|
 You
can tell when a film series is on its last legs; everything about it
just goes downhill, there’s less invested in every way. Somebody try to
convince me that Ewan MacGregor was awake during that last Star Wars
movie. I can see the pillow marks on Harrison Ford’s face in that last
Indiana Jones and strings on the whip. A series that needn’t go on any
longer is often marked with signs of the lack of care in an inferior
script or lessening in its production values. Rarely was more evidence
of that apparent than with The Chronicles of Narnia: Voyage of the Dawn
Treader.
While
not quite the on the same level of greatness as its sire, the 2005
smash, The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe,
one could still see the interest in The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince
Caspian {2008}. The thing looked great, wonderful visual effects
and a real feeling as if the viewer were being transported seamlessly to
this mythical world. Caspian’s problem was a mudbound script tied up
too much in the story of the Telmarine race and less of the four
Pevensie children, who audiences embraced. Nothing could be done for
it, that’s what C.S. Lewis wrote. Consequently, despite some
improvements including a nice development of the maturing quartet,
particularly Skandar Keynes, so witty as young Edmund Pevensie, the
sequel didn’t do as well at the box office as the first. When Walt
Disney Pictures dropped the property there was real doubt that the third
installment would ever be. Now having been acquired by 20th
Century Fox, one wonders if they shouldn’t have taken the Disney
abandonment as a sign. Voyage of the Dawn Treader is a misery; a
joyless lesson in overstaying one’s welcome.
For no
creditable reason, there’s some creepy rule in Narnia that you can’t
stay once puberty ends or nearabouts, so the film starts with a new,
younger, sort-of Pevensie, irritating prig cousin Eustace. I’m not sure
why their parents won’t come and claim them, but once again Edmund and
Lucy Pevensie are passed off into the hands of relatives and dreaming of
Narnia, a place Eustace simply refuses to believe in. Lucy’s eye for
art brings the trio back into the magic land at the prow of their old
friend, the former Prince - now King - Caspian’s ship, the Dawn Treader.
Caspian must retrieve the swords of seven ancient kings and bring them
together at the table of Aslan, Narnia’s roaring ruler, to solidify his
rule. How? Why? Quite honestly, I forgot, but one reason to go on a
scavenger hunt’s as good as another, so off the crew of men, minotaurs,
fauns and a mouse - that would be Reepicheep from the last film - go to
various islands risking capture and slavery from the forces that oppose
Caspian. Finally, Eustace believes his cousins. Well, that’s a relief.
The one
creditable thing about Eustace is that he doesn’t go around pretending to
be brave; he’s a coward after my own heart. It may not be good drama,
but it’s certainly believable when there’s danger and someone runs away
from it. Doesn’t help Eustace with this crowd, if there’s trouble,
it’ll find them.
Their seagoing adventures culminate in a final test of
courage, going up against all sorts of exceedingly large sea varmints.
Very swashbuckling, this chapter. When the film began, I noticed that
Lucy’s sudden attention to her hair and figure and mooney-eyed gazes at
Caspian, along with Edmund’s cracking voice must mean trouble, so it
goes at the end of Dawn Treader that the last of Narnia’s Four High
Kings (- and Queens) are shuffled off to the mundane world of
adulthood. Have no fear, readers; the series can go on because there’s
still an almost-Pevensie in the picture.
Thank goodness for Cousin
Oliver, I mean, Eustace.
It’s
just bad. Everything about this movie is marked down like a fire sale.
The visuals, so breathtaking in the first film and more than serviceable
in the second, look downright shoddy. The wonderfully realised
creatures of the past films look like bad CGI from five years ago and
not very imaginative at that. The script is an uninspired dud and the
poor young actors have absolutely no reason to give any effort at all as
there is no character development whatsoever. Annoying cousin Eustace
isn’t at all interesting and completely one-note until he is hit with
some magic mojo that causes him to see things from a higher perspective
and even then he’s not that great.
This production is so cut-rate, they
couldn’t even afford Caspian’s accent. I’m sure the world will be sad
to know that Ben Barnes’ excellent Zorro the Gay Blade intonations that
so lit up the previous film, have completely disappeared, along with any
discernable personality for his character. It seems even acquiring a
full beard for Caspian was out of the budget. The saddest loss in the
portrayals is the muting of Edmund; Skandar Keynes’ timing and dry wit
shone like a star through the murk of Prince Caspian and it feels like
we’re watching pod-Edmund here, just going through the assigned motions.
Even the chipmunk-cheeked Georgie Henley’s adorable smile can only
charm so much. Even blink-and-you’ll-miss-‘em cameos by Tilda
Swinton as Edmund’s bête noire, the White Witch and Anna Popplewell and
William Moseley as eldest Pevensie sibs, Susan and Peter, can’t help.
While Narnia was never the most cheerful of series, this chapter gets
downright depressing as we watch one character’s decision to walk into Aslan’s country, a very clumsy metaphor for Heaven, and boy do they add
muscle to their tearjerking. It felt like it was the filmmaker’s
mission to make the little ones cry, yet the attempt is a bust because
we don’t care a fig for anyone in the picture, they’re all pretty
disposable. Disposable would be a perfect word for Aslan’s treatment of
the Pevensies; they’ve risked their lives fighting for him and his world
time and again, are told they are the High Kings of the land, and then
booted out as soon as they grow axillary hair. Sheesh, I hope Narnia
has good unemployment insurance. Awkward Narnia moment number 300 takes
place when Lucy is having her last goodbyes with Aslan, who then
comforts her by telling her that he is in her world under another name
and she must learn it to know him there. So he’s incognito? A giant
talking lion? Actually, in the Lewis book, there are very strong hints
as to what that name is, but try getting a pro-Christian reference into
a children’s movie these days and see what you get.
Suffice it to say that The Chronicles of Narnia: Voyage of the Dawn
Treader is overall a would-be straight-to-DVD redheaded stepchild to its
better made, higher production-valued predecessors. It’s funny that the
producers of the film thought that they could degrade the visuals, the
quality of which were a stunning hallmark of the two previous films,
render them so poorly and no one would notice. More focus on action (-
Egads, those jumpy camera edits) means nothing when you don’t
care about either the character or story. Narnia producers should’ve
given their audiences more credit for having some intelligence and
wanting more than some loud, bright shiny object.
~ The
Lady Miz Diva
December 10th, 2010
Click here to read our 2008 review of The
Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian
Click here for our 2008 interviews with William
Moseley, Anna Popplewell, Georgie Henley and Peter
Dinklage for The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian
Click
here for our 2008 New York Comic Con interview with Prince Caspian
himself, Ben Barnes.
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