posted
So I was on some site that shows you random recent movie trailers, and found this. I have no idea whether the movie's plot or characters will turn out to be remotely interesting, but every moment in this trailer had me going "woooooaaah....!!!" I mean, if I had been in charge of the movie and I had gotten these shots half as beautiful as they are I would have been like "okay, we're done now you can all go home."
Posts: 4136 | Registered: Aug 2008
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posted
Never even heard of this series before. I like the song in the trailer, which was well synced to the material in the trailer. It looks pretty good. I'll certainly have my eye out for this one.
The voice acting cast looks good. Sam Neill, Hugo Weaving, David Wenham, the woman who plays Claire on LOST, Helen Mirren, Geoffrey Rush. All excellent actors on their own, but also with nice, distinctive voices.
Posts: 21898 | Registered: Nov 2004
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posted
Heh. I had been privately been calling this "300 with owls", but hadn't realized it really is directed by the same guy.
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After watching that trailer I still don't know what the owls are fighting. Is it other owls? Maybe I just missed it.
Posts: 5656 | Registered: Oct 1999
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I think they left it vague for the trailer on purpose to leave room for either another trailer or (gasp!) actual surprise in the movie.
In Happy Feet the bad guys were humans, but you never actually saw the humans, they were just this mysterious force beyond the penguin's comprehension.
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Looks like the enemy is indeed other owls until some of the later books, but the movie is based on the first three books which seem to have owl nemesises (nemisi?).
Posts: 7593 | Registered: Sep 2006
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There are a lot of pretty visuals, but part of me wonders if I could really get into a movie about owls that somehow create and wear metal helmets. The concept itself (as portrayed here) doesn't really grab me.
On the other hand, the concept of a robot love story or a rat who wants to be a chef in Paris or anthropomorphic cars didn't really grip me at first I ended up loving all those movies.
On the other hand, that was because those movies were made by Pixar, and they're freakin' geniuses.
posted
I've seen bits and pieces more of visuals of the owls in question, and they do an amazing job of making emotions grippingly evident on the face of a barn owl. The source material that they're adapting (is this their first non-original adaptation?) looks pretty good too.
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quote:There are a lot of pretty visuals, but part of me wonders if I could really get into a movie about owls that somehow create and wear metal helmets. The concept itself (as portrayed here) doesn't really grab me.
I'm going to be suspending some disbelief about the owls fashioning themselves metal weaponry, but apart from that the whole concept just looks awesome to me.
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Movie is out in two days-ish. So far it's got pretty medium reviews, but it looks like the negative reviews were totally the wrong demographic (or were confused about what demographic they were supposed to be reviewing for). I'm pretty optimistic that the story will be at least decent. And if even if it isn't, honestly I don't care. This is still one of the most beautiful looking things I have ever seen.
There's a second trailer out now (been out for a while, but I figure worth posting at this point)
posted
There are trailers that blow me away with their visuals. Most recently Inception did so, and then lived up to it in the movie. Another that falls in that category is The Fall (which did not live up to it, I think). However, this one didn't do it for me. The story just sounded to inane for me to be able to appreciate the visuals I think.
Actually I can't think of any trailer currently out that makes the cut for me. Skyline looks like it'll have an interesting, J. J. Abrams type rollout...
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Maybe I'm just selling it short, but I felt very underwhelmed by the trailers. The owls look creepy, and the lines they were saying sounded like drivel to me.
I haven't read the books so that is certainly one possibility for why I don't find this story interesting, but it just hasn't grabbed me, and reviews are persuading me that I never will.
Posts: 14316 | Registered: Jul 2005
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If the trailer doesn't grab I certainly wouldn't recommend seeing the movie. I'm seeing it because imagery in the trailer already looks mind blowingly amazing to me. I expect the plot to be approximately as complex as 300, but with better visuals.
If the visuals in the trailer don't look that amazing to you (I cannot fathom this... are my tastes really that different from most people's?) it's not like they're suddenly gonna have even better ones in the movie.
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posted
The owls' faces look far too goony, and it's obviously a kid's film with a rather muddled, pointless plot.
Posts: 37449 | Registered: May 1999
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The visuals look amazing. Besides that, it all looks fairly "meh" to me.
I think childrens movies as a whole are pretty mediocre, with the exception of Pixar and (some) Dreamworks films.
The old movies are still the best. I remember "The Secret of Nihm" growing up. The movie is nothing short of amazing. The story, the acting, and the animation are great.
I'll probably rent Legend of the Guardians or see it at the dollar theatre, but I don't think I'll be buying a full price ticket.
Posts: 1937 | Registered: Nov 2006
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I rewatched Secret of Nimh recently and it wasn't as good as remembered. In particular there are some animation/pacing issues, and the ending was... not exactly forced but didn't quite fit somehow.
The thing with renting Guardians after the fact is that the biggest reason to see it in the first place is for the beautifulness, which is something that'd be amplified a lot on a big screen. I'm actually considering seeing it in IMAX.
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quote:Originally posted by Lyrhawn: Never even heard of this series before. I like the song in the trailer, which was well synced to the material in the trailer.
Really??? I thought the music ruined that trailer.
Posts: 4600 | Registered: Mar 2000
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I'm in the "music was great" camp. Not really sure why so many people were turned off by it, but it seems to be a pretty love or hate thing.
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Word from Rotten Tomatoes is that this is really, really not a movie for the under-ten set, despite all attempts to associate it with Happy Feet (which one could also argue was not really a movie for the under-ten set, but I digress.) Rather, it's a CG animated movie from the director of 300 and Watchmen, with approximately what one would expect from that description within the bounds of a PG rating.
It's currently running at about 50% on RT. For better or worse, I'm probably not going to get to see it until it's on DVD, since I can't take my daughter.
Posts: 3826 | Registered: May 2005
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Yeah. The negative reviews seemed to be people who expected it to be for kids and were judging it in that context, or people who wouldn't have liked 300 or Watchmen either. Which is fair.
Haven't seen it yet (ended up snagging a chance for a free showing of Toy Story 3 instead on friday). Hoping to sometime this week.
Posts: 4136 | Registered: Aug 2008
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posted
Whelp, finally saw this. It's pretty much exactly what it looks like, so let whatever your opinion of the trailer was determine whether you go.
One thing I will note: the first half of the movie makes it pretty clear that they are aware the premise is so silly. The second half is played dead serious. I see this as good design - it lets you get over the campiness and then enjoy awesome owl fight scenes if that's what you're into. The only problem is that, while the writing in the first half is genuinely funny, the writing in the second half is NOT genuinely cool in the way it's trying to be (or maybe it's not even trying, it's a little unclear). Basically there's a lot of lame, clichéd lines. ("Trust your gizzard" was quirkily funny at first, and then became increasingly silly by the 50th time they said it).
As long as you don't take it seriously it can be pretty fun, both in a "CGI owls are awesome" kinda way and a "hilarious with MST3K soundtrack" way.
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"Use your gizzard, Luke . . . I mean Soren".
It: - was very derivative (not necessarily a bad thing) - was very "epic quest" - was very non-commercial (no pop-culture) - was moderately boring - had probably the best visuals of any 3D IMAX movie I'd seen (better than Avatar)
I took a 5 and a 7 year old. Both were interested and loved the visuals, and both liked the movie a lot. Neither loved it.
Just like Avatar, if you're going to see it, see it in IMAX 3D if at all possible.
Posts: 688 | Registered: Nov 2008
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My wife and I just saw it tonight and enjoyed it overall. I'm in total agreement that the visuals were amazing, while the story was your typical "unlikely heroquest" one.
Glad I saw it. May rent it for my kids at some point in the future if they want to see it and will watch it with them.
And yeah, after the bajillionth "trust your gizzard" I'll admit I leaned over and whispered "Use the Force, Luke!" to my wife. . . .
Posts: 1323 | Registered: Aug 2001
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posted
It was pointed out on another forum that Animal Logic desperately needs to make a Watership Down movie. And should probably get control of the Secret of Nimh remake that's in the works.
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