Today I saw the new Narnia movie, and I think I'll review it.
Before I get into that, let's go over the book, shall we?
Edmund and Lucy, the two youngest Pevensies, are staying with their jerk cousin Eustace. The three get sucked into Narnia, on the ship The Dawn Treader. They find Caspian and Reepicheep and some new guys. They have cool adventures. The whole point of the book is to find these seven Telmarine Lords that went east and never came back. Reepicheep is on the boat so that he can find Aslan's Country, or Narnia Heaven.
The theme of the book is temptation. Lucy and Edmund and Caspian are all tested. Eustace has a different fate: for being greedy, he gets turned into a dragon. Aslan turns him back, and he learns his lesson and stops being an a-hole.
There are some cool islands, like Deathwater Island(the water turns things to gold), Dufflepud Island(inhabited by one-legged dwarves and their wizard master), and Ramandu's Island(Ramandu is a retired star). There's also a pretty cool part where the water is crystal clear and Lucy can see right to the bottom, where there are entire cities of Seafolk. Important for the movie but not so cool: Dark Island, where dreams(but mostly nightmares) come true.
Eustace In the book, Eustace gets turned back almost immediately. This gives him more time to estblish he's not so much of a jerk anymore. In the movie, he takes almost until the end, allowing him to save the day a couple of times. I like it, because he gets to do awesome things.
The Goal Like I said, it's about finding those seven lords and getting to the end of the world. The movie takes great liberties and decides to make Dark Island a big, angry, sentient thig of evil. Eeeeevil! The only way to stop it is to lay the seven swords of the seven lords at Aslan's Table on Ramandu's Island. This is kind of a gip, because in the book Aslan just twitches his almighty whiskers and banishes it. But I guess they needed a reason to run all over the Eastern Ocean and destroy an evil cloud.
The Theme No big complaints here, because the movie is pretty true to this. Edmund and Lucy have more of a character arc to tie in with this, and I'm cool with that.
Islands The islands are switched up. Deathwater and Dragon Island are the same, and Dufflepud Island comes first, where it originally came in the middle. Ramandu is exempt, so what's the point of naming it that if only his daughter shows up? The movie also leaves out the part where the Dufflepuds learn to live with being one-legged, so I feel sorry for the Duffle Bags.
Minor Quips The movie leaves out the Sea People, which was my favorite part. Points deducted. They do leave in another cooler part, where Aslan suggests he's Christ, which is obvious. I didn't think that was going to make it, so point added! In my opinion, more time should have been spent on the journey to the last sea, and in the books, Caspian wants to go and the others talk him out of almost abandoning Narnia. I felt the movie kind of robbed him of his moment.
Overview As always with these films, the changes in story are made up for the AMAZING visuals. The sea monster especially was epic, and quite spooky, especially when it opens up it's chest to reveal a multitude of spikes and appendages. Will Poulter was a great Eustace, and he will be great in the other films, I'm sure. Also...good minotaurs!!! Minotaurs are the best Narnians ever. I love minotaurs, and I WILL blog about them later.
Anyways, other than Ramandu, the Dufflepuds made happy, Caspians moment, and Aslan destroying the fog, the movie was great. I don't like the thing with the swords, but it is necessary for a unified plot. All other plot changes are good or too minor to complain about. I give it a 40/50, and would recommend it(if you have seen it already, see it again!).
