Voyage of the Dawn Treader

Dragged against my will to see a kids’ film (with two nine year old girls), the only minor victory in my favour was managing to schedule a 2D viewing…

The Chronicles of Narnia: The Voyage of the Dawn Treader

“This place just gets weirder and weirder!”

Plot-in-a-nutshell: precocious children return to mystical land where they’re apparently royalty, kick some monster butt and meet JesusÂ a lion.

It’s not usual for me to jump into a trilogy without seeing the first two, but I was effectively bullied by two little girls. And you don’t argue with women no matter how small they are. I’m familiar with the first tale in the series (of which there are seven books by C.S.Lewis – whether they’ll all make it to the screen is to be seen), but only from TV adaptations many years ago.

It’s still an easy story to get into if you have the very basic background – some children find a magical land via a wardrobe in part one, something else happens in part two and in part three they go back again via a painting on a wall. They also drag a very annoying relative with them. The scene is quickly set at this point, and I wasn’t left wondering too many things about the back-story as the plot kicked off.

The characters are easy to get to grips with, the story starts well and the action sequences are fantastical and exciting. This really is a children’s film, but is perfectly enjoyable by adults. Sure, the younger cast are a little gushy and the plot fairly thin (find seven swords and pop them on a table) but the settings are fantastic. It’s a real work of imagination and today’s special effects really do it justice.

There genuinely isn’t a dull moment. When the plot isn’t moving forward, there are some nice sequences about the characters. The annoying relative, of course, proves his worth and becomes a part of the team. Evil men give way to strange creatures which progress onto huge monsters as the challenges faced get bigger and more perilous.

I honestly can’t see the film being improved by 3D – very few films at all can be – so save your cash and catch this version. But do catch it, especially if you’ve seen the first two. I enjoyed it far more than I expected despite spending half the film on the lookout for the well known Christian allegory. Which, incidentally, is not very hard to spot towards the end of the movie.