Apted’s surer hand makes this possibly the best entry in the series – it’s obvious from the opening shot that a better director is involved.

The movie is plagued by its usual problems with the source material – nobody is ever at risk – but things move so much more swiftly – this one is under 2 hours!!! – and some of the annoying things from the second movie – such as the bizarre accents – are missing.

The problem for me, this time around, is the choice to go Pirate. As usual, I cannot know whether or not that was in the source material, but it’s supposedly been 3 years in Narnia time, and yet everyone has drastically changed dress – minus the non-existence of gun powder, it’s as if the story has moved to the Age of Exploration, i.e. the age of pirates. And that doesn’t fly with me.

I guess I have to hand it to Lewis to keep mining different areas of human history and mythology for new adventures, but the problem is that the mythology of his world changes with every story. What Harry Potter and Game of Thrones have clearly spoiled for me are self-contained worlds where the background mythology gets deeper but never (or rarely) contradicts itself, which really doesn’t feel that way in this series. It’s pretty hard to imagine how the world of the Dawn Treader could really be the world of The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe.

Oh, and the Catholic thing is the least subtle in this film. Thanks, C.S.

5/10

• Directed by Michael Apted
• Produced by Mark Johnson, Andrew Adamson, Philip Steuer
• Screenplay by Christopher Markus, Stephen McFeely, Michael Petroni
• Based on The Voyage of the Dawn Treader by C. S. Lewis
• Starring
  • Skandar Keynes as Edmund Pevensie
  • Georgie Henley as Lucy Pevensie
  • Will Poulter as Eustace Scrubb
    
  • Ben Barnes as King Caspian
    
  • Simon Pegg as Reepicheep (voice)
  • Gary Sweet as Lord Drinian
    
  • Shane Rangi as Tavros
  • Morgan Evans as Randy
  • Steven Rooke as Nausus
  • Tony Nixon as 1st Mate (Rynelf)
  • Liam Neeson as Aslan (voice)
  • Tilda Swinton as White Witch
  • Laura Brent as Lilliandil
  • Bille Brown as Coriakin
  • Terry Norris as Lord Bern
  • Bruce Spence as Lord Rhoop
  • Arabella Morton as Gael
  • Nathaniel Parker as Caspian IX and the Green Mist in his form
  • David Vallon as Governor Gumpas
  • Michael Foster as Gumpas’s money collector
  • Roy Billing as Chief Dufflepud
  • William Moseley as Peter Pevensie
  • Anna Popplewell as Susan Pevensie
  • Douglas Gresham as a slave buyer
  • Colin Moody as Pug
• Music by David Arnold
• Cinematography by Dante Spinotti
• Edited by Rick Shaine
• Production company: Walden Media
• Distributed by 20th Century Fox
• Release date: November 30, 2010
  
• Running time: 115 minutes
• Country: United States
• Language: English
• Budget: $155 million
• Box office: $415.7 million