The new ‘Chronicles of Narnia’ film misses the mark by Brett Martin

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The new ‘Chronicles of Narnia’ film misses the mark

by Brett Martin | 2, Add your Comment | Dec 11, 2010

This fantasy adventure, in 3-D, has the kids going on a journey to help King Caspian save the seven lost Lords of Narnia. If, at this point, you have no idea what I am talking about, you may just want to see the movie for the action and special effects. In fact everyone should go and see this movie for visuals… and nothing more. The acting is stiff… and quite frankly it’s too long. Sure the animation is cool… and the battles are grand between good and evil, but when you don’t really care about the characters… its makes for a below average movie. The film is pretty much like the books by Lewis, along with the on-the-mark Christian allusions.

Fans of the series will most likely enjoy it, but as a stand alone film… I don’t think so. “The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe” made in 2005, was pretty good. “Prince Caspian”, part 2 in the series made in 2008, was just OK, and didn’t do so well at the box office. Now this one…”The Voyage of the Dawn Treader”, doesn’t work at all. See my review to find out why…

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Brett Martin

Brett is a 20 years veteranof broadcast tv news as an anchor, reporter, producer, and photographer. He now has a new company, Brett Martin Productions, that expands into the online world . He makes high end commercials for real estate clients and continues to be a film critic and a member of the BFCA, broadcast film critics association.

Brett has met and interviewed just about every A-list star in Hollywood. If you have any questions or ideas...please contact Brett.

flickmeup@gmail.com

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Gita

Brett, I have to disagree. This third episode in the trilogy (C.S. Lewis wrote seven tales) had some delightful acting along with the pretty visuals we’ve come to expect when we enter Narnia. There was plenty of humor as well, mainly between the ship’s rat, Reepicheep, and obnoxiously smarmy cousin Eustace.
I think we need to remember that Britain was still pulling out from under the terrible dark time of WWII when the books were published, and that many children in England had lost fathers in the war. They wanted a place to escape to, which Lewis provided. The Dawntreader story at this point in the trilogy, dealing as it does with naval battles, must have been very satisfying to those children. The gorgeous boat, its hardworking crew and its difficult mission to sail to dangerous unknown islands was well portrayed in the movie.
Perfect “stand-alone” is hard for screenwriters to give audiences when the movie is part of a series. Several of the Star Wars episodes and Harry Potter episodes also failed as stand-alones. Luckily there’s an easy fix for that. Netflix or the corner video store have the first two Narnias in stock.
http://leslieevanscreative.com Lee Leslie

I suppose many children and some fortunate families have a connection with a special book or series of them. For ours, it was the “Chronicles of Narnia.” The last time I read it with one of my children was 1988, when she was five. We began each night with, “so, where were we when we stopped last night” and she had listened so intently that she could quote the last line I had read the night before as the place to start. By the time we started the third book, she was sharing the reading duties. She developed her still insatiable love (her Turkish Delight) for reading in Narnia. Now she’s 27. Months ago she planned for us to watch it on opening night. Misses the mark? Not in our family. By the end of the movie, when Reepicheep gallantly chose to go into Aslan’s Land, tears streamed down her face, just as they had 25 years ago.

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