"I see you're still talking nonsense, the two of you!"The third Narnia movie does achieve its aims of bringing back the 'magic' (to a large extent) as well as a reasonable stab at a focus on C.S. Lewis's core values (faith, belief, family). It is a significant improvement on the previous outing (The Chronicles Of Narnia: Four Kids Standing A Field), and the sea-faring exploits provide a welcome new settings and the capacity for some good, if fleeting, action scenes. The film improves considerably as it goes along, from an alarmingly shaky start to a rip-roaring final half-hour that generates surprising tension and emotion. As in the previous instalments, Skandar Keynes continues to show promise as Edmund, Georgie Henley is frequently unwatchable as Lucy, Ben Barnes is irredeemably wet as Caspian, and newcomer to the franchise Will Poulter gives an effective if one-note performance as horrible cousin Eustace. Michael Apted conjures some rich visuals and the post-conversion 3D is one of the better examples. The problem with this franchise is that full-length movies highlight the thinness of the source novels in terms of narrative and characterisation, and if the soft US opening weekend does spell the end of this troubled cinematic series, Dawn Treader does at least provide a fitting climax to the trilogy so far and as a light fantasy movie provides solid entertainment.
No comments:
Post a Comment