The Chronicles of Narnia: The Voyage of the Dawn Treader
It doesn’t take long for Lucy (Georgie Henley) and Edmund (Skandar Keynes) to get back into Narnia. The quicker the better as the early scenes of the two Pevensie siblings– living with their aunt, uncle, and annoying cousin (Will Poulter) while WWII rages in Europe –are pretty terrible and predictable until a painting comes to life, and Lucy, Edmund, and cousin are swept into the seas of Narnia and helped onto the Dawn Treader, a ship manned by King (formerly Prince) Caspian (Ben Barnes). Caspian reports all is good in Narnia, but the crew of the Treader senses something wrong. Besides, why else would Lucy and Edmund be summoned back to Narnia?
After 2008’s “The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian” failed to light up the summer box-office, the seemingly-perfect pairing of Disney and family production company Walden Media to bring C.S. Lewis’s epic saga to film fell apart. The franchise then went to Fox (a frequent partner with Walden Media), who has now taken the chance that the holiday season will bring the magic (and box-office) back to the franchise that began so strongly (financially, at least) with 2005’s “The Lion the Witch & the Wardrobe.”
The producers could not have hired a better filmmaker to do so than Michael Apted. The British filmmaker has brought his intelligence and craft to films like “Amazing Grace,” “Enigma,” and the Bond film “The World is Not Enough.” But what Apted is best known for is his “Up” documentaries, which he has now been making for almost 50 years as he looks at the lives of 14 British children as they have grown up and have become adults, some with children of their own. It’s a landmark series.
With “The Voyage of the Dawn Treader,” Apted brings a sure hand to a smart and entertaining story filled with lush images and (mostly) enjoyable characters (I’m sorry, but cousin Eustace damn near ruins the film at times). Yes, the lion, Aslan (voiced by Liam Neeson), is still a blatant religious symbol in the film, but since he does not show up until near the end, the film lacks the not-so-subtle allegory of “The Lion the Witch & the Wardrobe.” And kudos to David Arnold’s score (which gives the film a rich musical heart that Harry Gregson-Williams couldn’t really do with the first two films) and to Dante Spinotti’s painterly cinematography (which gives the film a look more inviting than either of its predecessors in the series). As for the film’s use of 3D, it is largely inconsequential but effective in bringing depth to the film’s intriguing visual pallette. Partially due to its use of 3D, when the film goes into fantasy-adventure mode (like when the Treader is attacked by a dragon or a sea monster), it manages an energy that neither of the first two films could ever really get right. The franchise still hasn’t hit the artistic highs of a “Lord of the Rings” or “Harry Potter,” but with Apted in the director’s chair, one gets the feeling that “Narnia’s” time for greatness might be sooner than we thought.
