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Legend of the Guardians: The Owls of Ga'Hoole
Soren (Jim Sturgess) and Kludd (Ryan Kwanten) are Barn Owlet brothers who are mistaken for orphans and abducted by the insidious Pure Ones to be brainwashed into mindless automaton soldiers bent on taking over the world. Kludd takes to the militaristic lifestyle like a duck to water but the independent, imaginative Soren resists the oppressive regime. After managing to escape his incarceration with fellow fledgeling, Gylfie (Emily Barclay), the pair journey to the legendary Ga'Hoole to warn the Guardians of the oncoming apocalypse, picking up a ragtag band of misfit comrades along the way. It's Lord of the Rings for owls presented in needless 3D.
If Peter Jackson had shot the entire Lord of the Rings in one sub two-hour film, it may have looked a little like this. In a film like LOTR, the journey is important; toil is important; time, is important. The journey is where we learn about our heroes, test their mettle, bond with them (and they with each other) and learn what they're really made of. Establishing an engaging story within the 90-minute attention span of a minor was always going to be difficult. The Legend of the Guardians addresses the problem by cutting practically all of the journey out of it. With most of its run time dominated by outlining its fundamental plot and introducing its multitude of dull and clichéd ostentatious characters, there's no time left for a journey. As a result, what is meant to be an arduous adventure is reduced to what feels like bunches of crazy owls hopping from a tree to the beach and back again. Tension is lost; empathy for the characters is lost and, indeed, barely established.
There's something a little too wholesome, too genial, too naive, too ‘classic Disney’ about the film. Pixar have changed the landscape of children's animation forever with its mature, intelligent story-telling and there's no going back, but Legend of the Guardians does give it a darn good try.
Glimpses of darkness and thematical depth are presented as if we already know what they mean. All this talk of ‘gizzards’ and ‘moon blinking’ with no clear explanation as to what it's all about suggests that some concepts did not translate well from the printed page and were perhaps treated a little superficially.
The film looks fabulous, though. Clearly a lot of work has been put into the Happy Feet Rendering Engine v2.0. The detail is jaw-dropping even if, for a while, it's difficult to look at these owls and not see the penguin within. In some respects, though, being able to recognise subtle facial expressions across different species is a testament to the success and sophistication of the animation.
The film sports an amazing cast, the envy of any Australian production including just about every known actor in the Antipodes including Sam Neill, Barry Otto, Hugo Weaving, Bill Hunter, David Wenham, Emily Barclay, Geoffrey Rush, Anthony LaPaglia, Sacha Horler, Abbie Cornish, Richard Roxborough and Joel Edgerton. Unfortunately, the distinctive voices of many of these actors are a distraction in the film, leading the audience to play ‘spot the well-known actor’. This would be less of a problem were the story more engaging.
Of director Zack Snyder's previous films, the banal 300 and the brilliant Watchmen, Legend of the Guardians most closely resembles the former with its mantra of superficial style over substance, a point ultimately punctuated by the shadow puppet end credit sequence that makes the best use of 3D in the entire movie!
Stuart Jamieson
www.legendoftheguardians.warnerbros.com
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