View from 54North

I just came back from watching the Legend of the Guardians, the …oh the heck with it, just call it the “owl movie” in 3d.  I enjoyed quite a bit.

The story is fairly basic, as one would expect from a movie taken from a children’s book. A  young owl is kidnapped, finds evil goings on, falls in with a band of misfits, finds the heroes of legend, and in the end saves the day and becomes a hero himself.  That said, while there is nothing new in the formula, it is a formula that works and the owl movie sticks to it well: we aren’t talking Lord of the Rings here, but the characters are likable and the plot well done in a workmanlike fashion.  A lot of movies with great effects and spectacle die because of a crappy story and editing, this isn’t one of them.

Now, while a lot of movies die use they have poor stories, you still need something more than a workable story to lift a movie above the mundane. In this case that would be the artistry of the CGI people.  Simply put the graphics in this movie are brilliant, a true work of art.  I mean that not only are the technical skills superb, but they are put to use in aid of the movie and the story and the characters in a way that makes the whole much much greater than the parts.  In the Legend of the Guardians the owls manage to not only come across as real believable personalities, but also as real owls.  That’s something I have3 never seen before to this degree.  In past you could have “realism” or you could have “personality” ( usually by using cartoonish characters,) but not both.  For me, this  movie finally managed to bridge that gap.  And many of the scenes are simply beautiful in and of themselves, as if a Bateman painting had suddenly come to life.

Finally the 3D.  I saw avatar in 3d and was underwhelmed. It seemed clever, but gimmicky. It actually intruded on the movie experience by reminding me I was watching a movie… anytime the 3d effect hit the edge of the screen it made me aware of the screen. The people in the avatar were looking at 2d displays that were transparent and would have been hard to read, for  no other reason that so we could see through the displays and go “Oooo 3D!”

But the owl movie is different. 3D is used to capture the element of flight and works wonderfully. And I don’t mean as one of those 3d roller coaster make you sick sort of 3d experiences either.  But Owls are birds… creatures of the air, and the distances and movements are much better presented in 3d.  When they are soaring high up in the air, the ground doesn’t just look small, but far. And they have avoided the pitfalls of having 3d scenes where foreground elements hit the edge of the screen and get cut off.

If you don’t like fantasy films, like gore, or need “gritty” depressing realism … you won’t like this film. Otherwise go see it and see it in 3d.  It’s a good way to spend an hour and forty minutes.