Voyage of the Dawn Treader
velvetpage and I took the girls to see it this afternoon. They quite liked it, though one long scene had Claire hiding her in coat with her hands over her ears.
General Points
The CG was stronger than previous films. Reepicheep and Aslan looked very real indeed.
I did not expect to like the voice acting change for Reepicheep, from Eddie Izzard to Simon Pegg, but I found I actually like Pegg's take on the character a lot more. Will Poulter as Eustace Clarence Scrubb really did a good job. Ben Barnes as Caspian dropped his Spanish accent, and seemed skinnier, leading both Erin and I to think he was a different actor. I suspect he also may look smaller because Edmund and Lucy are both taller than in the previous film.
The earnest morals that Lewis built into the original book have mostly been removed and replaced with action scenes, or diffused with more generic humanist sentiments. For a lot of people, that is a plus. I would have preferred they retained them, since I suspect they were removed for marketing reasons.
*Modest spoilers below!*
Things I Did Not Like
If you knew me around the time the film version of Return of the King came out, you know I was really irked at how they handled the scene between Aragorn and the Mouth of Sauron. In the book, Aragorn very pointedly does not attack Sauron's emissary, because it is against the rules of war and diplomacy. In the movie, he rides up and chops the emissary's head off. The entire spirit of the scene was not simply changed, but turned on its head. There were a number of scenes like that in Dawn Treader
A lot of action scenes were pushed into the film, some of them engaging, most of them pointless. The plot was changed from a travelogue with themes of maturation, sacrifice and exploration, to a sort of lazy video game adventure involving the retrieval and placement of seven magic swords on Aslan's Table on Ramandu's Island.
P.S., Ramandu isn't in the movie at all, despite being mentioned several times. Instead Claire Danes from Stardust shows up to hand out the quest.
In this version, the Monopods on the Magician's Island were turned invisible to "protect them." The Wizard threatens them and chases them away with a fake magic spell in a scene which is something of the exact opposite of his role in the book.
The Dark Island changes from "The Land Where Dreams Come True", to a sort of floating foggy Mordor that extends its tendrils throughout Narnia. For some reason, the island is eating people. It's not clear why it's doing so, and in the end it turns out they're all just sitting in little boats in the middle of a fog bank, unharmed and all quite chipper.
There's a scene begging for a Youtube re-edit, where Lord Rhoop tells them all that the Dark Island makes their fears real. So, they decide not to think of anything. Edmund can't help thinking of something, and there's a brief bit of "Oh no, what did you think of?" and Edmund won't say... and something appears through the mist...
...I was almost expecting this to come wading through the surf. Instead, a Lovecraftian sea worm shows up. When the Albatross (the spirit of Aslan, or God, or goodness, or whatever) shows up to guide them from the darkness of the Island, nothing happens. It shows up, they see it, they don't follow it, and keep fighting Cthulhu.
In an example of really bad editing (I assume) and clumsy deux ex machina, Eustace (still in dragon form) acquires the last sword. He flies away and crashes on a sandbar, where Aslan turns him back into a real boy and teleports him to Ramadu's Island, where he places the last sword on the table. However, nothing really happens aside from bright lights and swelling music. Meanwhile, back at R'lyeh Dark Island they sail the boat into Cthulhu, which triggers the island's self-destruct mechanism. In the book, Dark Island is not defeated - they simply escape from it, guided away by the Albatross.
When the island disappears, a bunch of kidnapped Narnians are left floating about in little boats. Some of them have supposedly been missing for three years, but all seem pretty happy and healthy. For some reason, Eustace is also paddling around the water, despite having been teleported to an island a very long way away.
The entire final sequence of sailing on to the "Utter East" over several pages is truncated into "Oh, isn't that the Utter East just over there?" It's literally within sight of the Dark Island. This disappointed me. The dream-like progression into lands more and more alien and remote and beautiful captured my imagination powerfully as a child.
Things I Liked
Reepicheep was really good. Much less jokey than the previous film, and his tutoring of Eustace was believable and charming. They did not have the chess scene I love so much, but I knew it would not have translated well to film.
Eustace was very well-played, and never became comic relief for more than a few moments at a time. His gradual change in personality was realistically done, and even early on in the film you get the impression that he isn't so much useless or cowardly as misguided. All the actors were good.
Overall, it was a good looking film. The plot, taken on its own, was sort of weak but passable fantasy fare. When contrasted with the original, I feel it suffers. I give it a 6 out of 10!
General Points
The CG was stronger than previous films. Reepicheep and Aslan looked very real indeed.
I did not expect to like the voice acting change for Reepicheep, from Eddie Izzard to Simon Pegg, but I found I actually like Pegg's take on the character a lot more. Will Poulter as Eustace Clarence Scrubb really did a good job. Ben Barnes as Caspian dropped his Spanish accent, and seemed skinnier, leading both Erin and I to think he was a different actor. I suspect he also may look smaller because Edmund and Lucy are both taller than in the previous film.
The earnest morals that Lewis built into the original book have mostly been removed and replaced with action scenes, or diffused with more generic humanist sentiments. For a lot of people, that is a plus. I would have preferred they retained them, since I suspect they were removed for marketing reasons.
*Modest spoilers below!*
Things I Did Not Like
If you knew me around the time the film version of Return of the King came out, you know I was really irked at how they handled the scene between Aragorn and the Mouth of Sauron. In the book, Aragorn very pointedly does not attack Sauron's emissary, because it is against the rules of war and diplomacy. In the movie, he rides up and chops the emissary's head off. The entire spirit of the scene was not simply changed, but turned on its head. There were a number of scenes like that in Dawn Treader
A lot of action scenes were pushed into the film, some of them engaging, most of them pointless. The plot was changed from a travelogue with themes of maturation, sacrifice and exploration, to a sort of lazy video game adventure involving the retrieval and placement of seven magic swords on Aslan's Table on Ramandu's Island.
P.S., Ramandu isn't in the movie at all, despite being mentioned several times. Instead Claire Danes from Stardust shows up to hand out the quest.
In this version, the Monopods on the Magician's Island were turned invisible to "protect them." The Wizard threatens them and chases them away with a fake magic spell in a scene which is something of the exact opposite of his role in the book.
The Dark Island changes from "The Land Where Dreams Come True", to a sort of floating foggy Mordor that extends its tendrils throughout Narnia. For some reason, the island is eating people. It's not clear why it's doing so, and in the end it turns out they're all just sitting in little boats in the middle of a fog bank, unharmed and all quite chipper.
There's a scene begging for a Youtube re-edit, where Lord Rhoop tells them all that the Dark Island makes their fears real. So, they decide not to think of anything. Edmund can't help thinking of something, and there's a brief bit of "Oh no, what did you think of?" and Edmund won't say... and something appears through the mist...
...I was almost expecting this to come wading through the surf. Instead, a Lovecraftian sea worm shows up. When the Albatross (the spirit of Aslan, or God, or goodness, or whatever) shows up to guide them from the darkness of the Island, nothing happens. It shows up, they see it, they don't follow it, and keep fighting Cthulhu.
In an example of really bad editing (I assume) and clumsy deux ex machina, Eustace (still in dragon form) acquires the last sword. He flies away and crashes on a sandbar, where Aslan turns him back into a real boy and teleports him to Ramadu's Island, where he places the last sword on the table. However, nothing really happens aside from bright lights and swelling music. Meanwhile, back at R'lyeh Dark Island they sail the boat into Cthulhu, which triggers the island's self-destruct mechanism. In the book, Dark Island is not defeated - they simply escape from it, guided away by the Albatross.
When the island disappears, a bunch of kidnapped Narnians are left floating about in little boats. Some of them have supposedly been missing for three years, but all seem pretty happy and healthy. For some reason, Eustace is also paddling around the water, despite having been teleported to an island a very long way away.
The entire final sequence of sailing on to the "Utter East" over several pages is truncated into "Oh, isn't that the Utter East just over there?" It's literally within sight of the Dark Island. This disappointed me. The dream-like progression into lands more and more alien and remote and beautiful captured my imagination powerfully as a child.
Things I Liked
Reepicheep was really good. Much less jokey than the previous film, and his tutoring of Eustace was believable and charming. They did not have the chess scene I love so much, but I knew it would not have translated well to film.
Eustace was very well-played, and never became comic relief for more than a few moments at a time. His gradual change in personality was realistically done, and even early on in the film you get the impression that he isn't so much useless or cowardly as misguided. All the actors were good.
Overall, it was a good looking film. The plot, taken on its own, was sort of weak but passable fantasy fare. When contrasted with the original, I feel it suffers. I give it a 6 out of 10!