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Men In Black 3

It’s not a sequel that needed to be made, but thanks to the charm of its leads and a tone that harks back to the wit and humour of the original, it’s a pretty enjoyable trip.

Bel Ami

The excellent female support cast saves this patchy effort, which is let down by its leading man and a flat screenplay.

The Dictator

A disappointing, often repulsive and mean-spirited mess of a film with seemingly only one real criterion on its agenda: to shock and offend.

The Woman In Black

Packed with atmosphere, this old-fashioned but deftly told ghost story delivers ample chills and thrills.

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The Chronicles Of Narnia: The Voyage Of The Dawn Treader (Film)

by Cara Nash | December 02, 2010 10:19 | Edited December 02, 2010 10:21

The third instalment is for the most part an exciting and emotionally resonant adventure.

While the first two films to be adapted from C.S. Lewis' The Chronicles Of Narnia series - directed by Kiwi, Shrek alumnus Andrew Adamson - were cloaked in Christian allegory, they also worked beautifully as potent stories about childhood and its loss. Just as at the end of Prince Caspian, Peter and Susan crossed to the world of grown-ups, The Voyage of the Dawn Treader is Lucy and Edmund's final adventure which infuses this third instalment with a bittersweet emotional resonance.

 

Opening in wartime England, Edmund (Skandar Keynes) and Lucy (Georgie Henley) are reluctantly staying at the house of their irritating cousin Eustace (Will Poulter). Rather than a wardrobe this time, the quarrelling trio are swallowed into a painting and transported back to Narnia where they find themselves aboard the magnificent ship, The Dawn Treader, headed by the dashing King Caspian (Ben Barnes) and his second-in-command (Gary Sweet). The sea-faring adventure which follows involves the retrieval of seven swords that, when laid out on the table of Aslan (voiced by Liam Neeson), will rid Narnia of a terrible evil.

 

Similar to Prince Caspian, the emphasis here is on action and the well-paced film moves swiftly through a world of sword fighting, magic passages and CGI dragons and sea beasts. The young actors - particularly newcomer Will Poulter - turn in solid performances but Barnes' King Caspian borders on bland. Perhaps this third instalment is missing the spark of a truly compelling villain like Tilda Swinton's White Witch or Sergio Castellitto's evil Uncle Miraz, as here the enemies are the demons that the characters have to defeat within themselves. It's a dark theme but one that's explored safely at arm's length.

 

With a new director on board, there may have been a temptation to make The Voyage of the Dawn Treader a little less earnest and slightly more hip, but Michael Apted (Amazing Grace, Gorillas in the Mist, the 7-Up series, Nell) had the sense to retain the film's wholesome majestic quality. In a cinematic landscape currently populated by tales of good and evil, the Narnia films have a timelessness about them which should see this franchise age well.