The term “auteur” gets thrown around a bit too liberally without much care for what it actually means if you ask me, but there is no mistaking, for better or for worse, Zack Snyder is a bona fide auteur. Snyder burst onto the scene with his Dawn of the Dead remake, but has since become known for his hyper-stylized direction of the surprise hit 300 and the lackluster comic adaptation Watchmen. Snyder’s style is unmistakable and there’s no doubt he’s the one behind Legend of the Guardians: The Owls of Ga’Hoole, or “The Owl Movie” as it has come to be known in some circles.
What’s more mysterious is how Snyder went from three hard-R rated films to a PG-rated animated adaptation of Kathryn Lasky’s children’s books. The subject matter doesn’t suggest this is material Snyder would gravitate toward, but then again who would’ve thought the director of The Road Warrior would end up directing Babe: Pig in the City and Happy Feet?
As with all the movies we’ve seen Snyder direct, Legend of the Guardians certainly doesn’t falter visually. From his signature sudden slow-motion shots to some of the best 3D I’ve seen in a film yet, Legend of the Guardians doesn’t disappoint as a feast for the eyes. However, the story of warrior owls doesn’t demand the audience’s attention and while I think kids will be perfectly fine with it, I defy anyone to walk out and rattle off the names of the feathered characters in this feature.
Names such as Ezylryb, Mrs. Plithiver, Eglantine, Otulissa, Echidna and Kludd (which sounds like Clod when pronounced in the movie) all get jumbled into some sort of name-calling-whatchamacallit as the film plays on. Luckily, the star of the story has the easiest name of the bunch, Soren (voiced by Jim Sturgess), a young owl that finds himself in search of the fabled legendary group of owl warriors, the Guardians of Ga’Hoole.
When Soren and his brother Kludd (“True Blood’s” Ryan Kwanten) find themselves captured by the Pure Ones (a.k.a. the bad guys) the story takes a familiar story-telling twist. Kludd feels at home with the Pure Ones, while Soren heads off to find help after realizing they are planning bad things with the metal fleck-powered doohickey they’re developing. The blood lines are drawn and from there the story is rather easy to figure out.
The only truly original aspect of the film is that owls make up all of the characters, that is when bats aren’t entered into the equation late in the game. The only other animated owls I can think of are Archimedes from The Sword in the Stone and Mr. Owl who took three licks to get to the center of a Tootsie Pop. Snyder’s armor clad owls are certainly more well-equipped than those two and an impressive voice cast has been gathered to bring their words to life.
Along with Sturgess and Kwanten the voice cast includes Abbie Cornish, Emilie de Ravin, Miriam Margolyes, Helen Mirren, Sam Neill, Anthony LaPaglia, Joel Edgerton, Geoffrey Rush, Hugo Weaving and David Wenham. Most are easily recognizable, but it may take you a moment as some of these aren’t names you immediately associate with animated films. Unfortunately, with such a cast of mostly prestigious names there’s hardly any room for a light-hearted moment in this film. LaPaglia’s lute playing character, Twilight, comes about as close as you’re going to get. For the most part we’re talking about a rather dark film as the evil Nyra (Mirren) and her husband Metal Beak (Edgerton) lord over their “moon blinked” minions with a Nazi-esque iron fist. You know… kid stuff.
Legend of the Guardians isn’t a bad film by any stretch, but it’s going to have a hard time connecting on any grand level and based on the ending they are certainly hoping for the opportunity to make a sequel. However, I don’t know how many people will be all that excited for another trip to the dark recesses of the owl world. It seems to me dancing penguins are a much easier sell.
