Your posts are so very tempting...

My ideas are extremely biased.

Keep the great intro with the painting. Excellent scene.

I would remove the mist and sword and kidnapped persons plot completely and add back in:

The quest for Aslan’s country and the search for the seven lords being the goal of the voyage instead of beating a sea serpent and the mist.
An evil baddie wasn't necessary as there were enough evils to combat...keeping the ship in shape, finding food and water, finding land....

Expand the Governor Gumpas episode.

More scenes of Eustace interacting with Reep, cousins, Caspian, and Dawn Treader crew in bratty pre-dragon state.

Expand the scene with Coriakin and develop more interplay with Lucy than just those few words that already exist in the movie.

Expand the scene where Eustace finds the treasure and show his surprise and agony at being dragoned.

Remove the cheesy dragon-reveal of the movie and put back in the way it was in the book (which again, develops interplay between the characters and character development!).

Have Dragon-Eustace do some real work for the Dawn Treader instead of just pulling it by his tail. And please show scenes I wished had been in this movie...him being used as a hot water bottle and him taking select persons for rides on his back.

Undragon Eustace earlier (and have an Eustace and Ed scene after he’s been undragoned) and then have him involved with the remaining adventuring of islands,etc. Have him fight the sea serpent (that Edmund doesn’t think into existence) as a boy.

Have the Albatross truly truly deliver them from Dark Island instead of a token fly-by.

Put the lamb turning back into a Lion in at the end.

Keep the great ending (minus Edmund telling Eustace he wasn't a bad dragon because we've got the better Lewis written moment between them from the book put back in earlier) with the wall of water effect and the lillies.

That's easy. Completely drop them and do something along the lines of what the BBC did. In other words, follow the book. Redo Narrowhaven so that they conquer it without fighting and use Caspian's oath and Reepicheep to drive the voyage forward.

I would joyfully leave it as it is. It has merit. It is a good way to make things more cohesive in order to keep the audience interested- especially people who may not be Narnia fans. It makes sense. It in no way detracts from the Christian message and morals.

Honestly, if they *had* to have the seven swords and green mist - I would actually rather they introduce the Lady of the Green Kirtle as the villain behind it all, though have them never learn of her existence: only have the audience realize there is an evil behind the mist and leave it hanging for a sequel.

Otherwise, just get rid of them all together. I have mentioned before, the friend I went with to see the movie was very confused by the green mist and the swords, and when I told her about how it was in the books, she thought it was a lot more interesting-sounding. If they want to make it more cohesive, give us a better introduction to the lords - maybe a scene with Bern flashing back to his friends. Give us more than just a picture - Caspian never even gives us the names of the lords until they actually find them, which I found annoying.

The swords and the mist weren't bad, in my opinion, but they took time away from badly needed character development and plot development.

I would leave as is. My reasons are not appropriate for this forum.

What would I do with the green mist and the seven swords? Other than drop them completely, I think I would do something along these lines:

1. Skip the seven swords all together. They are unnecessary.
2. Go back to the original quest of finding the lost lords and Aslan's Country.
3. The green mist will still appear, but not in the same form. Instead of being an EVUL mist that is trying to steal the light from this world through TEMPTATION (you're going to be TESTED. Don't forget! You're going to be TEMPTED), it will be part of the hazards of the unknown seas. As Caspian and co. travel from island to island it becomes increasingly more difficult. Storms, serpents, a dark island shrouded in mist where nightmares come true--these are just all a part of the hazards of the unknown eastern seas.

The morale of the crew gets lower and lower as they continue to go through danger after danger all so Caspian can fulfill an oath and Reepicheep can find Aslan's Country. Here, I would build upon the potential differences between the crewmembers. I think most of the crew would be either Archenlandish or Galmian because neither the Narnians nor the Telmarines had much experience at sea. The Archenlanders would be just as enthralled with the idea of sailing to Aslan's Country as the Narnians but the Galmians would probably not think much of it. Only respect for Caspian's kingship, the wages they were earning, and maybe a little fear of what Reep would do if he thought they were disloyal would keep them going for awhile, but eventually it would deteriorate. Basically, take the mutiny scene that is in the book and expand upon it. Crew grumblings, an occasional surly or disrespectful remark, etc. counteracted with Reepicheep's undying longing for Aslan's Country, Caspian's desire to right the wrong Miraz committed, and the Pevensies' support of both of them could be built up to create complex character dynamics that would drive the emotion of the story.

And then, they finally reach Ramandu's Island. The grumbling comes to a head when the crew realizes that Caspian intends to go on even though they have technically found all seven lords. They have endured some dreadful happenings, and who knows what is at the utter edge of the world? Pump of the intensity of the mutiny scene and cue a great deliverance of Rynelf and Caspian's speeches along with a steadfast Reepicheep to whom it doesn't matter if the Dawn Treader goes on or not, he will keep going even if no one else does. And they have to endure the wonders of the last sea--but this requires a different kind of endurance. They are no longer faced with terrors, but with wonders. And when they finally reach the world's end, who could blame Caspian for wanting to continue on?

Okay, climbing down off the podium now.............

Your posts are so very tempting...

My ideas are extremely biased.

That's what I'm looking for: Opinionated opinions.

Thanks everyone. Some interesting posts so far. Keep it up and we should have enough for a future version of VDT which perhaps could be made by a current NarniaWebber? We'll see.

Looking forward to some more NarnaWebber creativity...

It's really foggy outside right now. I used to like fog. Then I saw VDT.

Cut out the mist and the swords. Not only are they both extremely silly, but they are a distraction from what VDT is really about. It's not about finding things useful. It's about honor and adventure (see quote in signature). It is about the excitement of sailing into the unknown. It's about personal responsibility to set things right.

Even though Drinian's accent and Edmund's reaction made the scene really cheesy, I liked when Drinian was saying there were "tales of sea serpents" about the world's end. I liked how Lucy reacted to it. I think they were trying to create an exciting sense of doom about what lay east. They were trying to make the audience wonder "wow, what are they going to find?"

So, in answer to this thread, I would emphasize the fear/awe of sailing into the unknown, and the mystery of what happened to the seven lords. I would make it a little more like a detective story. At each island, they find clues about the fate of the lords.

Ditch it all and bring back the book's story.

I like the movie the way it is.. Minus a bit of the pacing. However, I guess I would have made the Dark Island more destructive. Instead of being a blob on the horizon I would made it a menacing, destructive force that would threaten to engulf nearby islands. I think that was the directors intention but I would have fleshed that out - kind of like The Nothing in the Neverending Story. There - I said it. Let the hating begin.

I would emphasize the fear/awe of sailing into the unknown, and the mystery of what happened to the seven lords.

I really like this concept. I think I just went into mourning for the movie we could have had...

The biggest problem with how the Dark Island is built up is that it really needs to do something destructive for us to believe it's really as bad as everyone is saying. A few minor temptations that the kids shrug off easily is not scary. Show us that there is a death toll.

In LWW, the WW is scary because we see her doing terrible things. She slaps children, she locks them up in dungeons, she starves prisoners, and turns the good guys into stone. Until Aslan brought them back to life, this looked like a death sentence. In PC, we get an evil dictator who killed his own brother, exiled his rivals, slaughters Narnians who are trapped like fish in a barrel, and orders one of his general to kill soldiers for PR reasons. To go from all of that to a smoke monster that never even kills anyone even though we're told it's worse than Jadis is a bit nonsensical.

You don't even have to do something gruesome to show us the Dark Island is evil. It would have been as easy as finding shattered remnants of the sacrifice boats floating on the water as they leave the Lone Islands. That sets up the Island as evil and creates a far more suspenseful story arc for Gail and Rhince. Give that water spirit that shows up before Ramandu's Island some dialogue and have her tell Lucy about something driving the sea people mad and killing the creatures in the ocean. Instead of Coriakin just being Captain Exposition, have him use the magic 3D map to show them the islands the DI has ravaged.

Seriously, I can come up with all of that in about 5 minutes and we're supposed to believe none of it occurred to the screenwriters? Either they weren't doing their job properly or they just didn't care if the story was good. If they did film this sort of thing and it's on the cutting room floor, then shame on whomever made that decision.

I didn't like the seven swords/mist at all. I think it should have never been put and if I could I would take it away and put back the real story of the Dawn Treader

I would have left it as is. I love that whole part! it's so epic!
*ducks to avoid rotten tomatoes*