Whether the film subsumed the parochial lesson or the parochial lesson ate into the film is hard to say, but either way The Chronicles of Narnia: The Voyage of the Dawn Treader is marked by conflicting and ultimately mutually consuming appetites. The third installment in the series of adaptations of C.S. Lewis' parabolic children's classics plays possum with its themes of Christian good vs. ungodly evil, so that its loosey-goosey conceit is not driving the film -- a sleek effects vehicle, to be sure -- but getting taken for a ride.
But Mother of Aslan -- a pretty sweet ride it is! Siblings Lucy and Edmund Pevensie (Georgie Henley and Skandar Keynes, returning for film number three) are waiting out the war at the home of their uncle, which is unfortunately also the home of their cousin Eustace (Will Poulter). Squawking like a posh Our Gang outlier in breeches and a blond cowlick, Poulter is a pompous little devil who resents his houseguests. Lucy and Edmund dream of escaping their circumstances, and within minutes an undulating portrait on the wall obliges them. Eustace is flushed into Narnia with them, and the initial scenes of him stomping around the ship -- the Dawn Treader -- where the trio wind up suggest, in their charm and crackle, the bemused eye director Michael Apted turned on the uppity schoolboys of his early 7-Up films.
On the ship they find Caspian (Ben Barnes, again putting his heavenly genes to good use as the chosen King), who is leading his people through what he describes as peacetime in Narnia and dreaming about sailing to the edge of the world. A swashbuckling rodent named Reepicheep (Simon Pegg, hilarious) pops about, gassing on with his war stories and taunting Eustace. All is well, of course, until it isn't: Turns out there's trouble on the parched, biblical shores where the Dawn Treader alights. Innocent people are being sacrificed to the bilious clouds of green mist that seem not to want land or money but goodness itself.
The only way to stop the noxious Satan gas from corrupting all of creation is to reunite the swords of the seven lords at Aslan's table. The group are told that on their journey they will be tested in ways they might not recognize: "To defeat the darkness out there," Lord Bern (Terry Norris) warns, "You must defeat the darkness in yourself." For Lucy this means overcoming her envy of her older sister's beauty; Edmund is tempted by a golden pond. Caspian goes oogly when a blue angel comes down from the sky, offering dubious intel in honeyed tones. Eustace's pride and greed are punished in the most demonstrable fashion: He is transformed into a fire-breathing, wonderfully emotive dragon at the beginning of the longest and most spectacular battle in the film, between the crew of the Dawn Treader and Edmund's personal demon.
The seven deadlies (like the seven lords) are deployed notionally rather than as a structuring theme, and the sharp turn into pop psychology -- fear and evil can be self-actualized, so watch what you think -- makes for a great visual climax that has little emotional resonance or narrative impact. More potent are the vicious emanations of the White Witch (Tilda Swinton, back in too-rare glimmers), who haunts Edmund in his weakest moments. Liam Neeson also returns as the voice of the great, wind-blown alpha feline. Look closely and you'll see a pair of goaty ears twitching in the background in a couple of scenes, but alas, Mr. Tumnus (unlike the absent, ascendant James McAvoy) has been herded into the chorus.
The journey to Aslan's Promised Land ends at a precipice that looks a lot like either a killer rip tide or a swishy hotel fountain. Decisions are made about who will stay, who might return to Narnia, and who is due back in their world, where Aslan goes by another name. Well-paced, well-performed and full of visual wows, The Voyage of the Dawn Treader bobbles a hectic story by stopping just short of committing to its grounding themes. Its hardly sacrilege, but it does seem like a shame.