has more eerie/creepy parts than any of the things above.

     It was good to see Edmund and Lucy doing so well together; you know, they don't have Peter and Susan this time. –But their relationship has really strengthened, and they're such a caring brother and sister pair. It's extremely fun to watch Eustace's story, see his redemption, watch him mature and make friends, all that. And Caspian, it was good to see him again, and watch him overcome certain struggles. He's the king now! Anyway, it’s an adventure from beginning to end, with wit and humor, and action and mystery.

     The end is so bittersweet, even more so than Prince Caspian (2008). Now its Edmund and Lucy's last time in Narnia, and watching Georgie Henley portray Lucy's grief just makes me want to cry! An altogether beautiful ending though, in a sad way. Aslan's talk was touching and amazing. Edmund, Lucy, and Eustace say good-bye... their actress and actors really just did a superb job. I just loved it. Really great. A wonderful movie in and of itself, but Voyage of the Dawn Treader (2010) just really leaves you longing to continue the adventure and watch Eustace journey back to Narnia. OH, when is The Silver Chair going to come out??!! :)

13 comments:

  1. Have to agree about Eustace. He is so awsome. One of our cousins looks like him!! `L'Amour Lover

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    1. Haha, :) He is... so entertaining to watch! And that's great! :)

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  2. I agree, I loved this movie! And the ending made me cry in a very bittersweet way.
    I don't fully understand those that didn't like the movie! Perhaps they don't like how it differed from the book, (which I thought that it had a much more cohesive story arc then the book)!
    But, if you where attached to the book and a movie changes things around, I can see not liking that!
    Anyway! Great movie!
    E.

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    1. *Sniff*... it's so sad. Yet... yeah, just bittersweet. I'm so excited for The Silver Chair, except, will they have Will Poulter as Eustace?!

      Yeah, it is hard if your favorite books get made into movies not so accurate. But I think accurate enough! I just love these movies.

      Yep! :)

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    2. Yes. But, like you mentioned in your Prince Caspian post, you saw the first two movies before reading the books. And I think that does really change our perspective. I had read them long before seeing the films, but they really weren't books I grew up on! As I have heard others described them to be!
      The books that are near and dear to my heart from childhood are Tolkins! The Hobbit and the Lord of the Rings! They are sacred and only a few changes could be tolerated!:-)
      And as for book to movie inaccuracy don't get me started on all the thing Peter Jackson did WRONG! It could be hours before I'm finished! ;-)

      But even beyond that I really liked the atmosphere that these where filmed with!
      More sunshine and bright pretty colors and not the kind of dingy look that it seems like LOTR had about them ever when they weren't dealing with evil!

      Is there talk of Will Poulter not playing Eustace? I guess I hadn't thought of that, just assumed that he would!

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    3. Right. I enjoyed the books, but they weren't really like my "childhood reads" or anything.

      Haha, yes. Now if you did really grow up with the books and all, movie changes can be really frustrating! I haven't read The Hobbit or The Lord of the Rings trilogy, so I wouldn't know of the changes the movies had. But I will mention the Love Comes Softly... the changes in the movie were horrific!! Wow, they really took the story all kinds of places it wasn't supposed to go. That always frustrates me.

      But yeah. There usually is things to like about the movies, even when we find disturbing changes.

      Well... I'm not really sure. But a lot of people seem to be speculating that he's going to be "too old" or whatever. :(

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  3. I love, love, loved Dawn Treader all but the last time I saw it. I even saw it in theaters twice, and I can still count the number of times I've been to the movies on my fingers. The added stuff didn't bother me, not like the changes to Prince Caspian did, but I finally realized Dawn Treader wasn't really very well written. A lot of the dialogue was awkward and unnatural, and the story felt slightly rushed. They would have done better to make it the same length as the previous two movies. Will Poulter was amazing, though. I hope he comes back for The Silver Chair.

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    1. Hmmm... I've never noticed any of that with The Voyage of the Dawn Treader, but perhaps I haven't watched it enough! Haha. Anyway, yes, Will Poulter was great!! I'm going to be devastated if he's not in The Silver Chair! :-(

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    2. Probably, more than anything, I've just become more critical with all I've learned about writing and storytelling in the past few years. I always did think Lucy's conversation with Reep about the edge of the world seemed a little awkward, though. It was great content, but not carried out to its full potential.

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    3. Ah, yeah, I guess we can tend to do that the more we know! Hopefully The Silver Chair will be well thought out and follow the storyline really nicely! :-)

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  4. Great review Shantelle!!! I absolutely love the Chronicles of Narnia movies and books! :) They are probably tied as my favorites with the Anne of Green Gables series :D I know those are not similar at all, but I love a ton of different genres :P I really hope they will make another movie soon! I thought that they were going to make The Silver Chair, but I am not sure now :/ Have you heard anything about it recently?

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    1. Thank you, Elaina! :) Ah, they are so good! And the "Anne of Green Gables" series is great as well! I totally understand have a variety of favorites when it comes to genres! :D I love all different types of movies and books!

      Me too! ^_^ I believe they still are making "The Silver Chair:, but it's just taking forever. Last I heard they were almost done writing the script?? Let's hope! :) :)

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  5. Interesting! I have heard a lot about this movie and its other parts but never got time to see it. It is good I came across this review. I can show this to my kids on the coming weekend because they have finished watching all the shows by Andrew Yeatman on Netflix.

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