Narnia: The Voyage Of The Dawn Treader

Initial Thoughts

            Now, this movie is the latest in the Narnia franchise, and honestly by far the most fascinating. although the previous films have been amazingly detailed as well, this movie does one thing that the other movies do not, they cut out most of the physical combat. one of the major plot points of narnia is the epic combat, and although they do have a final battle, its not with another army, and some would say its not even with a real physical enemy.

            Could this movie possibly surpass the fascinating and awesome films that came before it? lets find out, as we sail aboard the Dawn Treader!

Story/Plot 25 out of 25

            This storyline is much, much different from the previous movies, one major reason for this is the change of setting. Because the film takes place on water, many of the characters from the previous film, Prince Caspian, are not in this movie, except of course Caspian himself.

            Another interesting point is that many new characters introduced, are only in the film for one short scene, and are then gone. However the advice they give to the main protagonists, is almost essential to their journey. this adds some wonderful plot devices, yet still keeps the 4 main characters the main focus.

            And finally, because of the change in villain (I will cover this later) it goes into each main characters mind, like we have never seen before. although we have already learned much about many of the characters, some of those underlying personality traits, are really boiled up to the surface, which makes for very interesting scenarios. and because we have seen many of them already, the audience becomes very curious of how they will handle these new situations thrown at them by our new villain.

            Fantastic storyline, with almost all new plot devices, compared to the previous movies. Very compelling, very heart wrenching, very well done.

Characters 25 out of 25

            One of the new characters in this film is the infamous Eustace easily the most irritating character in entire franchise. He is especially annoying because even after he has been in narnia for a while, he still insists that he see the "British Council." What makes this frustrating? well we have seen the world before, and just his overall cluelessness will be annoying to most viewers. (Spoilers) Reepacheep helps teach Eustace a lesson, throughout his time being a dragon (which occurs due to a spell) which gives Reepacheep much more respect, to deal with the guy who no one else wants to deal with. this is an interesting difference from his original way of life, he was more of a run and gun type of mouse in the last movie.

            Prince Caspian has not changed a ton since his last appearance. He is still helping everyone he can, interacting and fool around with his crew. But one thing that we do get to see, is just how much the death of his father effected him, sure we naturally assumed it hurt him in the previous movie, but here, its made clear that his fathers death is the only thing that has been on his mind since he was informed of his murder.

            Lucy seems like a much stronger character in this movie, it was quite a dramatic change from the way she was in the 1st and 2nd film, more curious and careless. however in this film, she takes care of herself, during the few battle scenes in the movie we see her killing a few soldiers, and fighting with everything she has. and its also made clear that she can take care of her own when it comes to dealing with some people on board the Dawn Treader. But another interesting discovery we learn about Lucy is that she envy's Susan's looks, even though its not really mentioned in the previous films. This is what she is tempted with during her section of the movie. with such an emotionally/physically strong character, its quite interesting to watch her envy others, when clearly she has a lot going for her.

            Edmund, hasn't really changed either, it seems like he hasn't done a lot since his encounter with the white witch in the first film. And we do also see what his greatest weakness is (which we sort of already knew) and that is pride fullness, ever since his very first scene, he has always been selfish, and prideful, even when he was helping others, there was always that one line, or facial expression that showed his real motives and feelings (And shows once again the great acting skills of the actors). And he real shows those feelings here, and since Peter isn't here he takes all of his anger out on King Caspian. resulting in one short but heart stopping duel.

            Amazing characters taking place in an amazing storyline.

Battle Scene/Soundtrack 25 out of 25

            I said that the soundtrack was new in the last film, but man, when I heard the new soundtrack, it was like a complete overhaul! they really went out of their way to make these scores much different than the previous films, this really makes it stand out from the other movies, by giving the movie its own unique musical style.

            Even though their wasn't a ton of battle scenes in Dawn Treader (maybe one or two full fledged battles). The scenes they do have, they get really right, with brand new SGI effects, that look absolutely beautiful, tons of camera angles and interesting ways of finishing off different opponents. And probably one the most epic villain death scenes of all time! The final battle, instead of being fought against an army, is fought against one opponent, which makes it seem all that more intimidating, and powerful.

The Villain 25 out of 25

            The Villain is so much more mysterious than the previous antagonists, which makes it seem even more powerful than the other narnian villains. even though Miraz was a powerful man, and was by far one epic villain. You still know where he is and he can be killed be the everyday sword. the new antagonist not only cannot be killed by a sword, you can only see it when it wants to be seen, and it can every form, can bend the laws of physics, and all it wants to do is destroy everything in the world that's good and lovely. if that's not scary as crap, I don't know what is.

            Most of the time, it is referred to as simply "The Mist" which is just what it sounds like, its a mist that can go anywhere be seen or unseen, change the laws of physics, do fancy spells, and take any form.

            What the mist try's to do, is to tempt our main protagonists in to either turning around, or just making there lives miserable, or sometimes it physically try's to hurt them. One thing that makes it so mysterious (besides what I have already listed) is that its never really explained what it is or where it came from, all that's said is that its pure evil, no background, no who invented it, nothing.

            because of all this, it makes our protagonists seem like an ant in comparison to the mist, because the mist adds a type of warfare that none of the characters have experienced very much, physiological warfare.

  Final Verdict

100/100

 Hall Of Fame

Every single problem that was experienced in the previous films where fixed, I really tried hard to find one legitimate problem with this movie and I couldn't. everything has done perfectly! with brand new settings, plot devices, characters, and much better character development! Go see it right now!! If you don't, you will be missing out on a great history making recent film!