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By Peter T. Chattaway
TWO FILMS about people who get dragged into another world against their will
came out in the weeks before Christmas. Both films were sequels to movies with
strong messianic overtones. And both films were somewhat disappointing, albeit
to different degrees.
For my money, The Chronicles of Narnia: The Voyage of the Dawn Treader is a better film than Tron Legacy ; but as of this writing, it seems audiences might disagree.
The first Narnia film was a massive hit five years ago; but the second film, Prince Caspian, made only half as much money at the box office when it opened three summers
ago, and now it looks like Dawn Treaderwill make only about half of that. In truth, it’s not doing much better than The Golden Compass did at this time of year three years ago.
That’s a shame, because Dawn Treader is a pretty decent family film on its own terms. It’s not a particularly faithful adaptation of C.S. Lewis’ original novel, true; but it retains enough of the key themes, and it has a
storybook quality that sets it apart from the first two films. It also features
one of the most unlikely but appealing friendships ever.
As before, the film follows Lucy (Georgie Henley) and her elder brother Edmund
(Skander Keynes), as a magic portal whisks them out of World War II England and
into a fantasy world where they are honoured as Queen and King. But this time,
they bring along their bratty cousin Eustace ( Son of Rambow’s Will Poulter), a committed skeptic who is shocked to find that the stories he
refused to believe about Narnia might be true after all.
This time, the story does not take place in Narnia, per se, but on a boat that
carries King Caspian (Ben Barnes) and his entourage to various islands, in
search of seven lords who were expelled from the kingdom before the events of
the previous film.
There are several adventures along the way – including a skirmish with slave traders, and an encounter with a star that
takes human form. But the heart of the film belongs to Eustace and his odd
relationship with Reepicheep (voice of Simon Pegg) – the valiant mouse who is initially inclined to rebuke Eustace for his lack of
honour, but very quickly becomes a sort of mentor and protector of his. Their
final scene together is surprisingly touching.
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Alas, the writers have imposed a new storyline on the film to hold the various
episodes together – something about a green mist that kidnaps people – and this means the movie reaches its climax a little sooner than it ought to.
The film still ends, as the book does, with the children meeting the divine lion
Aslan (voice of Liam Neeson) at the end of the world, and being told that Aslan
exists in our world under another name (hint hint). But instead of being the
last in a series of mystical encounters, the scene now comes across as an
afterthought, after the green mist has been dealt with.
As for Tron Legacy – in which a man named Sam Flynn (Garrett Hedlund) is zapped into cyberspace by a
villainous computer program (Jeff Bridges), while looking for his long-lost
father Kevin (Bridges again) – space does not permit much analysis here.
But suffice it to say that one of the key themes of the original film – the quasi-religious relationship between programs and the ‘users’ who created them – is almost entirely missing here. And the special effects are nowhere near as
impressive as the hype would lead you to believe. I’ll say more about the film at my blog.
• • •
It happened last year, and it’s happening again this year, so now it’s official: the Missions Fest Vancouver Film Festival is an annual event.
Focusing primarily on documentaries, this year’s festival begins January 28 with the world premiere of Freedom Fighter, about a pastor named Majed El Shafie who fled persecution in his native Egypt
and now lives in Canada. El Shafie himself will be at the screening.
The bulk of the festival takes place January 29, and will cover everything from
the Middle East – via films like Little Town of Bethlehem, directed by Jim Hanon ( End of the Spear) – to race relations in the Deep South, courtesy of Mississippi Remixed, directed by the Vancouver-based filmmaker Myra Ottewell.
Not all the films will be brand new, though.
The festival will also dip into the history of Christian filmmaking by screening
The Flame, a 1952 featurette about Korea. It was made by World Vision founder Bob Pierce
and Dick Ross; the latter went on to make a series of Billy Graham films, as
well as The Cross and the Switchblade.
The film festival concludes January 30 with a series of short films. See the
article below for more details.
– filmchatblog.blogspot.com
January 2011
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