I saw VDT twice in the movie theatres and was extremely disappointed both times. Later I watched glumPuddle's reviews on the movies and couldn't find anything I didn't agree with. Not too long ago I watched it on DVD and was again repulsed by the cheesiness, bore, Hollywood predictability and distance from the book. I didn't like it then, and I still don't like it now.

When I first saw VDT, I loved the parts that seemed straight from the book. Anything to do with the green mist was highly forgettable. The second time, I decided I really didn't like the green mist part. The third time, I saw it as a whole movie. Still didn't like the green mist, but saw how the film fit together better than I'd thought it did just because I was no longer getting thrown from book to non book storylines.

I'm still much of the same opinion. I like the parts that came from the book. I scratch my head at the green mist parts and wish they'd written it closer to the book as a whole instead of in bits and pieces.

Besides... There's always the book.

When I first saw VDT, I loved the parts that seemed straight from the book. Anything to do with the green mist was highly forgettable.

The green mist is the foundation of the entire plot. In a nutshell, the movie is about a crew trying to defeat an evil green mist that is doing...something. For most of the movie, the purpose of the voyage is to find the seven swords in order to defeat the green mist. The climax of the story is the defeat of the green mist. So I kinda scratch my head when fans say "I liked it except for the green mist stuff." That's kind of like saying "I liked Jaws except for the shark plot."

The green mist is an important part of the slave trade on the Lone Islands. It's the whole reason six of the lords continue East. It's the reason the Dufflepuds were made invisible. It influences Lucy during the Magician's Book scene, as well as Edmund and Caspian at Deathwater. It's the reason the crew must visit Aslan's table. The climax of the story is the defeat of the green mist. Throughout the story, the crew is clearly far more interested in finding the swords (that will enable them to defeat the mist for some reason) than the lords.

The green mist is not an annoying little deviation from the book. It's a disease that infected every aspect of the story. (Cheesy dialogue, plot holes, and ADD pacing didn't help of course)

I didn't like it very much when I first saw and I liked it less the more I thought about it. Listening to the NarniaWeb commentary podcasts help me realize exactly what the problems were and pretty much summed up my feelings.

I went back and re-listened to the podcast commentary last week while on vacation (15 hour drives are NOT fun). I realized what was currently bothering me the most-and is still bothering me- is the line "extraordinary things only happen to extraordinary people". NO. That is not what the books are about. If special people do special things, it's not very special. The whole series is about ordinary children who rise to the challenge and do extraordinary things despite their flaws. That is what makes their actions so extraordinary- they are normal people with flaws. It's kind of strange that out of all the problems in the movie, that is what I am thinking about the most right now. I suppose I already exhausted my thoughts on the green mist and seven swords.

It's funny though because today I watched PC again with the commentary and there were a couple times when Adamson said, "We deleted that dialogue because it came through and didn't need explanation" and all I could think of was "wow, if only Apted had the same philosophy..."

gP, I quite literally walked out of the movie and remembered nothing of the green mist scenes. I did however remember the parts that were closer to the book. Which is why I can honestly say what I said.

^ How much of the movie did you see? The Green Mist is an important part of the Lone Islands, Deathwater, Eustace being dragoned, The Magician's Book, Lucy's dream, Ramandu's Island, and of course most of the third act takes place in the middle of the Green Mist. That's the resolution of the story.

And even if you didn't see those scenes, it still influences the entire film. In the movie, the whole point of the voyage is to defeat the green mist (by finding the seven swords).

... My thoughts exactly.

The movie was terrible, no matter which way you look at it. The script was pretty bad, the scenes seemed choppy and the acting (other than Will, of course) wasn't up to par with the former two movies.

Not to mention that it supposed to be an adaption of my one of my favorite books of all time, instead what we got was a really horrible Fan Fiction... I hate Fan Fictions in general, but this one was bad. The character flaws seemed forced and it deviated from the original intent of the book.

I'd give it a 3/10 as a stand alone movie, but as an adaptation I'd give it a -100/10. It was that bad. You know what? I'll just go ahead and point out the areas where the script writers thought that they were better than C.S Lewis and changed the script.

1.) The Main Plot -Apparently, there was this green mist and it liked to eat people and stuff.
2.) The number of Islands.
3.) The freeing of the slaves on the Lone Islands.
4.) They skipped over the Eustace/Aslan scene, robbing the movie of it's spirituality.
5.) They cut Ramandu from the movie.
6.) They also cut the bird scene.
7.) They made Ramandu's daughter a star, when in reality she was mostly human.
8.) They put non-humans onto the ship.

... Oh wait, that's the whole movie. I don't mean to hate on the film and if they did every single thing that I listed but kept the original plot, I don't think I'd dislike the movie this much. But as it is, VDT is as terrible now as it was back when I saw it in the theater.

- Little Joe.

PS: I did love one part of the movie. The credits. Those were AWESOME.

I didn't like the movie then and I still don't like it now. I don't think there's anything that could change that.

Aside from the lovely credits, I honestly don't see anything good about the film, as an adaptation or a stand-alone movie. The script was bad, the pacing was bad, the acting was bad, the plot was poorly executed, and the characters were bland and undeveloped. The messages were skewed, and the spirit of the story was lost.

I definitely don't like the way they portrayed Aslan in the movie. He was no God-figure or Christ-figure in the movie, but rather a wise sage or self-help guru. There wasn't anything very Biblical about anything he did in the film. Everything was very works-based, believe-in-yourself humanism. The very opposite of the message in the book.

[sarcasm]Also, If we're supposed to believe in ourselves, Eustace should have believed he could tear that Dragon skin off himself, without Aslan's help![/sarcasm]

In short, I was greatly disappointed by this film, and that disappointment hasn't faded any over time.

~Riella

Even though I have not seen the film in a long time, I really am liking VDT less and less. I was a younger one when it first came out, but perhaps now as I read the books more, things are really starting to sink in.

I just can't stop thinking of how epic it could have been, it's so hard to describe.

Wow, I'm surprised I haven't posted in here yet... or if I have, it might have been some time ago.

I couldn't vote quite rightly because I somehow fit into "I liked it then, but now I don't." This was my first midnight showing, so it was pretty neat to go to the theater when the parking lot was nearly vacant and not to wait in long lines or what not (Guess Narnia isn't highly loved around here or everyone who went didn't decide to go at midnight? ) I saw it... I could not judge for the visual aspects very well because it was also the first time I saw a movie in 3D
I was upset about what I didn't like, but I was focused more on the things I did, such as Will P. as Eustace, his and Reep's relationship, and the (albeit pasted-on) "there-I-have-another-name." Though I was not pleased about a lot, I liked a good portion of it, and it being the first viewing, I saw it and liked what I did. I was not expecting that much. It wasn't groundbreaking or anything; my reaction was far from what was that for LWW and Prince Caspian. I didn't see LWW in theaters, but when I finished it... it's like a completely different movie compared to PC and VDT. I love that movie to pieces. When I watched ti for the first time, I couldn't watch anything else for fear it would break the beautiful atmosphere. It made me love fantasy/adventure books. For PC, which I did see in theaters, I stormed out of the theater literally fuming and crying, primarily at Susan and Caspian's kiss. Like... I don't even find it funny or tolerable to this day. (Although, I am less fuming/crying/upset about it; but I maintain my opinion on it. )

VDT... I find it really complicated to speak about how I feel about VDT. I loved the last scene--when they come out of the painting and the water goes back. It was really well-done visually and the actors did a great job. I was not incredibly welcoming of the nod to Jill Pole, because it was kind of inconsistent and a bit too much. (considering Jill and Eustace did not get along.)
I liked Eustace and Reep's relationship; it was the result of excellent development.
There was quite a bit I was not fond of, though, and that includes but is not restricted to:
- the plot being controlled by the green mist.
- the script
- Most importantly, I ditto what Riella said, Aslan wasn't really Lord of Narnia. He wasn't the reason they were doing what they were doing. There were some parts, but it was evident that some wanted Aslan to have this role while others wanted him to be secondary in the making of the movie. (I don't know this for a fact; only an observation.) The one thing that completely turned me off was, "We didn't do it alone." And then Eustace comes out. Aslan was really secondary. Someone on Narniaweb whose username does not come to memory wrote something on this moral part of the movie who I wholeheartedly agree with... I think he posted in TAN or N&C; he brought up that Lucy's disobedience was portrayed in the light "You are affected by your disobedience, that's why you shouldn't disobey" rather than "I told you not to disobey. That was why you should not read that spell."; everything was man-centered. It was humanistic, IMO. Lucy not listening to Aslan's roar, (when in actuality, Aslan appeared to her and chided her in the book. This reminds me of making seeing Aslan a dream in PC, rather than what really happened. So disappointing.), the mixed up stuff at the scene by the water that turned things to gold (sorry, forgot the name. ) ...
- general unfaithfulness to the book. I did not mind the Gael addition that much, so that's not my concern... My issue was the idea that VDT was not a good story so they had to make a movie "on the book C.S. Lewis did not write." but then put it under "The Voyage of the Dawn Treader." It was almost like fanfic.
- Ramandu's daughter and her role was distorted and Ramandu was completely taken out.
- the contorting of Eustace's undragoning, which I felt was inconsistent and not a strong support to the story, since it happened so late.... with the green mist, everything was changed.... agh. I need to evaluate my opinion on this more.

Those just address how I feel about the movie now. If I had to watch it at some kind of gathering, I'd watch it, but I still struggle with it. Whereas, though I think that the cinematography and storytelling (to some point) of Prince Caspian was better, I would not watch it, because of Susan/Caspian. Maybe I feel this way with VDT about the Green Mist.

^ How much of the movie did you see? The Green Mist is an important part of the Lone Islands, Deathwater, Eustace being dragoned, The Magician's Book, Lucy's dream, Ramandu's Island, and of course most of the third act takes place in the middle of the Green Mist. That's the resolution of the story.

And even if you didn't see those scenes, it still influences the entire film. In the movie, the whole point of the voyage is to defeat the green mist (by finding the seven swords).

I have seen the movie several times. The first time I saw the movie, I was quite literally thrown out of the story when I watched the Green Mist scenes and got reabsorbed into it when it was showing parts closer to the book. Yes, as a whole it affected the story, but when looking at individual scenes, I could see more book related material than I could something affected by the plot line. It was just how I saw the movie the first time I saw it.

I have since seen the movie several times. The more I saw it, the less I was thrown out of the overall storyline. I am not fond of the adaptation attempt, but I can see book related material in the movie and those are the parts of the movie I like.

Didn't like it then, and really, really don't like it now.

My opinion of the film can be summed up in the words "Green Mist." If it hadn't been for that wretched stuff, I might have been able to stomach the film as just "OK" ... but it really threw the film of whack, and messed with every aspect of every scene. Any subtlety they might have gotten from the temptation theme was zapped away as soon as Green Mist of Doom appeared. It also made it appear like it wasn't temptation at all, but some kind of random mind control. I mean... really. That, and they didn't even manage Magic A is Magic A levels of Applied Phlebotinum: there is no substantial explanation for what the green mist was or wanted, or why those people disappeared and somehow... survived? Or why it even needed to tempt people, or where it came from (other than Coriakin's Because it is Evul speech). Maybe they were using it as a sequel hook, but... that is really not how you do a sequel hook.

Also, VDT is my favourite book. I do not appreciate having it cannibalized. At all.

By the way... the thing I find most interesting about this poll is the 33% Dislike, 30% Like split. Fascinating.

By the way... the thing I find most interesting about this poll is the 33% Dislike, 30% Like split. Fascinating.

Yes, I am also really confused by this. Previously I thought that the majority of fans disliked the film, so this is pretty interesting to see this much of a split. Of course, if we were to sit most of the liking fans down with Glum in the chatroom, we'd change their minds pretty quickly.

they didn't even manage Magic A is Magic A levels of Applied Phlebotinum: there is no substantial explanation for what the green mist was or wanted.

That is another thing I disliked about it, it was just plain stupid. There was no reason for it to be there. Yet it was.

Yes, I am also really confused by this. Previously I thought that the majority of fans disliked the film, so this is pretty interesting to see this much of a split. Of course, if we were to sit most of the liking fans down with Glum in the chatroom, we'd change their minds pretty quickly.

Hah. Although, it seems 8% don't like it now, compared to 4% on the other side... Maybe it's an age thing (both people and the film growing older)? *shrugs* And the rest are neutral, obviously.

This is why I love polls.

I have since seen the movie several times. The more I saw it, the less I was thrown out of the overall storyline. I am not fond of the adaptation attempt, but I can see book related material in the movie and those are the parts of the movie I like.

Clearly Kat, you are a glass half full type of a person among a group of pessimists and I applaud you for that. However, I choose not to look through rose colored glasses. VDT was terrible and if you were to put it on a scale, the good parts would be far outweighed by horrible parts.

Just my two cents.