The latest entry in the Chronicles of Narnia appears (based on its lackluster performance) to be its last as the series has been on a steady decline since the original film debuted, even the sub par 3D was unable to breathe life into this dying franchise. To say that the only good part about the movie was seeing the cute actor who plays Prince Caspian (Ben Barnes) swash buckling around with his lovely hair is pretty pathetic, but there it is. How unfortunate that this tepid sequel from another studio (since Disney dumped it) was incapable of re-imagining one of the better books in the series as the story moved away from static Narnia and onto foreign lands across the sea. What Treader lacks in an engaging story, it suffers worse from slow pacing issues and disjointed scenes that appeared out of order.
Strangely, all of the Pevensie children make an appearance in this movie contrary to the original story which focused on Lucy, Edward and their cousin Eustace; even the white witch briefly returns (which is out of context since she never returned after her death in wardrobe). With all that being said I will admit that for the most part I personally enjoyed continuing (or likely) ending the journey of Narnia even though I have never connected with the series in the way that I have with the LOTR and Harry Potter franchises. It was fun seeing little Lucy all grown up and the actor cast as cousin a-hole Eustace was perfect, although I just don't see him being able to hold a film (the Silver Chair) on his own even though there were several allusions to it at the end of this one when Jill Poe (the other main character in that story) stops by for a visit off camera and Aslan informs Eustace that Narnia may yet have more adventures in store for him.
As for the religious subtext it was ... as always ... an underlying theme in this movie, but isn't that subtext kind of there in every good v evil movie? Although it became downright in your face at the end of the film when the crew sailed to Aslan's country at the end of the world (aka heaven) where the lion king told Lucy that she should come to know him in her world under his other name.
If you are a fan of the books/movies then I would say go see it just to have some closure. I would not endorse seeing it in 3D as I thought that the effects were kinda cheap; on the other hand it did contribute to making this movie a bit more enjoyable.
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