MyRating: YYY1/2Director: Zack Snyder
Voice: Jim Sturgess, Geoffrey Rush, Ryan Kwanten, Emily Barclay, David Wenham, Helen Mirren, Joel Edgerton, Hugo Weaving, Miriam Margolyes
MPAA: Rated PG for some sequences of scary action
Zack Snyder is continuously building his profile as a fine new generation director, whose upcoming movies are always being waited and talked about. Since his successful debut with the remake of George A. Romero’s zombie movie, Dawn of the Dead (2004), he has proved that he is no “one hit director” by directing (and co-writing) the box office hit and visually striking 300 (2007), adapted from the graphic novel of Frank Miller, and two years later directing another visually stunning movie, Watchmen (2009), adapted from Alan Moore’s superhero comic book. And all these movies received highly acclaimed from both the critics and the audiences. Snyder also slowly creates a trademark as a director who is competent to offer a new experience of marvelous visuals and exciting color presentations in his movies. He also did not hesitate to show on-screen brutalities, even though many times they were wrapped in an artful way. I liked all his first three movies, which I think were brilliantly made. And I start to believe that Zack Snyder is actually not competent to make a bad movie.
Directing Legend of the Guardians, adapted from the first three books of the Guardians of Ga’Hoole series (The Capture, The Journey, and The Rescue) written by Kathryn Lasky, was definitely another new step for Snyder, as this was not only his first animated movie, but also his first 3D movie, as well as his first family movie. And a family movie means no brutality, sexuality, nor R-rating. The story is about the great adventure of two brothers of owl, Soren (voiced by Sturgess) and Kludd (Kwanten), who have opposite personalities. Soren is dreamy and playful, who believes in the tales about the Guardians of Ga’Hoole, the legendary knight Owls who protect their kinds from the evil Owls, The Pure Ones. While, Kludd is full of grudge. He is jealous with the excessive attentions that his brother gets from their parents. One day, they are kidnapped by the evil Owl army to a place where the orphanage owls are brainwashed into becoming soldiers. Soren manage to escape the place and fly his way to the island of Ga’Hoole, where he eventually meets with the legendary Guardians, the myth he was told. At the other side, Kludd chooses another path that brings him to his dark side. And Soren, with the help from the Guardians, has to stop the evil grand plan from The Pure Ones and to save his brother.
Once again, Snyder proved that he could pull any movie he directed in a brilliant way. And the result is, a good animated movie. The animated graphic was awesomely beautiful, with very rich and detail visuals, as well as breathtaking cinematography. The film was developed by the digital visual effects company Animal Logic, which was responsible for the huge success of the 2006 animated film Happy Feet. The 3D itself was outstanding. In one scene, you will feel like the rain is flying towards you, while you follow the owls flying through the storm. It was another good 3D experience that I’ve watched this year. Definitely one of the best.
So, who said that 3D is becoming more and more ‘overused’ in Hollywood? In fact, in the other way around, I feel that 3D is becoming more and more exciting to watch. It does add significant values to the cinematic experience. Yes, 3D is not a new thing, but it’s evolving to a better direction. So, there are no reasons to get bored (too soon), as 3D is a fun cinematic experience. Of course, we can only feel the maximize 3D experience if the filmmakers do it right at the first place, by shooting the film with the real 3D camera from the beginning, and not merely converting it from 2D to 3D post production just to follow the trend. But do we ever think, that we would never say shooting in the conventional 2D as ‘overused’? It's because we used to watch movies in the same old 2D way. The fact is, the real world around us is in fact 3D, and this is what the filmmakers’ dreams, to put the same visual experience on screen as real as possible.
Like it or not, 3D is already part of the advance movie technology. We never imagined that we would use computers, or the internet, or mobile phones, before those things existed, right? But now, those things are common to us. And who knows in the future, we will watch all movies in 3D, just like the way we watch movies in 2D now, maybe even without 3D glasses. Who knows? History has proved that technology will always find its way to evolve and offer something that we never imagine before. No need to fight and against technology, because more advance things will happen anyway. So, it's just ‘blatantly naive’ if we keep complaining and saying that “3D is overused nowadays” or “3D is Hollywood’s crap” or “I’m sick and tired of 3D, they all suck”. Let’s face technology with an open mind and not just complaining for the sake of complaining, or because we feel the urgency to follow other people who are also complaining, just to sound cool, without really understand the real essence of their complains.
Having said all that, this movie is an example of how a 3D movie can be made so astonishingly beautiful. It has a captivating storyline with enough exciting actions. The owls were also lovable. The tone of the story was a bit serious and dark, not containing as many humors as those of the DreamWorks'. It also contained some mild violence that may be a bit scary for very young kids, however still within the corridor of an animated family movie. This movie was not perfect though. I felt that the story somehow slightly lost its grab near the end of the movie, and the final battle was becoming a bit mechanical to me, less 'heart'. But, it was a grand battle. It was also a bit difficult to differentiate which owl from which owl, since all the owls seemed to look almost the same. But in overall, this is another good movie from Snyder, and I like it.
I believe many people are excited to see his next upcoming movie Sucker Punch (to be released in March 2011), which Snyder called as “Alice in Wonderland with machine guns”. The beautiful and hot leading ladies itself should become a bonus attraction for people to come see this movie, besides the expectation to experience another great visual by Snyder. And of course, the next Superman movie, Superman: Man of Steel (2012). I believe this time Superman will get a new direction in a more exciting way than the last one. Always expect the best from Zack Snyder! (MJ)
