Tuesday, December 21, 2010

Review: Chronicles of Narnia: Voyage of the Dawn Treader


Chronicles of Narnia: Voyage of the Dawn Treader is the third and latest story in this series to hit the silver screen. This story saw two of the four Pevensie children, Edmund and Lucy stayed in wartime England during the summer holidays while their elder siblings Peter and Susan went to the United States of America to live with their parents. Edmund and Lucy were staying with their cousin Eustace whom they did not get along very well.

While Edmund and Lucy were arguing Eustace one day in their bed room, the picture of the sea with a Narnian looking ship began to come alive, with the sea beginning to rock violently and the wind began to blow wildly. The three children soon found that the sea began to pour into the room and they were flung into the rocky waves. They were struggling to stay afloat when ropes began to appear to their aid. 

As Edmund, Lucy and Eustace reached out for the rope, they were helped onto a ship by a group of strangers. Only that the ship that came to their aid was the Narnian looking one they saw in the picture before it became alive. The ship was Dawn Treader, helmed by Prince Caspian, the supposed king of the land of Narnia. 

Prince Caspian was on a mission sailing along the Bight of Caloralen and the Great Eastern Ocean in search for the seven friends of his father who were lost when they embarked on a dangerous voyage to the Eastern Islands. When Edmund, Lucy and Eustace joined him as he was tracing the voyage of these seven lost friends of his father's, thus, began an adventure that would test their friendship and relationship unimaginable to any of them, as well as how well they were able to resist greed, temptation, superficial beauty and materialistic desires.

As this is a dramatisation of the fifth book from C.S. Lewis's Chronicles of Narnia series, in my honest opinion, the book is definitely better in telling the story. However, this dramatisation could complement the book as the Hollywood interpretation usually helps readers to visualise the story better. I would rate this movie four stars as there were also decent actings in the movie, especially by Will Poulter, who portrayed the character of Eustace Scrubb, the cousin to the Pevensie children, who learned the price he had to pay when he gave in to greed and temptation.

Some of the cast who were reprising their respective roles were Georgie Henley as Lucy Pevensie, Skandar Keynes as Edmund Pevensie and Ben Barnes as Prince Caspian; with William Moseley as Peter Pevensie, Anna Popplewell as Susan Pevensie and Tilda Swinton as the White Witch making a brief appearence in this movie.

The screening of Chronicles of Narnia: Voyage of the Dawn Treader during this Christmas holiday season was an excellent move by its Hollywood producers,  as this story was a good reminder that we should not be influenced by greed, temptation, superficial beauty and materialistic desires but we should practise moderation in our life instead.               

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