NarniaWebbers See The Voyage of the Dawn Treader

Several NarniaWeb staff members had the opportunity to screen The Voyage of the Dawn Treader this week. They’ve posted their thoughts in the forum and we’ll show a bit of each of their comments here.

Starkat saw the film in Houston on Wednesday and had the opportunity to meet Micheal Flaherty, president of Walden Media. She writes:

I walked into the movie theater about as neutral as I could possibly be. I wanted to enjoy the movie for what I hoped it would be… a good movie. Oh wow. Oh wow! It definitely was that! […] For Prince Caspian, it took until the fifth viewing for me to be pulled into the storyline. For LWW, I looked at my watch and was floored to see that 20 minutes had passed by. This time I forgot to look at my watch when I started watching, but I was pulled into the story very quickly. […] One thing that seemed to be missing from PC was the element that made it feel Narnian all the way through. It was there in parts, but it was missing in some areas. That’s not the case here. The whole movie has a very Narnian feel to it.

Read the whole post here.

Gymfan15 saw the film at a screening in Grand Rapids and got to meet and talk with Paul and Courtney Martin from NarniaFans. She writes:

[…] the parts that they got right…they really, really got right. It’s hard to explain this further without giving too much away, but the heart of Lewis’s book is there. And there are scenes where it’s like the words of C.S. Lewis’s book is just leaping off the page and becoming alive. And that alone nearly atones for any other sins that the filmmakers committed.

Wardrobe was iconic. Prince Caspian was epic. Dawn Treader is intimate. It takes you on a journey within the characters that no Narnia film has been able to grasp before. Despite being set on the vast uncharted waters of the Eastern Seas and having as epic and dramatic a plot line as any Hollywood studio could ask for, it’s the characters, not the drama, that drives this story. Perhaps even despite itself, because it seemed very clear that the filmmakers wanted to make this film as epic and dramatic as they come. But the heart of the story won out, and it will be the amazing characters and their relationships with each other, not any green mist, that will be what makes this film great.

Read her whole post here.

Stargazer saw the film with Ryadin and Meltintalle at a screening in Minneapolis and writes the following:

Yes, there are some plot changes; thanks to discussion on the forum the biggest of these weren’t a surprise. But other parts were spot-on, beautifully visualized as if they leapt from the book’s pages. The beautiful Dawn Treader itself shows great attention to detail, as did certain other sets, like Coriakin’s house. And there were scenes where small additions or changes enhanced the overall effect – though not spelled out explicitly in the book, they were certainly consistent with its spirit.

The movie has something for just about everyone: action, drama, character interaction, even those humorous and tearful scenes – and some of the spirit that makes us appreciate Narnia so much, captured best, perhaps, by Aslan’s famous words at the end of the book – and of this movie. The result? This movie felt quite Narnian. Less epic than its predecessor, it seemed more centered on the characters and their journey toward Aslan’s Country.

Read his whole post here.

Meltintalle writes:

[…] I think I got more than I was hoping for. I walked out of the theater with a genuine sense of enjoyment, and a great deal of affection for the way key characters had been portrayed on screen.

Scenery, sets, costuming, cinematography… visually it was everything I could have hoped for. The soundtrack was very nice; the few times I actually noticed a theme or motif it seemed very fitting. The script was better than I was expecting. I’ll still want to exercise selective memory and forget that certain scenes ever made their way into the final cut, but overall… not too shabby.

Talking it over afterward on the way home, there was plenty to discuss, good and bad. Definitely looking forward to seeing this again in December.

Read her whole post here.

It’s now just 20 days till everyone can see the film and the excitement is growing by the day! Let’s hear your thoughts in the comments below.