Review for LEGENDS OF THE GUARDIANS

What can I say about this movie...it has talking Owls that are equipped with armor, swords and battle one another.  And surprising it was....a decent movie.

The movie takes place in a alternate world, where animals talk, have politics, and battle each other.  Our hero is an owl named Soren (Jim Sturgees), who has dreams of flying with the Guardians, a group of legendary owl warriors (no I'm not making this up). One night Soren and his brother Kludd are kidnapped (or should I say "owl"-napped) and they are taken to the Pure Ones and their leader Metalbeak.  Soren then meets a Elf Owl named Glyfie (who I believe the filmmakers were trying to make the love interest to Soren, but they didn't really establish that well) and they make a daring escape from the Pure Ones and they set out on a journey to find the Guardians.

Lets start with the things I didn't like with the movie.  The overall premise is a bit odd. Talking owls, with armor and swords, and they battle with evil owls....weird.  If the characters were something else I probably would have liked it more, like if they were more anthropomorphic, but it was based on a book series and I guess the author saw it like this.  The second thing, which I didn't really hate but found really unnecessary, was the song used in the training montage that was a tad bit annoying. It was called "To the Sky" by Owl City (HA! Get it?) and the reason I didn't like all that much because it felt TOO upbeat. I would have preferred if they used that song from the trailer to the movie, that felt more "heroic" for this type of movie.  The final thing I thought was "eh" were the scenes where it went to slow mo. Zack Snyder, director of 300 and The Watchmen, has a habit of doing this effect, and it kind get tiresome to watch, but in this movie it works fairy well, better than the other ones probably.

Now for the good, the visuals were outstanding. The studio that animated this was also was behind Happy Feet. I almost felt a sense of flying when Soren or his friends were traveling around and I felt emotion when there was danger. The showing I went to was in 3D and it made the visuals even more better. The 3D by the way was great as well.  The voice cast was superb and I believed in the acting and emotion in the acting as well. The overall tone of the movie is a dark fantasy, and I'm a sucker for movies that are like that, Labyrinth, Dark Crystal,etc. but rest assured it's still a children's movie and both parent and child alike may get a joy out of this.

MY RATING: 8/10