Director Michael Apted took over from original franchise director Andrew Adamson to give a faithful version of C.S. Lewis’ The Chronicles of Narnia: Voyage of the Dawn Treader, the third Narnian film. While Apted avoided adding battle sequences that weren’t in the book to make an overbloated movie, which Prince Caspian was, Dawn Treader still didn’t live up to the magic of the first film, The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe.

It was that magic that made me fall in love with the Narnia films and while I did enjoy Dawn Treader, I think what was lacking from this film was all four Pevensie kids (William Mosley, Anna Popplewell, Skander Keynes and Georgie Henley) in one film.

It was like watching a Harry Potter film that had no Ron and/or Hermione.

Even though Peter and Susan make a brief cameo, it wasn’t the same as having them in the thick of all the Narnia action.

Instead we get Edmund (Keynes) and Lucy (Henley) journeying back to Narnia with their annoying cousin Eustace Srcubb (Will Poulter) where they run into Caspian (Ben Barnes) who takes them on board the Dawn Treader where they all help Caspian in his quest to find the seven lost lords of Narnia by journeying to a variety of islands and encountering various adventures on each.

Poulter actually played Eustace pretty well when he was the annoying brat but somehow is conversion to a Narnia loving person rang a little false and came too quickly and late in the film.

I actually think this film belongs to Georgie Henley. She is the female lead in this film and I think Lucy is actually the single most important character in all of the Narnia series as it was pointed out in the film that if there was no Lucy then there would be no Narnia adventures that the Pevensie kids experienced.

Henley has not only grown into a lovely young woman but as an actress as well. It was a bit jarring seeing little Lucy, well not so little now, kicking some serious butt. She was in the thick of it sword fighting on the first island and using Susan’s bow and arrow effectively to defeat a sea serpent. I took pleasure in seeing her character develop to be a strong female. I was a bit sad in the end when Lucy knew she was closing the door to her Narnian life forever.

Barnes was good as Caspian and got rid of that accent he had in Prince Caspian and Keynes was good again as Edmund, however, you get the sense that Edmund truly hasn’t learned from the Narnian experience as he still feels jealousy and can easily fall into the influence of the White Witch (Tilda Swinton) again.

Like the previous Narnian films, it is the talking animals that I fell in love with and the mouse, Reepicheep (Simon Pegg) continues on that tradition like the Beavers in the first film.

I saw the film in 3D and it totally wasn’t worth it and felt that it was more of a distraction than enhancing the film in any way.

I have a feeling that this is going to be the last Narnia film and I am okay with that. The Silver Chair is supposed to be the next film and there will be no Edmund or Lucy and without them, I don’t think I would see that. They are pretty much plus Susan and Peter, the Harry Potter of Narnia. I feel you can’t have a Narnia movie without them and if they do The Silver Chair, it seems the franchise rests now on Eustace Scrubb, a character that I don’t particularly like. At the end of the movie, the name Jill Pole is mentioned  (she is a character in The Silver Chair) so they are leaving the door open to a fourth film.

But if this is the last movie then I am glad that they did end the series with at least two out of the four main characters in it.