Another epically long title, that won’t fit on the main page. So to give it, it’s full glory, this be the review for ….Legend Of The Guardians: The Owls of Ga’Hoole. A mouthful if ever there was one. So, have a think about all the movies you’ve seen this year. Now have a think at the ones that were visually stunning. Now, forget about them. Cast them from your mind like a pole dancing Susan Boyle…hang on…..yeah, go on. Cast that thought too.
Legend of The Guardians is the most stunning looking film this year, if not for the last few years. It’s hard to describe how amazing this movie looks. It’s like the Louvre and all its masterpieces have come together in animated form. It simply is truly breath taking and visually is a real masterpiece. That’s no surprise coming from the likes of Zach Snyder who, in my book is one of the most visually accomplished directors working today. No stone gets left unturned here as the forests and owl dwellings spring to life in amazing clarity, colour and detail. As for the Owl’s themselves, well words can’t describe. The attention to each individual Owl is testament to Snyder’s eye as each Owl has it’s own personality and little nuances which is brilliantly realised. Now don’t expect photorealism here, nor expect the cartoon style and pseudo realism of Pixar or Dreamworks. Guardians is in a league of it’s own. Tragically, the visuals are the best part.
2 young owls get captured by the Owls of St.Aggies, which is like some religious cult of sorts. Here young owls are brainwashed into becoming soldiers, or pickers, which involves looking for tiny bits of blue fleck in owl pellets. One of the brothers escapes and the other one stays and starts ascending the Aggie leagues. The one that got away, Soren embarks on a journey to find the island of Ga’Hoole, and yes you’ve guessed, the Owls of Ga’hoole, who are seriously bad ass ninja style owls. From there, the movie turns into a rescue mission of sorts which includes a pretty epic finale where Owls literally kick seven bells out of each other with steel talons and various other Owl weapons.
The story (based on the trilogy of books by Kathryn Lasky) is one of the big downfalls for me. It’s pretentious at the best of times and downright silly at the worst of times. It didn’t engage me at all at all, and whilst the pacing is fairly ok, the movie, despite it’s stunning visuals it is a bit of a labour to watch. It just comes across as something that’s not entirely sure what it’s target audience is. On occasion it feels like a kids movie for adults and other times it’s an adults movie for kids. Some of the action scenes are certainly not for kids as steel talons go flying in all directions as clouds of feathers fill the screen. That aside, the action scenes are truly spectacular and incredibly well choreographed and in usual Zach Snyder style there is a very fine line between too much slo-mo and just enough slo-mo. The other thing that irked me quite a bit was the actual “world of the Owls”. They struggle to get on talons and helmets, but yet live in this extremely complex environment, which is complete with drapes and fires. It just doesn’t make sense how they accomplished all of the engineering, let alone light a few fires. Maybe there are some super Owl engineers that don’t feature in the movie.
As for the voice acting, which includes the likes of Helen Mirren, Sam Neil, Hugo Weaving and Jim Sturgess, it’s a bit flat and bland to be honest. Also, none of the voices sound like they actually suit the character that they play. That said, the soundtrack (composed by David Hirschfelder) is similar to the visuals. Truly epic.
Snyder is truly gifted at what he does, but Guardians is let down by a pretentious story and the amazing visual’s aren’t enough to save it. As for the 3D , well it’s quite functional and some of the scenes in 3D, in particular the rain scenes, encourage hope for the format. Is it worth the extra to see it in 3D? I would think so, but don’t expect your world to end or anything. And while Guardians is a posh, pretentious movie alot of the time, it does have some element of charm which makes it bearable. Definitely worth a watch if you fancy seeing the best looking movie you may ever see, otherwise, I wouldn't be losing too much sleep over it!
