'The Chronicles of Narnia: The Voyage of the Dawn Treader' Film Review

3:41 PM PST 12/3/2010 by Todd McCarthy

After slipping badly with the second installment two years ago, the Narnia franchise does a full-on belly flop with this third — and, at this rate, one can only hope final — entry in the film series based on C.S. Lewis’ beloved children’s books.

Perfunctory perfectly describes every aspect of The Chronicles of Narnia: The Voyage of the Dawn Treader, from the by-the-numbers script and lackluster direction to uniformly uninspired performances. The lure of 3D no doubt will spike box-office takings in the short term. But Disney saw the writing on the wall and decamped after global grosses dropped, first to second film, from $745 million to $420 million, the latter a figure Fox no doubt would be relieved to achieve given the yawny nature of this journey.