Movie Review: The Chronicles of Narnia: The Voyage of the Dawn Treader

Warning: May contain spoilers. You've been warned.

(out of four stars)

I'll confess that I went into this movie thinking that it would totally fail as a Narnia film since Disney sold out and gave it to 20th Century Fox, but I was wrong, but that doesn't mean it was great.

I haven't read the book yet so I won't be able to compare the book to the movie.

What I complained about the most with the other two movies was their lack of blood or action violence. Both movies have battle scenes, but I felt that their battles were toned down for the family audiences. I always felt that Disney grabbed the Narnia series because they were looking for their own Harry Potter or Lord of the Rings, which I still believe that, but Disney is also Disney meaning that they'll tone down anything to make it family appropriate. It's called a battle scene, Disney... there will be blood and death and violence.

Anyways, I'm straying... Now that Fox has power over Narnia, they were able to be more flexible with their content. The action scenes were 27 times better, so that was a major plus with me.

I must say I missed Peter (although I hate him) and Susan. I'm glad they made short appearances, but I miss them playing major roles. I was happy to see that Ben Barnes returned as Prince King Caspian and he was a leading role. The cousin was a prick, but sadly I ended up liking him in the end. Typical.

A bad thing is that I felt that the visual effects were done poorly. They weren't up to their usual realistic standard. Aslan and Reepicheep were the only creatures that were up to that standard. Everything else seemed poorly animated including the dragon and the Dawn Treader. This could be because the production budget was $80 million less than Prince Caspian and $40 million less than The Lion, The Witch, and the Wardrobe.

Overall, I enjoyed the movie. I liked and hated certain part's of the 'new direction' Fox is taking. I hope they do continue to make the last of the books into movies. They have a lot of potential, they just need to be made correctly.