Monday, December 13, 2010

Dawn Treader - The Thoughts of a Wanna Be Film Critic

On Saturday I went to go see The Voyage of the Dawn Treader. I went expecting to be either blown away, or severely disappointed.

For the first ten/twenty minutes I sat in my seat, wishing I could meet Michael Apted and tell him he had made a mess of the whole thing. Lines were awkward, to obvious, and not in character. Granted, Mr. Apted didn't write the script, but he has the last say, and apparently he didn't say it.

As the story continued however, things slowly began to get better. The whole trip to Narnia definitely helped. By the end of the movie I was left wondering why I didn't have a feeling of complete disgust, or amazement. I was neutral. Horrors.

To tell you the truth, I'm still not totally sure what I think of the movie. I'll probably have to watch it again before I can really truly decide. The things I do know for sure?
  1. Edmund was amazing. In my opinion, his character had the most depth, had the most interesting back story, and was just all around cool.
  2. Will Poulter lived up to all my expectations. When I first saw a picture of his freckled little face after finding out he would be playing Eustace, I knew he would be perfect for the part. I can't imagine it would be easy playing a character who goes from being perfectly dreadful, to rather lovable. He pulled it off.
  3. Caspian. Uh, Caspian. He needed a shave... and a haircut. He's a Prince... he should at least look like one. Although there were other things I could bring up, I'll leave it at that.
  4. Aslan was epic. Every time he came into a scene it was like a big sigh of relief. His obvious parallel to God, although not stressed, was not hidden. Which is more then I expected.
  5. The White Witch. I am personally thrilled that the White Witch has continually come back to tempt Edmund. Because of the one mistake he made two movies ago, Edmund is still living with this struggle, and always will. Such is the consequences of sin.
  6. The Morals. Overcoming temptation being the main one. Thankfully it was worked in well enough it wasn't cheesy either. One of the worst thing in a film is making the morals sound cheesy.
I think overall I would say it's not a bad movie, but it's certainly not the best, and not as good as it could have been.

2 comments:

  1. Hey... okay, first of all, Caspian is not a prince, he's a king. Kings could always use facial hair. Although there are other things I could bring up, I'll leave it at that. ;)

    And yes, you are right. Ben is loving the attention. He's practically a celebrity! He's already asking when he'll get a limousine, and thanks for suggesting the youtube channel, he'll be pestering me forever about that. *sighs and raises eyebrows*

    -your dear Charlie/Sam who is not a film critic

    ReplyDelete
  2. I agree with you on feeling neutral by the end :P Of course, I leaned toward the "not-liking it" than "liking it" but I've only seen it once ;)

    Yes, Edmund rocked. Yes, Eustace rocked. Yes, Caspian need either a shave or MORE facial hair..... :D

    I could be bold enough to call myself a film critic, but I won't, since I didn't actually say anything in this comment that a film critic would have said lol. ;)

    I liked the post! Thanks! (and I'm a follower of yours, now, w00t!)

    ReplyDelete