" Acclaimed filmmaker Zack Snyder makes his animation debut with the fantasy family adventure "Legend of the Guardians: The Owls of Ga'Hoole" based on the beloved Guardians of Ga'Hoole books by Kathryn Lasky. The film follows Soren, a young owl enthralled by his father's epic stories of the Guardians of Ga' Hoole, a mythic band of winged warriors who had fought a great battle to save all of owlkind from the evil Pure Ones" - Rottentomatoes.com
At first instance, the idea of Owls battling Owls to conquer Owl 'kingdoms' appeared rather dumb. I mean, come on, birds? kingdom? fighting? soldiers? (yes, I do know that it is based on a novel) Regardless, the trailer was convincing enough (mostly thanks to 30 seconds to Mars's "Kings & Queens") to me. And so I decided to take the journey with these owls in Digital 3D. On a side note, digital 3D has become a necessity in movie-making these days and it is not always a good thing.
Well, the movie started rather cliched, with a father owl telling stories of epic battles of the Guardians to his owlets, embedding in them aspirations to one day be a Guardian themselves. Another cliche is that one owl happens to be less competent than his brother and turns jealous and subsequently evil. Well, to get to the point, the story was not THAT bad, a little boring, but still good enough to be a decent movie. The visuals were eyegasmic, down to the last microscopic detail. The Owls feathers actually 'looked' soft and movements on ground and in-flight looked really really true to life. The choice of voice-overs were good (Owls have British accent) and really fit the feel of the movie. The atmosphere of the scene were amazing, from the first scene right down to the last (at times almost feels a little bit LOTR-ish).
The storyline stayed interesting and up in the air only until the first 45 minutes, then it went downhill. The story got tired, boring and draggy, almost to a point where it would seem unbearable. It became confused about what it wanted to be. It wanted to convey an emotional tale while forcing in tired jokes that even a 12 year-old would not appreciate. It does not mean that there aren't any humorous scenes in the movie, of course there are, but most parts of it just seemed 'meh' (Jutt and Jatt were funny though).
However, fortunately, like most Owls plunging mid-air, the movie regained its flight and ended on a high - well, sort of - . The battle at the end proved to be of epic proportions with stylishly awesome slow-mos and the final blow by Soren was kind of awesome (though obviously predictable). Most of the good parts in this movie were its slow-mo effects scenes.
All in all, a very beautiful movie visually but fails to impress with its storyline. If there's anything to shout about its the stunning slow-mo effects with backgrounds and environment to die for. Story-wise it was draggy in the middle and overall quite predictable.
3D Verdict - Alot of 3D scenes but none long enough to actually embrace the 3D technology. In my honest opinion, not worth the premium price.
Favourite Scene: All the slow-mo scenes especially one where a Guardian attacks an owl from behind and only the Helmet is seen flying (slow-mo) in mid air. Sort of reminded of 300.
IN A NUTSHELL:
Pros: Eyegasmic visuals (environment, the owls, everything), very nice final battle scene, atmosphere of emotional and tense moments | Cons: Got a little boring in the middle, dry humour, predictable plot | Rating:
6.5/10
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