The Chronicles of Narnia: The Voyage of the Dawn Treader
Fox-Walden | Release Date: December 10, 2010 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
53
METASCORE
Mixed or average reviews based on 33 Critic Reviews
Positive:
12
Mixed:
20
Negative:
1
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Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
80
Boxoffice MagazineRichard MoweDec 6, 2010
Michael Apted opts for a certain dated and mannered appeal with a whiff of nostalgia for more innocent times, which lends added enchantment. Read full review
75
Chicago TribuneMichael PhillipsDec 10, 2010
The Dawn Treader doesn't so much reinvent the "Narnia" franchise as do what's needed, and expected, with a little more zip than the previous voyages. Read full review
75
New York PostKyle SmithDec 10, 2010
The eye-popping and entertaining The Chronicles of Narnia: The Voyage of the Dawn Treader offers a merry seafaring jaunt together with plenty of adventures led by magically empowered kids. Read full review
75
Washington PostMichael O'SullivanDec 9, 2010
After all, it isn't every kid's movie that wrestles with the subject of faith in a higher power, or sin, or the afterlife. And it isn't every kid's film that can do it so entertainingly. Sure, that's heavy stuff if you're looking for it. But it doesn't spoil the great, great fun to be had in Narnia - or the magical spell it casts - if you're not. Read full review
75
Chicago Sun-TimesRoger EbertDec 8, 2010
This is a rip-snorting adventure fantasy for families, especially the younger members who are not insistent on continuity. Director Michael Apted may be too good for this material, but he attacks with gusto. Read full review
75
Orlando SentinelRoger MooreDec 8, 2010
True to the intent of the Christian apologist Lewis' novels, there are lessons to be learned, many of them delivered by the chivalrous mouse, Reepicheep, voiced with a plummy verve by Simon Pegg. Read full review
70
Chicago ReaderAndrea GronvallDec 9, 2010
The beguiling creature design--from minotaur to dragon, sea serpent to one-footed dwarf--and 3D effects heighten the illusion of a storybook coming alive, while the rousing sea adventure drives home Lewis's Christian ethos better than either of the previous entries. Read full review
70
MovielineMichelle OrangeDec 8, 2010
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. Read full review
70
Village VoiceNick PinkertonDec 7, 2010
Apted seems too often to think like an old-hand action director and not enough like the 12-year-old boy who probably read Lewis's book. To enter Narnia, to really go giddy with the bright, laughing promise of a quest, a young viewer with no convenient magic portal of his own needs characters to bring him along. This is, I believe, the difference between a classic and a successful franchise reboot. Read full review
67
Christian Science MonitorPeter RainerDec 10, 2010
Michael Apted's direction veers into listlessness, but there is, at times, a pleasing elegance to the production, too. It doesn't assault you. Small favors are better than none. Read full review
67
Tampa Bay TimesSteve PersallDec 8, 2010
The Voyage of the Dawn Treader ends on a perfectly appropriate note, recapturing a childish sense of wonder and an earnest approach to Lewis' religious allegory. Read full review
63
Philadelphia InquirerCarrie RickeyDec 9, 2010
Maybe it's the postproduction 3-D enhancements, but in this effects-laden Odyssey for tweens, sometimes humans and beasts seem more wax-and-paint than flesh-and-blood. Read full review
60
New York Daily NewsElizabeth WeitzmanDec 10, 2010
Kids, of course, are unlikely to get the religious allusions. All they'll see is a decent family adventure, perfectly suited to a cold Saturday morning -- and likely to be forgotten by Sunday. Read full review
60
Arizona RepublicKerry LengelDec 9, 2010
The best thing about the film is neither the top-notch CGI nor the shallow moral lessons but the performance of Will Poulter ("Son of Rambow") as Lucy and Edmund's insufferable cousin Eustace Scrubb. Read full review
60
EmpireDan JolinDec 9, 2010
Another mixed Narnian offering which, while it doesn't bust through the series' three-star ceiling, at least gives us its best FX, biggest monsters and finest child actor yet. Read full review
50
SalonAndrew O'HehirDec 10, 2010
It's difficult to make this mediocre adaptation of perhaps the best-loved book in C.S. Lewis' Narnia series -- seem particularly interesting. Read full review
50
SlateJohn SwansburgDec 10, 2010
If only the makers of Dawn Treader had learned the lesson Lucy does when she casts that forbidden spell: Don't try to be something you're not. Read full review
50
The Globe and Mail (Toronto)Rick GroenDec 9, 2010
Alas, in the third instalment of the C.S. Lewis odyssey, the devolution continues with the inexorability of a fairy tale thrust in reverse – the sublime first film morphed into the routine second and now this wispy banality. Read full review
50
San Francisco ChronicleAmy BiancolliDec 9, 2010
The third and most uneven film adaptation in the series. Read full review
50
The New York TimesManohla DargisDec 9, 2010
A strong filmmaking voice was clearly not called for in an entertainment that has been carefully calibrated for maximum blandness. Mr. Apted is aboard to keep the franchise sailing along or at least afloat, which he does. Read full review
50
USA TodayClaudia PuigDec 9, 2010
It's serviceable, but certainly not much fun. Read full review
50
TimeRichard CorlissDec 9, 2010
Dawn Treader, the name of the ship in the story, should here be rechristened Yawn Treader. If this movie were a bedtime book, the wee ones would be asleep by page two. Read full review
50
Los Angeles TimesBetsy SharkeyDec 9, 2010
Oh, there are sword fights aplenty (as bloodless as ever), but instead of a real story, we are left clinging to individual moments. Read full review
50
Boston GlobeWesley MorrisDec 9, 2010
The Dawn Treader, like its predecessors, has no real struggle or drama. We're dealing with kids for whom everything comes too easily for us to care. Read full review
50
Miami HeraldConnie OgleDec 9, 2010
Only two characters are worth much notice; neither is a prince, and one is a really big mouse, which tells you something sad about Narnia's royal family. Read full review
50
Entertainment WeeklyLisa SchwarzbaumDec 8, 2010
I'm confounded by the fact that, aside from the Pevensie siblings and their nicely obnoxious cousin, absolutely everything and everyone aboard the Dawn Treader looks one-dimensional. Read full review
50
ReelViewsJames BerardinelliDec 7, 2010
A dull, meandering storyline and visuals all-but destroyed by a second-rate 3-D conversion make this movie inferior to its predecessors. Read full review
42
The A.V. ClubTasha RobinsonDec 9, 2010
They essentially replace the book's blank spaces with gaping plot holes and laughable clichés. Read full review
40
Austin ChronicleMarc SavlovDec 15, 2010
It takes great skill to make something so ponderously stultifying as this third film entry in the ongoing adaptation of C.S. Lewis' series of splendidly imagined children's books. Read full review
40
Time OutKeith UhlichDec 7, 2010
One's heart sinks the moment the trio is picked up by Prince Caspian (Barnes) and deposited on his ship, the Dawn Treader. Suddenly we're in green-screen land, where everything looks cheap, heavily digital and unfortunately postconverted to 3-D-hardly a fantastical otherworld. Read full review
40
VarietyJustin ChangDec 7, 2010
This f/x-heavy third adaptation of the Christian-themed fantasy series feels routine and risk-averse in every respect, as if investment anxiety had fatally hobbled its sense of wonder. Read full review
40
The Hollywood ReporterTodd McCarthyDec 6, 2010
After slipping badly with the second installment two years ago, the Narnia franchise does a full-on belly flop with this third. Read full review
38
St. Louis Post-DispatchJoe WilliamsDec 10, 2010
An utter shipwreck, a would-be adventure with meager rations of magic and a listless crew. Read full review
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