Dawn Treader noted

The family had a pleasant day out seeing Voyage of the Dawn Treader yesterday.

To my surprise, my son said afterwards that it was the best of the trilogy, but he’s got a bit of a thing going about ships at the moment. I found it a very mixed bag. My main problem is that, whereas I felt the first two movies were very well directed by former animation director Adam Adamson, there is nothing noteworthy at all about the direction of Michael Apted in VDT. Maybe this should not have mattered, given that it is less of an action/battle story than the first two, but I think it does account for some of the attempts at humour really just falling flat with the audience, and the action scenes that are there are just not as well done as they have were in previous movies. (Honestly, the one-on-one, near climatic, fight between Peter and Miraz in Prince Caspian made a worthy comparison with anything Ridley Scott has done.)

My other major concern for the film is that, based on some internet comments, I saw it in 2D, as the 3D version was only decided to be made in the post production conversion process that many critics claimed was unbearable in Clash of the Titans. To do 3D well, you have to plan for it from the start, and be sure that scenes are not over-edited so as to allow time for the brain to “see” the 3D clearly.

Even though I was watching it in 2D, I felt sure I could see where the problems of the 3 D version would exist, and I think many more critics (once reviews from North America start appearing) are going to be dissing the 3D version. I would not be surprised if that hurts its box office.

On the good side: although it’s been decades since I read the book and I recall little about it, the changes made to the story appeared reasonable to me, and as with the previous movies, are within the spirit of the source material. It was always going to be a challenge to make an episodic storyline into a smooth flowing movie, but they succeeded in that pretty well. The movie does not drag at all. That’s not to say the script is perfect; I’m sure I would have suggested some changes if I were in charge.

And still, I remain a sucker for the emotional power of Aslan whenever he makes and appearance in the films. It’s not that the books were important to me as a child; I only read them as a young adult after I read most of Lewis’ serious books. But the realisation of Aslan in the films, being as it is entirely consistent with the robust view of Christianity that Lewis held, is their best achievement.

Interestingly, at the end of the film yesterday, the audience was surprised when, just as the credits started, an earnest young man down the front stood up and announced loudly that he was there to tell us all that “Aslan is Christ, and He wants each of you to know him…” etc. The volume of the title song then tended to drown him out, but it was the first piece of cinema preaching I had ever encountered. I would have preferred a more subtle form of evangelising (perhaps quietly hand out invitations to church), but I couldn’t condemn his effort anyway.