The Legend Of The Guardians - The Owls Of Ga’Hoole

Ok, so I’ll be honest. My initial impression was: “This looks like a crap movie trying to get by with an A-list director and an equally impressive cast lineup that includes Geoffrey Rush, Helen Mirren and Hugo Weaving! I am tempted to watch it for I am the sort of person who can appreciate bad movies served on a plate of bizarro!”.

And so I ended up watching it, sitting through the first half feeling rather smug that my initial assessments were rather spot on - it was pretty much a typical, cliche-laden children’s animation flick.

It stank of the classic “underdog will win the day” vibe and had all the essentials down to pat: the token comic relief friends the hero meets along his journey, the hero’s battle with his inner demons, high speed chase scene… etc. It all played along to the script albeit with surprisingly dark, adult themes that would creep in every now and then (ie: abduction by demonic owl cult, brotherly betrayal, brainwashing).

The cliches pile on thick and it chugs along predictably until it gets to a point in the middle suddenly, something clicks in your head and you suddenly have an epiphany that “Wait, what the fuck? This movie is 300 meets LOTR… BUT WITH OWLS!”.  

And basically, the remaining 50% suddenly becomes brilliant. 

Please do yourself a favor and watch it. This is quite simply, the best owl action movie ever made. 

[3.5 assassin owls out of 4]