Turns out owls look powerfully awesome wearing intricately designed battle helmets. Who knew, right? It is common knowledge that the wise birds look great in graduation caps and put one in an evening gown and I get inappropriate thoughts that would get me arrested in seventeen states. But place a metal helmet that looks like it was stolen from the prop closet on the Lord of the Rings set on the head of an owl and you now have a badass owl.
This is new knowledge obtained thanks to the fantastic new animated film, Legend of the Guardians: The Owls of Ga’Hoole (the longest title for a film since Ben Affleck’s directorial debut I Killed My Lesbian Wife, Hung Her on a Meat Hook, and Now I Have a Three-Picture Deal at Disney [that is real, by the way]) and that isn’t all the movie taught me. I also learned that owls know kung fu, fight each other with knives strapped to their talons and, judging from their accents, all come from Australia and Great Britain. Also, and most importantly, I now fully realize that director Zack Snyder is a cinematic maestro who is making some of the most visionary and exciting films hitting the multiplexes today.
This modern fantasy is the story of a young owlet named Soren (Jim Sturgess) and his brother Kludd (Ryan Kwanten) who are stolen from their family by the Pure Ones; a group of evil owls lead by the wicked Metal Beak (Joel Edgerton) who is so named because he has a beak fashioned from metal. Soon after their arrival to the Pure Ones fortress, the brothers are separated and given different jobs because Kludd, who we are suspicious of from the get go, shows promise as a warrior while Soren refuses to do as he is told and is hauled off to pick glowing shards of weird stuff out of used owl pellets. After a daring escape, Soren and a ragtag band of outcast owls that he meets along the way journey to the sea to find the Great Tree and the infamous Guardians that live there. The Guardians are Soren’s only hope to defeat the Pure Ones and save his lost brother from the clutches of Metal Beak
It is no stretch to say that Legend of the Guardians is the most beautiful film of the year. The animation is top-to-bottom gorgeous and Snyder makes great use of the 3D effects. The owls and their surroundings are photo realistic and jaw dropping. The action is signature Snyder that he has established in his other films (“300” and “Watchmen”). He manipulates his images, zooming in and slowing down the violence and flailing wings, making the complex shots easily digestible. Snyder seems at home in the new medium and makes a perfect fit with his aesthetic approach.
The film isn’t perfect. The end is rushed and a tad slight and the Guardians are sort of brushed over in introduction and not completely fleshed out. The glowing shards of weird stuff that the Pure Ones use as a weapon is never fully explained and integral to story. The film is plenty long at ninety minutes but hurries a bit too much to get all the ideas up on screen.
As state of the art as this film is, the plot and feel is rather old fashioned and reminiscent of such films as The Secret of N.I.M.H. and Watership Down with dense storytelling and many well-developed characters. Some of the themes and ideas (the reality of war, death) are heavy for young children but the film doesn’t talk down to its audience. The producers are able to give Pixar some competition when it comes to telling a complex story that speaks to all ages. See this movie in IMAX with the glasses fused to your face and learn how to adorn your neighborhood owl with the proper headgear.
