Movie review: Legend of the Guardians: The Owls of Ga'Hoole

I haven't seen many movies the last month. But we got back into it with "Legends of the Guardians". Mind you, even now I had to look up the name. It's always just been "The Owl Movie" in my mind. That or "That Movie We Have to Buy For the Birds".

It's good. We liked it.

What? You want more? Slave drivers.

There's this owl family. There's a momma, a poppa, two early teen owls, and a little sister owl. For some reason they have a snake as a nanny instead of lunch. The two teen owls are just learning to fly. The one with the imagination can fly alright. Better than the one who is in a hurry to grow up. He's got a bit of a rod up his ass about it. About everything, really. It pissed off the one with the rod that the goofy one is more advanced. 

So the two of them are practicing flying after hours when they crash and are promptly kidnapped. Have you seen "Chronicles of Riddick"? These owls are like the Necromancers. You haven't seen it? Hmmm... Nazis aren't a good comparison. Maybe the Japanese circa WWII. With elements of both. They kidnap young owls like the Japanese. They recruit the weak willed, the lonely, and the outcast. They feed on the impulse of some to believe they're superior and everyone else should be stepped on. If you're not one of these then they turn you into zombies. The Louisiana style zombies, not the Braaaaaains variety. And soon they'll wipe out the hero owls that are thought by many to be myth.

So Cain agrees to work with the bad owls while they try to make Abel a zombie for protecting a weaker owl. What? They're brothers, one is good and the other evil. I gotta name them something and these names communicate a lot. Mostly that I'm too lazy to look up their real names. 

Most of the rest is spoilers. Needless to say, the mythical hero owls are real and save the day.

One thing I noticed about the movie was that they wanted to keep their PG rating despite all the fighting, blades, and general violence. So you never see anyone get killed. Oh, it's implied. One guy falls into the mist and vanishes before hitting the ocean. Another vanishes into the smoke before he hits the flames. But he might not be dead. Another throws himself on a flaming stick which breaks off inside him, but that's always hidden by careful camera placement. 

All in all, a good movie that we enjoyed a lot and will be getting on DVD if just for the birds to watch.

Oh, and we watched it in 2D. Most of the trailers were for 3D movies. You know what Hollywood? We're gonna see them in 2D, too. A five year old child in the theater expressed his outrage that all the movies were 3D. It's over Hollywood. Drop it.