Film Review: THE CHRONICLES OF NARNIA: THE VOYAGE OF THE DAWN TREADER (2010)

Director: Michael Apted
Writer (Novel): C.S. Lewis
Writers (Screenplay): Christopher Markus, Stephen McFeely & Michael Petroni
Running time: 108 mins (approx)
Certification (UK): PG

Genre: Adventure/Fantasy/Family
UK Release date: 9^th December 2010

Watched at the cinema Saturday 24^th December 2011.

PLEASE NOTE: THERE MAY BE SPOILERS IN THIS REVIEW.

Having seen all of the ‘Narnia films so far I thought it would be a shame to miss the opportunity to see the third offering when it came up on TV recently. Although maybe not as strong as the previous two, I still enjoyed this one. I did suffer (I thought) from its certification though… all of the fight scenes are toned down quite a bit. Having said that, it’s still very well made with a pretty strong storyline to back it up. More of my thoughts after this brief summary.

Having been drawn back to Narnia, Lucy and Edmund Pevensie are joined this time by their cousin Eustace Scrubb. He is peevish, annoying and altogether a bit obnoxious, to say the least! They land at sea and are dragged from it by Prince (now King) Caspian and the crew of the Dawn Treader. The ship is on a mission to find the seven noble men, allies of Caspian’s father, who escaped to the Lost Isles. When they arrive, after a bit of a hiccup involving some slavers, they discover that six of them had set sail to find the source of an evil that has plagued the isles. Many citizens had been sacrificed to a mysterious fog that makes them disappear. The ship sets sail on an adventure that will test all of them to their limits. I really don’t want to say any more or the Spoiler police will have me keel-hauled (again).

Very well made with some excellent CGI, this film is great to look at and it really should have achieved more praise for that (IMO). As far as performances go, well I have to agree with the critics, the stand-out performance came from the young Will Poulter as Eustace Clarence Scrubb. He fully deserved the nominations and praise he’s received for this performance. The others involved also did a good job, so honourable mentions must go to; Georgie Henley as Lucy Pevensie, Skandar Keynes as Edmund Pevensie, Ben Barnes as Caspian, Gary Sweet as Drinian and the voice talents of; Simon Pegg as Reepicheep and Liam Neeson as Aslan.

Now, I have to admit that, of the Narnia stories, I have only ever read ‘The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe’ when I was young. This means that I can only judge each subsequent film adaptation on the film alone. I’m pleased to say that I quite enjoyed this one, with a few misgivings. The highlight being the relationship between the characters of Eustace and Reepicheep, that really stole the dhow (for me). Over all, although not quite as good as the first two, I did find it very entertaining and I’d deem it worth a look… Recommended.

My score: 7.2/10.

IMDb Score: 6.4/10 (based on 29,950 votes at the time of going to press).
http://uk.imdb.com/title/tt0980970/

Rotten Tomatoes ‘Tomatometer’ Score: 49/100 (based on 155 reviews counted at the time of going to press).
Rotten Tomatoes ‘Audience’ Score: 63/100 (based on 144,284 user ratings counted at the time of going to press).
http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/chronicles_of_narnia_the_voyage_of_the_dawn_treader/

If you’re crazy enough… You can find me on Facebook at:
http://facebook.com/andy.steel3

FAVOURITE QUOTES:
[first lines]
Intake Officer: Are you sure you're eighteen?
Edmund Pevensie: Why? Do I look older?

Edmund Pevensie: Lucy, have you seen this ship before?
Lucy Pevensie: It's very Narnian looking, isn't it?

Reepicheep: Unhand the tail. Aslan the Great gave me this tail and no one, repeat, no one, touches the tail. Period, exclamation mark!

[last lines]
Eustace Clarence Scrubb: We spoken often of Narnia in the days that followed. When my cousins left after the war ended, I missed them with all my heart, as I know all Narnians will miss them 'til the end of time.

LINKS:
Official Site: http://www.narnia.com/games/
Trailer:

Film Review: THE CHRONICLES OF NARNIA: PRINCE CASPIAN (2008)

NOTE: This is a revised review I originally published in 2009, having recently seen the film again, I thought it warranted a bit of a re-write.

Director: Andrew Adamson
Running time: 150 mins (approx)
Certification (UK): PG

UK release date: 26th June 2008

Watched on TV Friday 24th December 2010.

PLEASE NOTE: THERE MAY BE SPOILERS IN THIS REVIEW.

Although I have not read the Narnia books, apart from ‘The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe’ (misplaced childhood I suppose), I quite enjoyed this film. A great adventure with superb special effects, locations, costumes and musical score. But I digress, here’s a short summary before I tell you what I really think (summary haters please wait on the platform while I write the next paragraph).

The Pevensie children, Peter, Susan, Edmund, and Lucy return to Narnia when called by Prince Caspian. Many hundreds of years have passed since they left. The Prince has escaped after his uncle tried to kill him and claim his throne. The ancient Kings and Queens are needed to rally all the creatures of Narnia against Miraz, Caspian’s evil uncle and the Telmarine, Prince Caspian’s people. They also seek the help of Aslan who seems to have forsaken the creatures of Narnia. It’s quite a long and complicated plot, but a very well made film.

Some great locations were used, mainly in the Czech Republic, New Zealand and Poland and the score, I found, was just right. There was a lot of use of CGI, essential to tell this story, which was all done to a very high standard. Great performances again from Georgie Henley as Lucy, Skandar Keynes as Edmund, William Moseley as Peter and Anna Popplewell as Susan, all reprising their roles from The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe (2005). Also, Ben Barnes was excellent as Prince Caspian. Honourable mentions go to Sergio Castellitto as King Miraz, Peter Dinklage as Trumpkin and Eddie Izzard as Reepicheep (voice), the comic relief.

Over all, a tremendous fantasy adventure and great family entertainment with a really good story. Fantastic locations, a great score, some great battle scenes, a very well produced and directed film, although I felt it wasn’t as good as its forerunner, The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe (2005) and did get a little bogged down in the middle, but still… recommended.

My score: 7.4/10

LINKS:
IMDb Page: http://uk.imdb.com/title/tt0499448/
Trailer: http://uk.imdb.com/rg/VIDEO_PLAY/LINK/video/imdb/vi1793261849/

Film Review: DORIAN GRAY (2009)

Director: Oliver Parker
Running time: 112 mins (approx)
Certification (UK): 15

Watched at the cinema Saturday 12th September 2009.

PLEASE NOTE: THERE MAY BE SPOILERS IN THIS REVIEW.

This is not the kind of film I’d usually go to the cinema to watch; despite this I quite enjoyed it. It was quite a straight forward story which benefited from some great performances, good direction and some really good production. Filmed in England, I thought the locations helped the story, although I found it slightly lacking in a couple of areas which I’ll expand on later. For now, here’s a summary of the plot.

Based on a story by Oscar Wilde, this film tells of a young man whose soul is captured in a painting after selling it to the devil for eternal youth and beauty. As a result he discovers that whatever he does in life, he cannot be injured or show any sign of ageing. Instead, the painting decays and rots with every foul deed he commits. He is lead down a path of depravity by Lord Henry Wotton, an acquaintance of his grandfather who had recently died and left him a fortune. As time passes and everybody ages except Dorian, people become suspicious that he is more than he appears to be.

As I said at the beginning, I found the film lacked in a couple of areas. Firstly, I don’t think we knew enough about the main character, yes, we are told that he was beaten by his grandfather, but apart from that we know very little about his background. Secondly, I felt that with it having a 15 Certificate, it very much limited the depth of depravity the main character lowered himself to. With an 18 Certificate, there could have been a little more ‘edge’ to it. A decent performance from Ben Barnes as Dorian Gray but I have to say I most enjoyed the performance of Colin Firth as Lord Henry Wotton. Honourable mentions go to Rachel Hurd-Wood as Sybil Vane, Rebecca Hall as Emily Wotton, Emilia Fox as Lady Victoria Wotton and Ben Chaplin as Basil Hallward. Over all, a decent enough film that could have been better.

My score: 6.5/10

LINKS:
IMDb Site: http://uk.imdb.com/title/tt1235124/