《纳尼亚传奇3：黎明踏浪号》

The third film in the series based on C.S. Lewis stories has wonderful moments and characters, but lacks a good story.

Apart from amazing effects in 3-D, and the good vs. evil religious allegories* in the C.S. Lewis stories, you will discover the best thing about the movie -- a rat.

For fans of the series, that means the long tail of Reepicheep is back with Simon Pegg giving voice to the swashbuckling* rat whose wit is as sharp as his swordsmanship.

Reepster will be facing greater enemies, but his biggest challenge is taming* Eustace (Will Poulter), the annoying young cousin whose family Lucy ( Georgie Henley) and Edmund ( Skandar Keynes) have been forced to bunk* with him while the rest of the Pevensie clan is off doing more interesting things.

That is not enough to ensure* smooth sailing for director Michael Apted's "Dawn Treader."

Still, on the big screen "Narnia" continues to be a lovely place for families to visit for a while with its all-knowing lion king Aslan, voiced by Liam Neeson, always promising a better world.

The introduction of Eustace, and a spirited performance by young Poulter, helps.

It's still wartime England, 1943, and three years since the Pevensie siblings left Caspian ( Ben Barnes) to settle into his kingly role. Susan ( Anna Popplewell) is off in America with the unseen parents, while Peter ( William Moseley) is busy with university exams, leaving Edmund and Lucy to finish growing up. He tries to join the fighting forces, she experiments with flirting*, both get found out for the children they still are.

Most of their days are spent quarreling with Eustace, and in the midst of an argument* over the relative worth of fairy tales, they notice the ocean in a painting just above them seems to be spilling* over the edge. In no time they're submerged* in a watery portal* to Narnia. It is one of the film's best effects.

There are sword fights aplenty*, but instead of a real story, we are left clinging to* individual moments. There are funny ones — the one-footed dwarfs*; poignant* ones — the magic dragon desperate* to undo the spell*; scary ones — a sea serpent* whose belly is the beast; and flat ones (too many to mention).

allegory 象征

swashbuckling 虚张声势的

tame 驯服

bunk 睡在床铺上

ensure 确保

flirt 调情

argument 争论

spill 溢出

submerge 淹没

portal 通道

aplenty 很多

cling to 抓紧

dwarf 矮人

poignant 悲惨的

desperate 不顾一切的

spell 魔咒

serpent 蛇