Clearly there's more wrong with this film than just people not liking religion.

I think so. While I disagree with a lot of the reviewers in terms of acting etc, I have to acknowledge that it's indeed not as good a movie as LWW or PC. I guess the main problem is the episodic nature of the story which creates a feeling of a lack of continuity and the lack of real villain. I don't know.

I honestly have to see the movie before I can say whether I agree with the reviewers. I find that normally I don't agree with critics in general. So, it doesn't worrry me that the movie has dropped low on rotten tomatoes. Considering my feelings on some of the movies that are certified fresh, i don't use a critics opinion to guide me. Generally I like to avoid reviews before a movie and wait till after to read them. I usually find that the critics nitpicked at little small details that I personally never noticed. That being said alot of people do allow others to think for them. Thats why I think it's a big responsibilty to review a movie. You can effect the results of alot of peoples hard work. While I respect that there may be many flaws with this movie, many of the critics have focused on the religious elements, and the lack of action. They have called it boring. Well, that's the storyline. It's and adventure, not an action movie. Thats just my opinion. I'll know for sure when i see it.

If everyone is saying PC and LWW is better than this, I really don't have hope at all for this one. I honestly do not like the Narnia films made this far (and I've tried to like them cause I love the books... I even watched PC again for the first time since theatres hoping it would grow on me or something... nope. The movies just try to hard to copy other hit movies rather than be faithful to the spirit of the books. Like there's not much to fault in LWW adaption... but script to film, something got lost and it lacks the spirt and character of the books and just feels bland and lifeless... IMO). Dawn Treader is my favorite of the books so that's really the only reason I'm going to see this tomorrow. There's a bit of hope this will be better made than the last two but with the rotten score and everyone saying it's worse than PC and LWW, I'm not expecting much...

So I really don't care if this succeeds or not financially... I think I'm done with this series if they can't get it right after 3 movies. They need to stop trying to make epic movies in the vein of HP and LOTR cause neither of those pop into your head reading the books. Watching the movies though, yup... Everything from LOTR to Pirates of the Caribbean...

Ah well... I'm seeing it tomorrow even if it ends up at 1%... and report back how I liked it

But I suspect the fandom at large will conveniently ignore objections like that, blame the negative reviews on Christian-bashing, and then pillory their fellow fans who didn't like the film. We had the same sort of thing happen with PC, so why would things be different this time?

I've said it before and I'll say it again

The 7 swords, mist, overall storytelling, cinematography, editing, 3D etc. are all fair game for criticism. I think we all can agree with that.

To complain about Christian themes makes it seem like the reviewer did not do any homework or understand the subject matter, or did not like the subject matter, before said critic set foot in the theater.

It is like criticizing the Golden Compass for being anti-Church. Everyone knew this about the author already and the book. One should consider the source material and whether the film does a good job of conveying it. One might criticize the source, but the film should be faithful to that source and people should not downgrade a film because of that faithfulness.

I've said it before and I'll say it again

The 7 swords, mist, overall storytelling, cinematography, editing, 3D etc. are all fair game for criticism. I think we all can agree with that.

To complain about Christian themes makes it seem like the reviewer did not do any homework or understand the subject matter, or did not like the subject matter, before said critic set foot in the theater.

It is like criticizing the Golden Compass for being anti-Church. Everyone knew this about the author already and the book. One should consider the source material and whether the film does a good job of conveying it. One might criticize the source, but the film should be faithful to that source and people should not downgrade a film because of that faithfulness.

Agreed.
However, this wasn't Bookwyrm point as he's saying the religious overtones, whether the criticism is valid or not, is not the main gist of VODT's critical bashing. As indicated in his post, previous films had fresh ratings despite the religious themes, while VODT is 'rotten' should tell most that there's more than just anti-Christian sentiments. If the critics were utterly biased against religious themes, why would the previous two be rated 'fresh'?
No, the problem is bigger than complaint about Christian themes. It's the acting, bad story, unsubtle and cliched plot that brought down this film.

It's the acting, bad story, unsubtle and cliched plot that brought down this film.

Again, those are open to criticism. But looking at the reviews for LWW & PC, you will see enough of people who did not like them because of the religious themes, Aslan as Jesus, etc. That trend continues here.

Many can and do separate their distaste for religion, or more specifically Christianity, from the film and view/critique the film on its own merits. But, I think there is a good chunk of people who do not and it is obvious in some of the reviews.

Here is my theory. Voyage of the Dawn Treader is a different movie then the first two. Both of them had a basic goal, culminating in a big battle at the end. Lots of CGI, special effects etc. This movie has less action, and more adventure. It's not similar in style to the other two. Neither is the book. I believe that many of the reviewers have found it boring and plodding because they were expecting more action like Prince Caspian. Since they didn't have the action thrown in there face they noticed the religious themes allot more then before. I definitely think that mixture of religious bias, lack of familiarity with the source material and maybe not liking the source material played a part in the decisions of many of the critics. Of course some of them were fans and still gave negative reviews. We can't blame all of the bad reviews on those things.