In 2006 Australian special effects company Animal Logic made the brilliant animated film 'Happy Feet'. Now this is their follow up film.
Zack Snyder is a director I've come to admire for some excellent films he has made. But I have been disappointed by his first effort as an animation director. I do not know what it is but I could not get into this film. It seems to have all the elements of a great story with epic qualities. However for me it lacked the spark to make it great. I found it all rather boring. None of the characters interested me and one in particular which I'll speak of later. The story has all the elements of being special but I just did not come to care about what goes on or what they do. I think it would have helped if we got to see more of The Guardians. Soran the young owl who worships these heroes gets told the stories by his father. It would have been great to see these stories acted out rather than jut heard about. It would have meant we care about finding The Guardians as much as Soran does. It would have also helped to know a bit more about the world that these owls live in. There appears to be some sort of hierarchy and system in place but not much is explained. It is also never really explained why The Guardians are in hiding and only some out when called. You would think that if other owls are in trouble they would be on the look out for it. The one big omission though is the flecks. The evil owls collect little flecks of silver and seem to bring them together to make this 'device' that disables other owls. How does this work? What are the flames or rays that radiate from it? What does it do to its victims? None of it is explained.
The lead character of this film Soran is voiced by actor Jim Sturgess and I feel is one of the worst voice performances I have seen ever in an animated film. I've spoken about other problems I've had with the film but this is by far the worst. Jim is over acting so badly the it completely ruins the film for me. It is however nice to hear Aussie voices in the supporting cast and all of them are by far significantly better than their leader.
The potential for a brilliant film is there and there are many great elements but I think it is squandered so badly. It also features one of the worst voice acting performances I've ever heard. Zach Snyder needs to stick to his live action films in future.
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