Film Review: "The Voyage of the Dawn Treader"

In "A Bite of Applesauce", Connie is left in charge of Whit's End. After being informed that the train-set is experiencing technical difficulties, she heads upstairs to Whit's secret computer room to fix the problem. Knowing she isn't suppose to be using the new Applesauce program or even know of its existence, she looks for a way inside the hidden room.

"First I have to get bookcase out of the way..." she says to herself.

She remembers that Eugene moved one of the books before being able to enter the room. But which book was it?

"Dawn Treader, Magican's Nephew..."

She spots "The Last Battle". Bingo.

After removing it from the shelf, the bookcase opens up, and the unexpected happened...

Forgive me if any of you visited my blog today in search for the latest review of Adventures in Odyssey's "The Malted Milkball Falcon". Although this season is nearly at an end, it's time to take a short break, and focus on a series of books I love that have no doubt inspired the creations of the Imagination Station, McCusker's Passages series, or even in that little bit of dialogue in a "Bite of Applesauce": "The Chronicles of Narnia". Are those small connections to the world of Narnia enough to justify posting a review of "Voyage of the Dawn Treader" on an Adventures in Odyssey blog? Probably not. But I will anyway.

The beautiful "Dawn Treader"

If you haven't yet seen the latest film version of "The Voyage of the Dawn Treader" because you're bitter about how the last two turned out, or because you've heard negative reviews about this one then read on. I am a habitual visitor of rottentomatoes.com and have realized that one must carefully discern when "fresh" or "rotten" reviews should be paid any attention to. While this latest film is getting hammered by the critics, realize that most them, intelligent as they may be, know nothing of Narnia. Only a few truly understand this series, and they are the few whose opinions should be listened to. Lewis scholar Devin Brown is one of them:

"The Voyage of the Dawn Treader very much. It is exceedingly moving at times and also at times very funny. It has kept all that was essential to Lewis’s original while still opening up the story to be adapted to a different medium. I am convinced that Lewis fans—young and old, new and longtime—are going to like it very much as well. As one of the countless readers who have been comforted, inspired, and challenged by Lewis over the years, I would like to offer my congratulations and my thanks."

After I went to see the movie, I became interested in finding out what everyone has else had to say. I found that, after watching the film, negative reviews were never 100% wrong; each had a nugget of truth. However, I eventually discovered that many reviewers were either 1) generalizing the film too much, or had 2) entered the film with flawed expectations.

First, what do I mean by generalizing too much? Well, some have commented on how the film was poorly edited, featured lame action sequences, or had poor performances. The thing is, in my personal opinion, the film had all of those but not necessarily throughout the "the entire film". Since the movie is somewhat episodic, there were some scenes which would make me think "Wow, that was nicely done" while others "Wow, that was terrible". I wondered whether the film had been using a different director every 20 minutes. While the adventure at the Lone Islands features poorly edited action sequences, the final battle against the serpent is beautiful crafted; while the performances and dialogue at Deathwater Island are cringe-worthy, quite the opposite could be said of the performances at the end of the film; while the "green mist" effects look cheesy and fake, Reepicheep looks very life-like and natural; and while the on-screen relationship between Caspian and Edmund felt loosely tacked onto the script, the relationship between Eustace and Reepicheep is very well developed. Essentially, for each time I disliked something about this film, there was a different moment I found absolutely perfect. Did anyone else feel this way?

Eustace and Reepicheep are the film's best characters

Many are even criticizing the film without understanding the original source material. Surprisingly, some are calling it a weak film because it felt too "episodic" and "lacked urgency". Anyone who knows the book will know that this is exactly what narnia fans expect when entering the movie theater. So why is it being so harshly criticized when it chooses to faithfully follow a famous book? So we must think: is this film being criticized in comparison to the original source material? Or, had the critic had the wrong expectations beforehand and are now criticizing it with the expectations that it was supposed to be "action adventure film", as "Prince Caspian wanted to be, and not the magical, whimsical, and thought provoking journey it was meant to be.

Enough about the critics though. Did this film succeed in being the "magical, whimsical...etc...etc."? Well, yes and no. For one thing, I'm surprised how these filmmakers managed to make so many changes to the original story and yet still managed to capture the spirit of its novel more than the first two did. One of the ways this was achieved was by distancing itself from the darker epic-sounding soundtrack composed by Harry Gregson Williams. The score of "The Dawn Treader", composed by David Arnold, is light, magical, and haunting--for the book was often all of these things.

It was as if the creators of "Dawn Treader" were approaching the film-making process totally differently from "The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe" and "Prince Caspian". The first two films built onto the main story by making it feel bigger, louder, and more extravagant; both novels, however, when reading them, don't exactly call for huge epic battles or have much of a sense of urgency. In fact, there are plenty of times when the books take their sweet time describing the majesty of Aslan, animals having tea-parties, and Lucy and Susan in the fellowship of Bacchus; however, these lovely moments were largely ignored in the films.

In comparison, it felt like the makers of "Dawn Treader" decided to come up with their own storyline (something to do with the "green smoke of temptation"); they were less interested in merely expanding and building onto the original story, but instead tried to fit Lewis' book into their own concoction. And because of this, it seemed like they were all the more required or forced to at least try to capture the feeling of the novel within their own changes. In other words, the old films built away from the original stories, while "Dawn Treader" built towards its original source material.

This is also, surprisingly, the most explicitly Christian film of the three. No it isn't perfect. For a more detailed analysis, check out the short essay by Steven D. Greydanus. Personally, my only complaint was that there are a lot of somewhat of contemporary Disneyesque themes, promoting the "you are special" message of individualism and self-realization--the clichéd  "Don't run from who you are" message every child is brainwashed with since birth nowadays. Regardless, the allusions to Christ should please many churchgoers and are blatantly obvious to anyone who isn't one. After watching the movie, I decided to listen to a weekly podcast dedicated to reviewing the latest movies. I don't feel comfortable enough giving the name of the website, since some of their podcasts use some pretty strong language. However, here is what one of its reviewers (presumably an unbeliever) had to say about the religious aspect of these films:

"...Here's some of my complaints that I've had. Now, one--I guess I can't complain too much, maybe in this movie it was obvious and maybe this was from the books. They pretty much--and I don't know--people, tell me if I'm wrong here, if I have here...I THINK that this is an allegory for Christianity, and I THINK Aslan is supposed to represent Jesus. [...] I'm not complaining about that. [...] I just don't know if it's from the books. Maybe complaint is the wrong word. Because. And I think, in this movie, I think this is the movie where Aslan comes down and says "Yeah. I'm Jesus".

Here is another review taken from Movies.com

"I've been taken to task lately by cool people for liking Aslan so much. But I do. I like it when he shows up. I like it when the movie comes to a thudding halt as he Liam Neeson-voices his moralistic wisdom. I like that he's supposed to be Jesus. Because when else do you get the nice gentle Jesus in movies? He's either being brutalized by Mel Gibson or ironically [made fun of]." (Dave White).

"Dawn Treader" made a lot of changes but
the spiritual themes, and Aslan, are still around. 

For one thing, comments such as these make me realize how the first two films tried too hard to please Christians but offend no one. Were Christians duped into believing this movie was for them? After all, many Christians, almost instinctively, keep a lookout for Christian messages in entertainment. In fact, it is the fault of Christian audiences for making "I am Legend" also known as "that Christian zombie-movie"; meanwhile, everyone else probably wouldn't have thought about its use of Christian symbolism. In the same way, those who aren't actively looking for these themes or aren't familiar with either the gospels or Lewis himself, don't automatically take note of every allusion to Christ. Considering how often secular entertainment uses themes of sacrifice, why should the average moviegoer have any reason to believe "The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe" refers to the death of Christ? For that matter, why should anyone get anything out of Aslan's words "it is finished" after he kills the White Witch? Again, probably only someone who has at least some sort of rudimentary knowledge of the gospels. This isn't everyone.

No hope for "The Silver Chair"?

Most of you will know by now that "The Silver Chair" probably won't be made into a film anytime soon--when taking into consideration the most recent U.S box office numbers. But whose fault is that? Despite focusing more on the novel's Christian themes and capturing the feel of the novel, I wish the screenwriters had a little more faith in the original storyline itself.  Is the approx $25 000 000 that "Dawn Treader" made its opening weekend (a low number compared to its predecessors) the result of not catering to enough non-Narnian fans, or is it the result of not following the book closely enough? The downfall of this franchise has been its attempt to appeal to Christian groups while at the same time trying to please every other moviegoer out there. It's plainly obvious that these movies can't please everyone. The producers don't have enough confidence in the original stories; they refuse to believe they can be good enough films on their own. In this one specifically, I suppose my biggest disappointed is that the screenwriters felt the need to connect the happenings on each island to a larger overarching story. As a result, Narnia purists are turned off from its drastic plot changes, while teens and tweens can't find this fifty-year old book series in vogue. I've come to the realization that Narnia is the impossible series to sell to the average american moviegoer. This series needed more vampires, more gushy teen romances, more eye-candy, a darker script, less vibrant colors, hipper catchphrases, more deaths, and darker central characters with turmoiled pasts, in order to interest more of today's moviegoers. After all, what so interesting about the brave, moralistic, and honorable heroes anymore? That's so passé...

Lucy, played by Georgie Henley,
opening the "Book of Incantations"

But what "The Voyage of the Dawn Treader" managed to do right, more so than the first two films, was to forget that this series should try to attract to the adolescent Twilight fan who just wants to see Caspian and Susan kiss, or the Lord of the Rings fan looking for that 20 minute fight scene, or the Harry Potter fan who needed their fantasy fix until that next film comes out. To me, despite large changes, "Dawn Treader" was trying less to imitate other franchises, but had come a little bit closer to expressing the spirit of the novels. It somehow felt a little more honest. I like how pluggedinonline put it:

"Before this film, I think the cinematic Narnia series was a little like Lucy, looking enviously at big-sister Susan. Maybe it was trying too hard to be the next Lord of the Rings or aspire to Harry Potter-level success. It worked so hard to be literary and spectacular that, just maybe, it forgot what the Narnia books were at their core: children's stories. Meaningful stories, yes. Good stories, absolutely, filled with allegorical heft and layers of meaning … but at their core, they're meant to be fun."

We want to dwell on the silliness of the Dufflepuds, we want to hear every single thought from Eustace when he transforms into a dragon, and we want to think how horrifying it would be to mistakenly come into contact with the pool at death water. Does the movie do this? Only sometimes. Alas, the filmmakers don't have enough faith in the novel's episodic moments to entertain and instead rush through them. They, sadly, misjudged this franchise's core audience.

It seems to me that if Peter Weir was able to turn his seafaring adventure "Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World" into an Academy Award Nominated Best Picture film by not worrying about "the right audience" then Apted should have been able to make "Dawn Treader" into a more critically acclaimed film. Anyone who has seen "Master and Commander" knows that the MacGufin (to catch up to and capture a French war vessel) wasn't what the audience was most invested in. Rather, we were sucked into the film by the unbelievably witty dialogue and great characters. In other words, we cared about the journey, no matter how trivial it was, because we cared so much about the lives of those aboard the ship. Why couldn't this movie been like that? Apted somewhat underestimates the power of Lewis' characters and stories. Apted believes that by adding a more concrete purpose, like the "green mist" plot, we'd be more invested in what was happening. But we aren't. We love this novel not for "the whole" but for "the sum of its parts". The movie could have been immensely more powerful if they had let us dwell a little longer on so-called "pointless" island visits. As it is, we are left wanting more each time.

The following is a quote from (ready for this?) Mark Zuckerberg when asked about the film "The Social Network":

"The thing that I find most thematically interesting that they go wrong is...the whole framing of the movie, the way that it starts is, I'm with this girl, who doesn't exist in real life, who dumps me [...] and basically they frame it as if the whole reason for making Facebook and building something was because I wanted to get girls, or wanted to get into some kind of social institution [...] but I think it's such a big disconnect [...] [filmmakers] just can't wrap their head around the idea that someone might build something because they like building things"

Maybe Zuckerberg's comments could apply to a film like "Dawn Treader". These screenwriters felt the need to flesh out each character's back-story, giving us a better idea of what was motivating them. I don't quite remember the novel putting such a ton of emphasis on the fact that Caspian's desire to be a brave leader was motivated by feeling like a second-rate King to his father, or that the reason why Edmund was so easily tempted at Deathwater island was because he felt like a second-rate individual in his own world, or that Lucy's envy for her sister's beauty at Coriarkin's island was because she had some self-esteem problems, or that their entire mission had to be motivated by destroying a greater evil in order to make the rescue of Miraz's seven lord worthwhile. In movies, can't things just happen because "we wanted to" or "we felt like it"? Why couldn't they rescue the seven lords simply because they were missing? Why couldn't they reach the world's end just to reach the world's end? Apparently, according to these writers, things can't just happen unless there is a clear underlying reason or motivation. To make use of Zuckerberg's line: the writers just can't wrap their heads around the idea that the crew of the dawn treader might be on this adventure for the sake of "adventure".

I give "Dawn Treader" ★ ★ ★ ½ 

Despite all of the issues I had with it, I liked this movie. If you haven't already, see this in theaters. This weekend. If you don't, not only will you be missing out on a movie worth seeing, but you'll be preventing family-friendly movies, with uplifting messages from being made in the future; we can all agree that that in itself is an important enough reason to see "Dawn Treader". It is one of the reasons why I hope they continue with this series--to not only to keep entertaining people, but to give all audiences a better view of Christ, of His followers, and to remind His followers why and how we should follow Him.

Get the entire Narnia series dramatized on CD for $20 here. Be sure to check back in the days ahead for more updates.