Narnia sequel a sometimes rocky 'Voyage'

C.S. Lewis' “Chronicles of Narnia” one of the great children's book cycles in the English language nearly crashes on the cliffs and drowns in the sea-storm of special effects 3-D moviemaking in the third movie, “Chronicles of Narnia: The Voyage of the Dawn Treader.”

Nearly, but not quite.

I had a devil of a time getting into the story, though I like Lewis, and despite the fact that the movie begins with very nearly its best scene: a bang-up fantasy sequence of a seascape painting that magically floods a staid British room and sends the three child protagonists off on tremendous ocean waves into a new round of Narnian adventures.

Those protagonists are Lucy Pevensie (Georgie Henley), her brother Edmund (Skandar Keynes) and their pain-in-the-rear cousin Eustace (Will Poulter). They wind up on board The Dawn Treader, a Narnian ship commanded by Prince Caspian (Ben Barnes). This time out, to save the day they need to find missing Narnian lords.

As the story unwinds, the characters seem flat or obvious. The monsters and magical creatures the children encounter often have more personality than the humans, especially the kids. The swashbuckling rat, Reepicheep (voiced by Simon Pegg this time, instead of Eddie Izzard), has a lot of the best lines. In many ways, he steals the movie, which is a bit big for his breeches.

If “Dawn Treader” doesn't quite succeed, it's not for want of effort and some talent, and even a determination to stir things up. No longer a Disney Studio series, it's now being released by Fox. Producer Andrew Adamson (“Shrek”) has ceded the directorial post he held for the first two “Narnia” films to the very gifted and sturdy Michael Apted of “Coal Miner's Daughter” and the brilliant “Up” documentary series. Oddly, Apted handles some of the big action-fantasy sequences more enticingly than the more intimate drama you'd have thought would be his forte.

“Narnia” is cast, like the Harry Potter movies, with three fetching young British actors at the center, surrounded by classy adult support (in this case, Pegg as the rat, Liam Neeson as the lion, Tilda Swinton as the white witch and Barnes as Prince Caspian).

And it's a movie full of love for the printed word and for archetypal fancy and fantasy. The story is jam-packed with swords and sorcery, ships and storms, dragons and sea serpents all sailing spectacularly to the edge of the world.

It's just a little humorless, humanless, sparkless. The movie begins superlatively well, with that bang-up fantasy sequence, but soon the effects take over and even “Dawn Treader's” other great sequence, a rowdily thrilling game of rat and dragon, can't totally save the show.