This 3rd edition of Narnia, called as Voyage of the Dawn Treader is a more of voyage or treasure-hunting type and less on the war type as was the previous two installments. With more on the path of "Lord of the Rings" and "Pirates of the Caribbean", this third part is lying. This time the movie is directed by Michael Apted (first two versions were directed by Andrew Adamson). The movie is more on the journey part and there is not much about fighting wars, and this time there is no role for the main two characters of the story - Peter and Susan.
Watching a painting where a ship is floating on a vast sea, led Lucy (Georgie Henley), Edmund (Skandar Keynes) and their cousin Eustace (Will Poulter) in the world of Narnia, and that ship was going on a journey to find seven lost lords of Narnia, captained by Prince Caspian (Ben Barnes). His aim is to locate all those 7 lost lords, and their swords, using which a good energy will generate and will help in overcoming the evil but no journey is without obstacles. They passed many mysterious islands, follows the path of mysterious mist, saw a gold-turning river, have to go on the evil island where mist resides, and at last they all met the Narnian God-alike Aslan (Voice by Liam Nesson).
Yes, the journey is breathtakingly beautiful, which have surprises waiting for the party, be it the invisible creatures, the book of enchantments, the mysterious islands, conquering the island of mist and finding of 7 lords and their swords, and each part is well supported by excellent special effects. You’ll feel like the story should go on and on. But your mind obviously thinks of derivation (however that seems impossible since story is written by the great author C.S.Lewis in 1950). Derivations like - the ship seems taken from ’Pirates of the Caribbean’ where Caspian is following the path of Jack Sparrow. Finding 7 swords and kings looks like finding Horcruxes of Harry Potter series (HP was written late, so it may be inspired to a bit) and that misty evil island looks alike to the evil island of Mordor (Lord of the Rings) but all in all, I certainly felt like going on the journey of the dawn treader. Camera works (Dante Spinotti, who also shot ’The last of the mohicans’) is perfectly fine in such a highly visual effect-affected movie. Background score (David Arnold, Harry Gregson-Williams) perfectly supported the situations. Editing by Rick Shaine made the movie a perfect 2-hr watch (unlike HP7 part 1). Although this story has no scope for major two characters (Peter and Susanne) from earlier movies, but the new character which is introduces here Eustace, played by Will, done his job well. He was the perfect outsider, who learns the values from Narnia, and started believing in it. Rest actors including Georgie, Skander and Ben did their job fine, and in the end Aslan was as powerful as it can be. Liam’s voice did wonders to this Godly creature. The character of Reepicheep, the mouse (voiced by Simon Pegg) was the lovable character of all when he always led the front with so much of valour.
I own this book, but till date I am only able to read the first part (the lion, the witch and the wardrobe) and "the magician’s nephew" and "the horse and his boy" and to a bit "prince caspian" parts. Rest I have yet to read, but this is one big novel, where all the parts are different and not following just one central theme like HP or LOTR. For me, the best novel written out of the three is still LOTR by J.R.R.Tolkien. For this movie, I will say go for it, and lose yourself for the mind-blowing journey to Narnian ends, don’t expect similarity, just go and finish the evils.
GRuchirG.