Chronicles of Narnia: The Voyage of the Dawn Treader happens during the Second World War, but that is not its setting. The setting is the uniquely greenish-blue looking ocean, thanks no doubt to the film’s colour-corrected tone, and the Dawn Treader, the ship of adventure helmed by King Caspian.

In a fit to maintain a well-brought-up pace, director Michael Apted (heavy handed and arid I may add) and screenwriters Christopher Markus, Stephen McFeely and Michael Petroni have Caspian rescue Lucy and Edmund Pevensie (Georgie Henley and Skandar Keynes) from the ocean.

Dawn Treader travels on a lackluster, meek, adventure, puffed up by special effects, 3D and non-descript Christian allegory.

At times the narrative sticks out at the seams, dwindling as it incorporates elements that neither work for, nor against, the tale.

There are a few bits of elegance in the screenplay, especially when Lucy and Edmund’s whimpering, niggling cousin Eustace Scrubb is turned into a dragon and learns selflessness and camaraderie — a facet the film’s best character Reepichee knows inside out

In one scene, Eustace, as a scaly dragon, literally cries. Funny how it takes a computer-generated dragon to add warmth to a film. — Farheen Jawaid