Returning To Narnia

Went to watch “The Last Airbender” today. Gotta say it is indeed a very bad movie, just like how the critics condemned it to be. But one upside of watching the movie is, I realised Hollywwod is making another Narnia movie after all, and I was certainly surprised when I saw the trailer popped up to the screen.


You see, a couple of years back, when the second Narnia movie “Prince Caspian” failed to generate as much revenue as the first movie, there were news that the studio is gonna put the third movie project on hold, much like how they cancelled the plan to make another “His Dark Materials” movie (after the failure of “The Golden Compass”). I thought I would never see another Narnia movie again. THANK GOD I WAS WRONG!

My first task when I arrived home this evening, was to find out more on IMDb. To my surprise, “The Chronicles of Narnia: The Voyage of the Dawn Treader” is scheduled to be released in December THIS YEAR! And as a die hard movie fan who constantly observe the latest development in movie world, I am really ashamed of myself that this movie project eluded my attention at all. Nowhere have I seen any news or discussion on this movie. Probably because summer blockbusters are usually the attention of all media, and any December release that could generate buzz this early would be those high profile Oscar hopefuls. So, while the faces of Leonardo DiCaprio, Woody & his toy friends and Angelina Jolie can be seen all over the magazine stands, we have little idea on what to be expected towards the end of the year.

Now, I have read all seven of Narnia books, and “The Voyage of the Dawn Treader” (which was published as the third book but currently numbered using the internal chronological order as fifth) has always given me mixed feelings. Starting this book, the two elder siblings, Peter and Susan are no longer present. Instead, C.S. Lewis added in a new character, Eustace Scrubb, the odious cousin of the siblings. Now, Eustace was much like the Edmund in “The Lion, The Witch & The Wardrobe” – stubborn, unbearable and hateful, but he would eventually (yes, eventually, at the end of the book) turned into a different person. Well, it was supposed to be a children book cum a Christian-related novel, what do you expect? Certain moral aspect must be inserted.

In short, the story of this book could be summarized into a sentence – 3 children get sucked into a picture and travelled with Prince Caspian to find some lost Lords of Narnia. And yes, the beloved talking mouse is back, but something happened to him at the end that I forseen is gonna be a huge tearjerker in the movie (no, he’s not dead, in case you’re wondering). Most of the plots happened on the ship, and that makes me worried. After all, one of the elements that got me hooked to the previous two films was the beautiful scenery of Narnia. How much can they do to a ship? Not much, I believe.

Speaking of the previous films, although a lot of the fans do not like “Prince Caspian” as much as “The Lion, The Witch & The Wardrobe”, I actually prefer the second one to the first one. Except for the fact that the unique Mr. Tumnus was no longer making his appearance, the second movie was still full of emotions. I like that the director and the actors and actresses added in a few of their own touch that wasn’t in the book. Plus, the four actors and actresses who portrayed the Pevensie siblings are more mature and improved in acting. The only weaker link is Ben Barnes, who was totally wooden. I hope he gets better this time around.

Chances are, this third movie will get even worse review than “Prince Caspian”, and a huge possibility that it won’t have a huge box office as the first one or even the second one (from the nearly-not-there buzz as of now). However, I still have a very high hope on the movie, and I will most probably bias towards it (I have already decided to love the movie now, even everything I know about the movie is only what I can see in the 2.5-minute trailer). And I will certainly watch it more than once.

Gotta go. I have just pulled out the DVD of “Prince Caspian” from my cabinet, and it will be my movie tonight. What’s yours?