Escape to the Movies: The Chronicles of Narnia: Voyage of the Dawn Treader

[JaredXE]

I kinda do want them to get to The Last Battle simply so they can try to explain to the kids watching the movie why everyone is now dead. Dead as a doornail. But they get to go to Heav.....I mean Alsan's World, so that's nice. Except for Susan.

She goes to hell.

 

[Gigaguy64]

IDK, i thing my favorite chronicle book was the horse and his boy. i thought it was rather well done, like all of them, and I've always wanted to see a movie version of it =)

Agreed.
I really enjoyed that book.
It had a funny but satisfying ending.

 

[lacktheknack]

Sorry, Bob, but I think they're doing it the way BBC did it:

The Lion, The Witch, and The Wardrobe
Prince Caspian
Voyage of the Dawn Treader
The Silver Chair

And that's it. Which is a shame, because I'd like to see them try The Magician's Nephew as well.

 

[walsfeo]

The whole Christian allegory thing is something most folks who care probably knew about before deciding to go see the movie. At least by most folks who care and would understand it.

I know I'm a minority in the world, but The Horse and His Boy is one of my favorites. I don't know why, possibly because it explores another culture.

Also - why can't they film two movies concurrently. Film the Magician's Nephew and the Silver Chair would be perfect for this. IIRC there would be very little casting overlap, and then they would be primed for a double movie release closer to the end of Potter.

 

[Tempest13]

You thought Warrior's Way would be good? You were disappointed when it sucked? I could smell that stinker through fifteen pounds of coffee, ten pounds of mary j, and a tanker full of febreeze.

Your cold must've prevented you from smelling the shittiness.

Well, I liked Ninja Assassin, so I figured maybe The Warrior's Way would have the same cheesy charm with awesome action scenes, but I guess I was wrong.

Anyways I love the books, but the movies never really clicked with me, so I'm not going to see this one (that said, I don't see alot of movies).

 

[Mr. Socky]

I honestly didn't like the movies, despite loving the books, so I'll probably give this one a pass. Of course, I may get a free showing or two given that my sister already went to the midnight showing of it and is already talking about seeing it again.

 

[Cabamacadaf]

I love the books, but I haven't seen any of the movies yet. I guess I should.

 

[Duffeknol]

Normally I don't laugh at reference jokes, but the 'hey give it back' at the elephant part gave me a good chuckle, kudos to you, Bob.

Good review too. It's kinda weird how my newspaper rated this flick with only one star, but then again I value your opinion on movies a lot more.

 

[TaboriHK]

You have a clicky hand on Simon Pegg's mouse screenshot.

 

[luvd1]

Warriors way rubbish? But there's geoffrey rush in it! He's always worth watching even if it's utter rubbish.... Like house on hunted hill. That's entertainingly bad.... Geoffrey being the entertainingly bit.


Oh is there a new lion, witch and wardrobe film out?

 

[Summerstorm]

Hm... better give that elephant back...

I have seen what Tony Jaa does with people trying to take his elephant *g*

Hm... and "Warriors way" isn't good? Too bad, trailer looked ok.

I haven't even watched the first Narnia, totally missed that there was a second one even. Might take a look then.

 

[solidstatemind]

I'm interested to see what's going to happen when they have to deal with Susan no longer being involved.

Anyway, I'm am rather pleasantly surprised to find that Bob's and my opinion align on this one, and I compliment you, Bob, on your job of explaining what Lewis was attempting to do in his storytelling.

I'm also a lapsed Catholic, and while I consider myself to be spiritual still, I think that organized religion is an evil tool created by men to exert power over others, and to manipulate and control societies, rather than being a way to enhance your spirituality.

 

[MetricFurlong]

I fail to see where it having Chrisian elements to it should be an issue at all. I find it kind of ironic that when something similar to this comes along with a focus on non-Christian religion or philsophy,

In the case of the Narnia series it wouldn't really be a problem if it was only elements. Up until the Dawn Treader yeah, elements are all there is but afterwards the series takes a very steep dive into preachy territory (and also, by way of the Silver Chair, generally sucking). It's really quite hard to fully convey the problems in The Last Battle to someone who hasn't read it, and to anyone who has read it their impression of it is going to seriously colour their perceptions of the earlier books as they can now see what all those 'christian elements' were leading to. To describe the implications of that book as being unfortuante is a bit of an understatement, considering they include equating Islam to worshipping Satan and the way Susan is explicitly excluded from 'heaven' for the unforgiveable sin of prefering adult life to childhood.

It's not as obvious as the religious undertones in, say, His Dark Materials.

Actually I'd put them on about a par. In Northern Lights (the first and best book of the trilogy) the religious undertones are pretty subtle, moreso than in pretty much any of the Narnia books save possibly The Horse and His Boy (which takes place before Prince Caspian wasn't turned into a film). As the trilogy progressess however, the preachiness gets turned steadily up to the point that parts of the Amber Spyglass get close to Last Battle levels, albeit from an anti-christian side (still doesn't quite equal Last Battle's unfortunate implications barrage though).
I always viewed this as being sort of tragic, since Pullman (who originally set-out to create an anti-Narnia) ends-up falling into the same pattern that was so damaging to Lewis' works.

 

[MB202]

Oh yeah, I read about the Jesus thing on your blog when you pointed out an article where the lion could represent any religious figure, like Mohammad, Buddha, etc.

I also read the article you had alongside it, which is this ultra right-wing guy misinterpreting what the other guy said saying that the Narnia series "is now about Mohammad as well". Geez.

 

[Escapefromwhatever]

I'm really not looking forward to this, even though I'm definitely going to see it. I absolutely adored both of the previous Narnia films, but this looks much less like what I think of when I hear Narnia. Oh, also, crap CGI. And conversion 3D. All of this sums up as "The Chronicles of Narnia: The Voyage to the Uncanny Valley" for me.

 

[Shippy]

it will be strange to see this

it's going to have to be quite a deviation from the book... not that that's a bad thing as such

the island of the monopods will probably be surreal... although maybe not as hilarious as the bbc version

 

[Sovvolf]

I'd give that elephant back Bob... Tony Jaa doesn't fuck around when it comes to his shit.

Personally, I've only ever read The Magicians Nephew and didn't even know it was part of TLTWATW until it got to the very end of the book. I enjoyed it although, wouldn't The Magicians Nephew be more of a prequel than a sequel?

Not really got into much of the series... Guess its just not my thing, enjoyed Magicians Nephew but not really bothered about the rest.

 

[McMarbles]

Wait. They cut the line that was in EVERY BIT OF PROMOTION for the movie?

Why would they do that? Why would they be THAT STUPID?

 

[PunkRex]

Well thats good as I enjoyed the first two films.

As for Warriors Way, I actually thought it was alright BUT it could have been so much better. Shaky has never worked outside of Cloverfeild for me and luckily they only do it for a minute about twice and its sooooooooo bad you cannot see a thing. Compare this to the scene when the other ninjas first show up in the western town where The Warrior or whatever his name was and he walks down the street just slapping bitchs like WOOOOOOPAH!!!... yeah I wished the rest of the film had been like that.

Oh yeah, I woundered what happened to that line.