The Chronicles of Narnia: Voyage of the Dawn Treader Movie Review

September 28, 2014     erinbook     Page to Screen

I feel like I watched an entirely different movie from what this was supposed to be. I’m about to ask a question I’ve asked many times after finished a movie adaptation of a book so forgive me for being repetitive… DID YOU PEOPLE EVEN READ THIS BOOK? It’s movies like this that make me wonder why I even bother with adaptations.

 

But let’s start with the things that are done well in this film. Skander and Georgie, Edmund and Lucy respectively, have always been pretty good actors in these movies. Here they got shown up by two really fantastic ones: Ben Barnes who plays Caspian (who somewhere between Prince Caspian and Dawn Treader lost that ridiculously terrible accent) and Will Poulter who plays Eustace. Those of you who have seen The Maze Runner will recognize Poulter as Gally, all grown up with the same odd eyebrows.
Despite a particularly bad script Barnes and Poulter, along with Skander and Georgie, still manage to make it work. Most of the time. Other than that, the only other thing that saves this movie from being at Eragon’s level of terrible is Reepicheep. Both in CGI and voice acting this character is brilliant, even when he has some truly terrible lines to read.
As far as the bad? Well there’s a lot here. I’ll just touch on the big ones. Let’s see, turning the island of nightmares into the source of all evil and calling it the least terrifying name ever? Check. Weird green mist (because green is evil now?) that just…what? Hides boatfuls of people at the end of the world? And does what with them? Explain, movie! If you’re going to have changes then have a bit of logic to explain it! So how do we fix this big plotctopus (thanks to Jenna for this word) of a mess? Let’s put a bunch of swords on a table and turn Peter’s sword into a lightsaber! Sure, that’ll work!
Seriously, DID YOU PEOPLE READ THIS BOOK AT ALL? EVEN A LITTLE BIT? And that’s just the stuff that has nothing whatsoever to do with the original story. There’s also they changes they made to parts that actually were in the book so they they could a) fit in all the extra bullshit, or b) explain/help along their stupid bullshit. Also, the White Queen is not in this book, not even a little! Stop torturing Edmund with her already! We get it, he screwed up, TWO MOVIES AGO! What am I going to do with you, movie?
Two Nuts
What did you think of this Dawn Treader adaptation? Share your thoughts in the comments.
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2 responses to “The Chronicles of Narnia: Voyage of the Dawn Treader Movie Review

  1. Loved Will in this! My daughters weren't too impressed when we watched it in the theater, either, which made me sad. 🙁 I think sometimes, when bigger companies do these adaptations, they want to cover a more "general" (read: broad) audience, so they simplify or Disney-fy some of the stuff. Stinks, because I do believe now there is no green light for any more in this series. 🙁 Reminds me of comments I've seen about the Percy Jackson movies. Silly Hollywood!

    • I just don't understand ADDING a whole different story arc that doesn't exist. They were going to do Magician's Nephew but I don't think it's even past scripting stage.

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