Owls are creepy little things, as anybody who has seen this video will confirm. So the news that 300 and Watchmen director was creating a feathery fantasy epic may have raised suspicions that Warner Brothers’ animation arm were attempting to one-up their inexplicably popular Happy Feet in the disturbing stakes.
Based on a series of novels by Katherine Lasky, the film is one of those anthropomorphic fantasy that were so common in children’s literature before Harry Potter came along. Telling the story of plucky young Soren and his quest to find the mythical ‘guardians’ in order to defeat a particularly nasty bunch of fascist owls (the leader of whom is voiced rather splendidly by Helen Mirren, who seems to be popping up everywhere at the moment) who plan for owl based racial segregation. Basically it’s mainly an excuse for some pretty savage talon-on-talon battles and the usual tropes of bad fantasy literature, including the not-actually-funny comedy sidekick and the fact that everything has to have a ridiculous name to make it sound more fantastical (including the ‘guardians’ themselves, who for most of the film don’t seem to be ‘guarding’ anything). It’s interesting to note that the Australian accent doesn’t work particularly well for the genre – presumably because it’s so laid back and relaxed – despite the fact that the untamed vastness of so much of the country could provide an excellent backdrop to epic adventures.
Unsurprisingly, with it being a Zack Snyder film, Guardians is technically astounding, even if many of the effects are bizarrely implemented – in addition to Snyder’s usual excessive slo-mo, there’s now also questionable use of 3D (‘Wow, it’s like that owl was vomiting right at me!’) to marvel at. And to an extent it works very well, it’s easy to forgive the script for some of its sloppiness when the feathers and fur have been rendered so ravishingly, although Snyder probably should have avoided trying to humanise the creature’s faces as this makes the owls just seem even creepier.
Legend of the Guardians is a rare film in that it actually has to be seen in 3D to fully appreciate what it has to offer. It’s just a shame that the effort taken to create such gorgeous visuals couldn’t have been applied to adapting a more interesting animal novel instead (why not Redwall or The Deptford Mice?)
And whoever decided to get emo-popster Owl City in to record the theme song should never be allowed to work in films ever again.