It’s our weekend to just stay at home and as our usual routine, we either spend the time just watching TV or movies in USB or just hanging out with the kids upstairs in the room while they play with the PC. The hubby usually just tinkers around with his carpentry work in the garage and basically leaves us in peace. On this particular day, after we ate a late lunch, we chanced upon a good movie at the Star channel – The Voyage of the Dawn Treader (the 3rd installment of the Chronicles of Narnia). The movie starts with Edmund and Lucy shown living in the house of a cousin, Eustace. They were staying inside Eustace’s bedroom just hanging out when suddenly they noticed that the water in the painting was moving. Soon, the water spills into their bedroom and continues to rise until they are submerged in water. When they rise up to the surface, they discover they are in a real ocean and with the ship in the painting right next to them.
The crew of the ship fishes them out of the water and they soon discover that they are in Narnia. The passenger on board the ship is none other than Prince Caspian. Eustace, on the other hand, becomes flustered with all that’s been happening and could not believe everything he sees especially after seeing a talking mouse and a talking Minotaur. Edmund and Lucy learn that Prince Caspian is on a voyage to search for the Seven Lost Lords of Narnia and the kids enjoyed joining them in their quest, well, except for Eustace, of course.
Soon they see land and they reach Narrowhaven, a city of Long Island and when they embark they find the city ‘seemingly’ deserted. But it wasn’t truly deserted as it seems because it is actually a lair of slavers and the four (Prince Caspian, Edmund, Lucy and Eustace) are captured and thrown into a dungeon. In the dungeon, they meet Lord Bern, the first of the Seven Lost Lords and he tells them what happened. Outside of the prison, they see some frightened slaves being led on a boat out to the open water. Then suddenly a green mist appears and disappears, taking the slaves with it. The Lord tells them that the other six Lords went off in search of the mist and has not returned ever since.
The next day, they were sold at an auction and a buyer shows up (actually the captain of the Dawn Treader) who takes over the town and sets all the slaves free. Lord Bern gives his sword to Caspian who gives it to Edward for him to use while in Narnia. The Dawn Treader soon arrives at another seemingly uninhabited island which is in fact, inhabited by invisible men who hop about on one foot. They abduct Lucy and trick her to go inside a magician’s mansion to recite a spell to render them visible once again. Lucy reluctantly does so after learning that they can neither read nor write.
Lucy finds the spell book, and finds all sorts of spells inside, including a spell to make snow and to make one beautiful. She tears that page out and finds the spell to make things visible. Lucy arrives with the master of the island, Coriakin who tells them to proceed to Aslan's Table, with a Blue Star to guide them, and lay upon it all of the Seven Swords of Aslan. But he also warns them that they are all about to be tested.
The Dawn Treader then sets out again, but they sailed into a storm. During the storm, Lucy has the bad sense to try out the beauty spell and she turns into Susan, and finds herself with her brothers Peter and Edmund in America. But in effect, she deletes herself and also their experiences at Narnia. Lucy learns her lesson and burns the beauty spell.
The next day, the Dawn Treader reaches yet another seemingly uninhabited island. They explore and reach a cave. Inside they find a pool of water with a golden statue at the bottom. Edmund tries to probe it with a broken-off branch--and the branch turns to gold in his hand. Then they realize that the statue is actually one of the Seven Lords, Restemark, turned to gold and dead. They retrieve his sword but Edmund was tested and obsessed with acquiring riches for himself. Caspian sees a resource over which he, as king, should take dominion and they start to argue. Only Lucy's intervention keeps the two from killing each other. Eustace, meanwhile, goes off exploring and finds more treasure than he has ever seen in one place. He finds a skeleton (actually that of Lord Octesian) and steals a gold bracelet.
Caspian and Edmund are looking for Eustace, when a winged, fire-breathing dragon swoops down from the mountains and scoops up Edmund so he could read a message burnt into the rocks: I AM EUSTACE. They then realize that the dragon is Eustace. The group stays on the island overnight to keep Eustace company. The next morning, the Blue Star appears to them. A mermaid comes to warn them not to continue their journey but they press on.
That night, Dawn Treader lands at yet another island, the Island of Aslan's Table. There the crew find three more of the Lords (Revilian, Argoz, and Mavramorn), not dead but fast asleep and tangled in their own beards. At Caspian's direction, they recover the swords that the Three Lords carried. They lay these, and the swords they brought with them, on the table--but they make only six. They still must recover one more. The Blue Star appears to them, and takes the form of a young woman--Liliandil (Laura Brent). Liliandil then tells them that they must sail on to one more island: the Dark Island, source of the Green Mist and of every man's nightmare. There Lord Rhoop (Bruce Spence), carrying the last sword, walks that island, mad with fear. This will be their greatest hazard, for the island will make any man's nightmare take real form.
And so they sail on to the island, armed and ready. As they approach the Dark Island, the Green Mist reaches out to them, though the men do their best to ignore it. All of them see their worst fear as embodied by the mist - Drinian sees a thick fog, that robs him of sight; Caspian sees a vision of his father, dressing him down; Edmund sees the White Witch, who offers him the same thing that she once offered him many years before: to make him her king. Eustace flies to the island, scoops up Rhoop, and sets him on board. Then, a Great Sea Serpent, which was imagined by Edmund attacks the ship.
Eustace fights with the Serpent but the Serpent takes Eustace in his jaws and throws him onto the rocks. Eustace flies off to Aslan's Table Island as the Sea Serpent wraps itself around Dawn Treader, threatening to crush her. Edmund and Caspian seek to steer Dawn Treader toward the rocks, to ram the Serpent. Eustace, on the sand bar, wakes up and sees the Seventh Sword nearby so he races to the table and lays the last Sword on top of the other Six while Dawn Treader's crew continue their desperate fight with the Serpent. Finally Edmund impales the Serpent with his sword. The deep darkness lifts, and Dawn Treader is in daylight again.
They set out alone in a longboat to Aslan's Shore. Aslan informs them that their journey is at an end. Caspian, knowing that he would never return from an adventure into Aslan's Country, decides at the last instant to turn back, and go back to Narnia to govern it properly. Reepicheep is welcomed permanently into Aslan's Country. Aslan then sends Lucy, Edmund, and Eustace back to earth, back the way they came. They find themselves back in the room in Eustace' house. Eustace hangs the fallen painting back on the wall--and in it, Dawn Treader is sailing away from them. The film ends with Eustace writing in his diary.
It’s a really good adventure movie. I am just not sure if it stayed true to the novel upon which it is based. I will try to read the book some time and tell you if it was indeed made in accordance with the book.
[photo/movie poster grabbed from IMDB]
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