Dawn Treader Movie Review

Go see it? Yes. Four stars out of five at least; five of five for me, but I think you'll probably be quite glad you went even if you don't like it quite as much as I did. Action? Yes. People, characters? Yes. Doing things worth caring about, things that matter? Yes. Visual spectacle? Yes. Making sense? Pretty much (can't expect Hollywood to show everything in two hours). OK compared to the book? Yeah--The movie does add a major plot line and moves things around, but yes, it does justice to the book on Hollywood terms.

What movies should I compare this with? Well, the first two Narnia movies, obviously. I liked "Dawn Treader " better than the first two: it got off to a pretty quick start (unlike "The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe" which had a big heavy front end) and kept going. "Prince Caspian" started well and kept going (the movie better than the book), but I think the "Dawn Treader" movie kept its moral depth better than the "Prince Caspian" movie did. Aslan's final appearance at the eastern end of the world in "Dawn Treader" far excelled his disappearance walking north (south??) in "Lion."

The older BBC Narnia movies, with a special effects budget of zero, kept closer to the books than the big new movies, so take your pick. I like both--they took different ways--and of course I've liked the Narnia books for 30-plus years (and "Dawn Treader" was my favorite Narnia book; I can recite most of its first three paragraphs from memory.)

The action is, of course, swordplay and sorcery and sailing (with sails) and rowing, with visual spectacle to match: the sea serpent, the dragon, Reepicheep the heroic talking mouse (a cat-sized swordsman), and the ship's 2nd-in-command, in the movie a man with the head and fur of a bull, get more visual play than in the book. The 3-D didn't help much, nor did it hurt anything.

I think the actors got their jobs done; I don't know that any of them will, or won't, win Oscars, or Raspberry Awards (anti-Oscars for lousy work), but best I can tell they all did OK at least. As characters, as people facing challenges and changing, they got the story told, though I don't know that the characterization got any deeper than one would expect with several major characters in two hours. Perhaps three out of five here--lots of worse actors have been filmed acting worse parts, but my expectations were not really exceeded. ("I liked Eustace quite a bit--he did well with the Eustace role," said my wife, when I asked her about this paragraph. "You wanted to smack Eustace, and that's probably what Lewis was going for.")

Characters doing things that matter? Yes, perhaps even more so than in the book, because the movie added a major plot line which made victory over the island of evil depend on collecting seven swords that the seven seafaring Narnian lords had had; the book was a series of stories as our heroes sailed east across Narnia's ocean. (The movie "Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy"--two stars out of five, not totally worthless--a few years ago turned an even looser collection of episodes into a love story.) And the characters, as in the book, had to face inner evil, not just threats and temptations from outside; the movie did well at showing this, not in empty preaching, but as part of the story, part of the action.

Making sense, as opposed to calling for too much suspension of disbelief once you've accepted Narnia? Mostly so. My wife remarks that she was able to suspend disbelief even while holding our 3-month-old baby, who liked the closing credits better than the occasional loud noise. Three children start on earth and get into Narnia. Then they face slavery in a slightly puzzling episode significantly changed from the book's version--and the book was perfectly clear. I suspect time-cutting for movie purposes, and perhaps cost-cutting: fewer scenes and characters. I could be wrong. (C. S. Lewis's stepson, movie co-producer Douglas Gresham, has a bit part as one of the slavers). And I would've expected voyagers into the unknown and the dangerous to show more caution in how they landed on strange islands.

Did Hollywood do justice to C. S. Lewis's book? I'd say so. I recognized the characters. The basic story--King Caspian sails east with Reepicheep and a crew looking for the seven lords--was there. The order of episodes (eastern islands) changed, I think to introduce the new story line about collecting the seven swords to vanquish evil. Some small things got cut--Ramandu the star was perhaps the biggest (his daughter showed up as a star herself), and Gumpas the governor. The islands and events differed in various ways from the book, but not too much. The new plotline about the island of evil to be defeated by the seven swords was rather Hollywoody but worked well enough--it didn't keep the characters from facing what they faced. My wife thinks that the movie went for a big battle scene involving the dragon and the sea serpent at the expense of characters, especially Caspian, facing their fears and temptations in as much depth as they could have.

But I think C. S. Lewis (who saw at least some Walt Disney movies, and didn'˜t like the simpering heroines) would've been fairly pleased; I presume Douglas Gresham, who keeps an eye on Lewis's legacy, is, since he kept his name on the movie. Lewis wrote that Dawn Treader was about "the spiritual life (especially in Reepicheep)" [letter of 5 March 1961 to Anne Waller Jenkins {nee Waller}; cited on page 4 of "The Hidden Story of Narnia: A Book-by-Book Guide to C. S. Lewis'˜s Spiritual Themes," by Will Vaus.] Besides Reepicheep, one must notice the conversion of Eustace and the ordinary imperfect virtue of the rest, facing up to evil. Does this come through in the movie, not just in words but in what is seen and done? Yes, it does.

What would I have changed? I would've made the transitions to Narnia and back quicker and less wet, as in the book. Maybe given the ship a lower rear end. (That there was no way to push the sea serpent over the ship's tail might've told me that the movie would do something different with the sea serpent.) Tried to clarify the slave traders/Lone Islands episode. Special effects permitting, made the storm waves bigger! Made the seven Narnian lords younger. Left Caspian on the ship, more as the book did (a bigger temptation for him). Perhaps tried to connect the seven swords, during the course of the story, with the traditional seven deadly sins (to be fought down) and the corresponding virtues. Made "Aslan," rather than "Narnia," the climax of Caspian's speech, and asked Carrie Underwood in the closing song to sing not just that there's a place for you, true and important though that is, but that Aslan has made it.

Read the book too, but go see the movie.