The Chronicles of Narnia: The Voyage of the Dawn Treader

This movie was definitely something. Like, I didn't hate it, for one thing, but compared to the previous two, it wasn't exactly overly amazing either. Hopefully my review can explain my feelings on it.

The story focuses on siblings Edmund and Lucy, played again by Skandar Keynes and Georgie Henley, as well as their obnoxious cousin Eustace, played by a young Will Poulter, who once again journey to Narnia to do basically a video game fetch quest to find seven swords and bring them to a table to stop a weird curse or something. It's not a complex plot, but it feels pretty lazy, if I am being fully honest.

For one thing, I loved the visual style of the first two films, but this one felt kind of...clean and washed out, more generic, if you will. It didn't really inspire feelings of a grand adventure, it felt more like a stage play, except with more CGI. The plot points were kind of random as well, with nothing really feeling like it mattered all that much, and I was more confused as to what was supposed to be going on.

I will say that getting to see Eustace go from an obnoxious coward to a true hero was actually a pretty nice bit of character development, especially where I really did go from hating him (except for a couple of really hilarious diary entries in the earlier minutes of the film) to really caring about him, and Will Poulter does sell the role quite well. Also, going along with that is Simon Pegg as the voice of the heroic mouse Reepicheep, who becomes Eustace's friend as the story goes on, and their interactions are fun to see.

Overall, this movie isn't really anything special, and, if anything, it just feels like a generic fantasy film with moments of brilliance, but without some of the better moments we saw in the first film, which I gave similar sentiments to. It's not unwatchable, and it is certainly not bad. None of the Narnia films are. But you will probably come away from this one hoping for a better experience.

Next time, we reach the very end of one of the most popular fantasy sagas of all time. The final battle between Harry and Voldemort is next when I review Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2.

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