BEFORE: Another film with kids entering a fantasy realm and becoming "royalty". The Narnia books were to my generation (well, to me at least) sort of like the Harry Potter books were to the next wave of kids.
Linking from "Where the Wild Things Are", Chris Cooper was in "Adaptation" with Tilda Swinton (last seen in "Michael Clayton". I got lucky with that one.
THE PLOT: Lucy and Edmund Pevensie return to Narnia with their cousin Eustace where they meet up with Prince Caspian for a trip across the sea aboard the royal ship The Dawn Treader.
AFTER: I was so into these books when I was a kid, reading them over and over. So, why don't I like the movies more? It can't be that the movies don't live up to my imagination, or they aren't being faithful to the books, since I don't remember most of the twists and turns in the plots. I can only assume, therefore, that something in me changed, and the concepts and details just don't appeal to me as much.
Maybe when I was a kid, I had more time for imagining, and thinking of things like fairy tales, and things that aren't real, like magical talking lions, sword-fighting rats, sea serpents and such. At some point I needed to get my head straight and figure out what reality was, since I was going to have to live and work in that world, not one where I could become a prince or a king. It's maybe a little sad, but it's part of growing up. Anyway, fantasy realms may be fun places to visit, but who would really want to live there? A dragon breathes on you one day, and you're toast.
Anyway, back to the film - I suppose it was exciting enough, with a quest across the uncharted waters of Narnia, island-hopping to find 7 magic swords that 7 lost lords took with them, and only by uniting them can our heroes defeat...umm, the green mist or something. I think there might be a problem here with a nebulous villain - it helps to put a face on these things sometimes, but we never really find out who's behind the mist, if anyone, or what it's all about. I'll accept the rules of your fantasy world, provided that you tell me what they are.
From what I hear, this may be the last Narnia film made in this series, and I'm kind of OK with that. It's the last book with these main characters, anyway. I can do without the obvious heavy-handed Christian symbolism, in this film in particular, with Aslan saying he goes by "another name" in the real world. Everyone's thinking Jesus, but what if it's Allah? Or Buddha, or even Satan? I don't want Noah's Ark in a Donald Duck cartoon, and I don't want Christianity (or any religion) in a kids' fantasy film. This has got to be a violation of my constitutional rights somehow.
Starring Georgie Henley, Skandar Keynes, Ben Barnes (all 3 last seen in "The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian"), Will Poulter, and the voices of Liam Neeson (last seen in "Chloe") and Simon Pegg (last seen in "How to Lose Friends and Alienate People").
RATING: 6 out of 10 Dufflepuds
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