3.5 stars (out of five). Rating: PG, for fantasy action and one truly scary monster
By Derrick Bang • Originally published in The Davis Enterprise, 12.10.10
After a lumbering sophomore installment that was little more than an excuse for swordplay and a contrived “war” between CGI creatures, the Narnia series has found its footing again.
For starters, we can credit the character mix: Older siblings Susan and Peter have moved on, leaving this adventure to their younger brother and sister, Edmund and Lucy (Skandar Keynes and the always adorable Georgie Henley, still graced with the best rueful smile in town). They’re joined by a newcomer: their obnoxious, condescending cousin, Eustace (Will Poulter), which gives us the chance to experience this magical realm through a fresh set of eyes. This, in turn, makes everything seem new to us, as well.
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| Caspian (Ben Barnes, left), Edmund (Skandar Keynes) and Lucy (Georgie Henley) learn more about their complex mission after studying a dusty old book in a magical library. They think they're alone, but they're about to discover that isn't the case... |
(Perhaps more important, this series has been removed from Disney’s hands. The Mouse House has a tendency to put big, fat footprints on pre-existing material, sometimes distorting tone and atmosphere to fit the often rigid “Disney formula.” Narnia is better off without such tampering.)
More importantly, this third installment of C.S. Lewis’ famed series – The Voyage of the Dawn Treader – is a good, old-fashioned quest in the classic heroic mold: a thrilling adventure scaled down to kid-size perils, setbacks and triumphs. That crucial aspect was lost in the second film, when Susan, Peter, Edmund and Lucy took this mystical realm for granted, and became far too blasé about everything.
Then, too, the wise and powerful Aslan’s presence has been scaled back, which cuts down on the fortune-cookie pronouncements – even though they always sound cool, when spoken so solemnly by Liam Neeson – and eyebrow-raising, deus ex machina “solutions” to impossible problems. The children are mostly left to control their destinies here, and learn from mistakes; that’s as it should be.
In the real world, roughly three years after the events depicted in Lewis’ second novel, Prince Caspian
, England has been enveloped by World War II. It’s 1943; Peter is studying for university exams, while Susan is on holiday in the United States. Lucy and Edmund have been shuttled off to relations in Cambridge, where they’re stuck with their young cousin, the snobbish and wholly intolerant Eustace Clarence Scrubb (played to bratty perfection by Poulter).Eustace is fond of recording his petulant thoughts and diatribes in a diary, where he can finesse events and people to his own desires. The rigors of real life are best avoided by this young lad, who is ill-equipped to deal with anything that requires pluck or imagination.
He’s forced to acknowledge the need for both when a painting in an upstairs bedroom – an image of an ocean-bound sailing vessel – starts slopping sea water all over the room; moments later, the three children are frantically kicking to the surface of an actual ocean. (A far less elegant means of reaching Narnia than slipping through the back end of a wardrobe and into a snow-covered forest, if you ask me.)
