"Voyage of the Dawn Treader" is either a spirited revival of the film franchise based on the C.S. Lewis children's Narnia novels or an entertaining and emotionally satisfying coda to "The Chronicles of Narnia."
In the care of veteran director Michael Apted, the series' shortcomings and drifting story lines are less pronounced, and we get an idea of how the whole of Lewis' Christian allegory fantasy might have played out, a worthy challenger to the far more popular Harry Potter pictures.
A couple of years after "Prince Caspian," the younger two Pevensie kids - Lucy (Georgie Henley) and Edmund (Skandar Keynes) - are stuck in World War II Britain, riding out the Blitz with their insufferable cousin Eustace (Will Poulter from "Son of Rambow") . But when Lucy notices that a painting in her room seems particularly "Narnian," the seas pour off the frame and wash the three of them into the deep, where they're rescued by Caspian (Ben Barnes) and crew on the good ship Dawn Treader.
There are fresh threats to the kingdom, islands to be visited, slave traders to be fended off and a quest to be completed.
And true to the intent of the Lewis novels, there are lessons to be learned, many of them given by the chivalrous mouse, Reepicheep, voiced with a plummy verve by Simon Pegg.
"We have nothing, if not belief," he lectures Eustace, who thinks they're all "barking mad" over this island-hopping adventure.
The tests are about vanity, ego, faith and courage, and they figure in the sermons of the ghostly God-figure Aslan, the anatomically incorrect lion voiced by Liam Neeson. Sermons they are, but they go down much easier here than in director Michael Adamson's previous Narnia films.
The effects don't overwhelm the film, but the 3-D is pointless, and time and again, the producers' tight-fistedness in spending money on actors shows through.
Grizzled characters, including a Prospero-like wizard, come and go and leave no impression whatsoever. Hiring a few more recognizable actors would have improved this series from the start.
Nevertheless, Apted makes good use of those he has and gives this "Chronicle" an emotional resonance and lightness of touch that were lacking in the films Disney made (Fox has taken over distribution of these Walden Media projects). There are more novels to be filmed, depending on whether this one sinks or swims.
The finale to this one is so satisfying that, revival or fond filmed farewell, the Dawn Treader makes port after a voyage worth taking.
"The Chronicles of Narnia: The Voyage of the Dawn Treader"
Our grade: B
Genres: Adventure, Fantasy, Action
Running Time: 112 min
MPAA rating: PG
Release Date: Dec 10, 2010
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