It was a weird experience, but not unenjoyable. So they tacked this entire unneeded made-up save-Narnia-from-the-evil-green-mist plot on. But fortunately it didn’t take up TOO much screen time, and an awful lot of the scenes I’ve been picturing for so long (Reepicheep in his coracle, the painting coming alive at the beginning, Eustace being a little prat, the dinner table, the dufflepods) were wonderful to behold.
So I enjoyed it, but can’t really fully endorse it.
I don’t know why they felt the need to make so many changes to the books in these movies. They needed to trust the source material more; there are reasons the books are so popular. I think the producers screwed up the series, and unfortunately (or fortunately) this will probably be the last movie they get to make.
Dawn Treader is my favorite of the books, and I’m sure I’ll see the movie sometime this month, but I’m really kind of dreading it, fearful that I’m going to come away disappointed.
With any of these types of movies, it’s always a better idea (IMHO) to take them as stand alone from the books. It’s one of the reasons I haven’t re-read any of the books since they started making these movies, same with the Harry Potter movies. Haven’t read a one of them.
To me the question is “How well does this movie stand on it’s own for entertainment”? And for this movie the answer to me is “Very Well”. I don’t remember enough about the original story to know what was added, or what was taken away. All I remember was it was on a boat, they were sailing to the edge of the world, and past that was where Aslan lived. I found the movie enjoyable, with enough action mixed in to keep it moving. In all honesty, if they hadn’t had the plot about the green mist thing, I don’t know that it would have held up as a movie.
It’s a bit much for a 5 year old. I’d recommend against taking anyone under 9 to it. There are some pretty intense scenes near the end.
Thank you! I’ll wait for Redbox and preview it for her, then. You’d be surprised how many movies in our house end before the DVD does (or skip scenes, and she never notices.)
How was the ending when the ship is sailing through the flowers just before they get to Aslan country? That’s my favorite part of the book along with the dufflepods but **MaxTheVool **already mentioned it was done well.
My favorite scene is the one where Aslan cures Eustace of being a dragon. Please tell me that scene is faithful to the book. It’s bad enough that (so I hear) they have Dragon-Eustace fighting the Sea Serpent.
You know the scene where Lucy wants to be beautiful and she casts the spell on herself? Is that in the book? I found that scene quite memorable but I don’t remember it from the book.
I was going to ask this. It’s been a long time since I read the Chronicles and I don’t remember much about it. Out of the entire series, it’s probably my favorite part and one that always sticks out in my mind when I think about the books.
If I recall correctly, Lucy sees that spell and is tempted to cast it. But then she has a vision of her self becoming vain and haughty, and Aslan’s disapproving glare. So she skips it and instead casts a spell that allows her to know what her friends think of her. That allows her to hear a friend of hers badmouthing her, which makes her upset. Then Aslan appears and chides her for eavesdropping.
ETA: Does she really cast the Beautiful spell on herself in the movie? See, that’s the kind of unnecessary change that makes me mad.
Skammer, I actually think she dreams that she casts it to look like her sister, but after having a vision (a dream within a dream? Inception!) of a world sans Lucy, she decides she doesn’t want to go through with it, then she has a vision of Aslan in the mirror (another vision within the dream? I’m starting to think I’m remembering this all wrong) and he gives her words of wisdom about loving herself.
It’s in there, but slightly changed. If I remember correctly, in the book Eustace goes down into a bath and begins to try picking his scales off. Aslan appears and picks layers and layers off. It hurts, but it feels good at the same time.
In the movie, Eustace is trying to pick off his skin. Aslan appears and instead of picking them off with his claws, Eustace rises into the sky and the cracks in between his scales light up and he turns back into a boy.
It’s the same basic idea, though. Eustace even talks about how painful it was to the others.
No, not the way they showed it here.
I liked the movie, but want an extended cut that slows things down. I also didn’t like that Eustace was a dragon far longer than in the book. The whole “7 magic swords” thing was also a bit odd.
It was good, though.
No matter how small they make the budget, they should continue to Silver Chair. That’s a great one.
I don’t find it necessary to go that far. I read the books once a year, and I find I forget most of them every year. Like, right now, I forgot about the spell book entirely.
Also, I’m glad that Eustace is a dragon longer. That always seemed a deficiency in the books.
The peaceful part at the end with the flowers was cut a ton, which is a shame, although the part that we do see is lovely.
The spell that Lucy illicitly reads from the book is a different spell, but makes more or less the same point in a reasonable fashion. (It’s probably done that way so there’s a chance for Peter and Susan to have cameos).
My wife and I have seen all three movies. We really enjoyed the first one, can barely remember the second one, and only went to see this latest movie because a tree knocked out our power and we had to find something to do.
We both felt really bludgeoned by the “Aslan as Christ” message right at the end. Everything else was fairly pretty, but really just kind of left us bored. The water effects, especially, impressed me.
I can more or less ignore the “Aslan as Christ” effect to the books, and still enjoy them, but the “Liam Neeson as Aslan” effect is the one that always bludgeons me.
Whenever I hear that voice I’m no longer thinking “Wow! It’s Aslan brought to life”, and instead all I can feel is “Oh, it’s just Liam Neeson and some computer graphics”. I think I prefer the Jesus-Aslan.
Kind of cynical I guess, but I really did have high hopes for the film series.
While the changes to this movie sound mildly annoying, I think we can all thank Heaven that at least they didn’t toss in endless plot moping with Peter wanting to be King and attacking the Telmarines in their own castle a la Prince Caspian.
