Rise of The Guardians.

Well this is another film that really needs to go on my revised 2012 list, whenever I get round to reviewing my 2012 backlog in its entirety. Also Jack Reacher kinda sucks. Hope you enjoy the review!


It really saddens me that critics weren't more positive about this film and honestly I can't really understand why they weren't. The Avengers comparisons, although undeniable, often fell in The Avengers favour but my first words to my friend after walking out of the theatre were, 'it was like the Avengers...only good'. I guess if you're one of Avengers many lovers, you won't have a place in your heart for it but if you were one of the few let down by that film, Rise of The Guardians should more than satisfy the hole that film left. Although I would admit the pacing issues were also issues I had, I didn't so much feel the film was too fast like many critics but the film certainly seemed to lack direction. I mean it had a story, and a trajectory but it would meander off at random points for long stretches of what ultimately amounted to filler. Satisfying filler but it had forced connections to the overall story, to serve more a function than a purpose.

Rise of the Guardians brings the children's book series The Guardians of Childhood to life in the form of a computer generated animated kids film. It basically reimagines familiar folkloric characters Father Christmas, The Easter Bunny, The Tooth Fairy, The Sandman and Jack Frost as both doing what they are most famous for and in turn basically being superheroes entirely built around the service of children behind the scenes. Both protecting them from the evil Pitch Black, known better by the name 'bogeyman' and also bringing all the wonder, hope and fun that makes childhood such an under appreciated but wonderful time to be alive.

Guillermo del Toro was the executive producer and had a heavy impact on the films ultimate shape. Although obviously all of this was spawned from the book series, I really got more of a del Toro vibe than anything else. And I mean that both thematically and visually. This really is another Gothic del Toro fairytale. If you haven't caught this in the cinema, I'm not sure how long this has left but go, see it in its intended form, this film is utterly gorgeous. I thought ParaNorman raised the bar for kids films, but this raises the bar even further.

The voice work is fantastic. Although Chris Pine isn't a particularly good actor and sounds a lot older than Jack Frost actually looks, most people assume that voice work is much easier than actual acting and I'd argue that being that you have to do your entire performance through your voice with no help from any mannerisms or other such things which so many actors rely on, it actually makes it much harder. So it really surprised me, in the most pleasant of ways, just how well Pine did as a voice actor. Pine provides Frost with the range, depth and energy the character deserves. However the true stand out for me is Jude Law, I never really appreciated what a great voice this man had until I heard his surprisingly sinister and seductively smooth voice as Pitch Black. Pine works because he puts in such a large amount of effort and shows surprising talent, but Law was perfectly cast. The rest of the cast all do a great job too mind you, those two just really stood out for me.

Rise also has some absolutely spectacular action sequences. I mean it's stunning anyway but when it comes to the action, the film really pops. The action feels less like violence and more like a moving painting and I don't mean that in a negative way. No matter what is happening fightwise, you could take any still and put it in a frame and it would look fantastic above your mantelpiece.

Another thing the movie loves is speed, each character has their own unique way to travel and many of the set pieces that are outside of the fights with Pitch involve the characters moving. That probably doesn't sound interesting but both the imaginative way the characters move and the way the film really manages to capture a sense of high speed and the thrill that comes with it means the film still manages to be heaps of fun even in its downtimes.

Although the plot can meander at times, part of the reason the movie is so fun is that it is entirely made for fans of the characters. No matter how well known characters are Hollywood movies tend to still market them at the person who doesn't know who the characters are, even though they are probably the least likely to see it. This means most of the films time is wasted on establishing the world and who is in it, despite probably most of the people in the audience already knowing who everyone is and how it all works. Rise doesn't bother with that, the world is set up from the beginning, it tells you as much as it feels you need to know to understand what is going on and sends you on your way. Although certain things are added or expanded as the film goes, largely the world, the characters and how it all works is left unexplained with the assumption that everyone in the audience should already know most of this, because you should.

Honestly, I think the pace of this film really splits the audience and I probably loved this so much because I am still a child at heart. Rise, although featuring some surprisingly dark moments and by no means treats the children like they are idiots, also understands the audience well. A lot of people have complained that Rise feels more like a ride than it does a film, that the film lacks dialogue, depth and other such things. And although I may not be able to officially speak for the children since I'm now officially an adult by age, I'm pretty sure most of them came for a thrill ride, not to see characters sat about talking to each other and sharing multifaceted emotionally enriching trips into one another's psyche. I'm not saying there is no place for those things in a child's film, of course not, but did you really want Rise of The Guardians to be a character drama? Because I'm pretty sure none of the kids did in the audience and the kids matter more here than some old fart with unrealistic expectations.

However I won't for a second say that there aren't problems pacing and storywise. Like although I'm more forgiving because this is a kids film, pretty much the whole film collapses in on itself when you think about any aspect for to long. I couldn't help but feel, somewhat cynically, that so much of the original ideas featured in this are left so underdeveloped because they actually don't really make a whole lot of sense. I won't draw examples and ruin the experience but don't try relating this film to any kind of logic like me and my friends tried, it didn't work.

Some complained that the obsession the film has with belief made it almost seem like religious propaganda. And I honestly can see where they are coming from, The Guardians sometimes almost feel like Gods, especially The Man in The Moon. But the ending to the film and the way belief is used is so utterly heart warming it really is hard to care. I actually really liked the films morals, it would be easy for a film like this to slip into cheeseball territory but seeing belief both harm and help and the consequences of both and the rise of Pitch into a terrifying badass and then his fall as he is reduced down to something utterly pathetic leaves you feeling triumphant when leaving the theatre, belief really is magic. And although I wouldn't like this used to push kids to God, they can take a lot of good away from this.

That glowing sense of victory is probably helped by the fact that although a lot of the film does admittedly lack depth, it is so sharply written when it does come to dialogue that we love the characters all the same. Rise of The Guardians had me laughing out loud quite a few times throughout the runtime and that is no small feat. So when the movie took sudden, sharp turns into much darker territory, I found myself tearing up, even though I didn't even know the characters very well. Rise is just utterly likeable in basically every area.

Sadly the Avengers similarities also crop up with the film sharing similar problems. For example from what little is really explained about what The Guardians really are and what sets them apart from the other folkloric characters, one of their main jobs is to fight Pitch Black. Not their only job for sure but the film is centred around their battle with him, which made me assume your ability to kick arse was a big factor in The Man in The Moons decision on who to promote. So much like in Avengers where we get rather filler like scenes to remind us why certain members of the team are relevant when we start to question their purpose as the final battle comes and Hulk and Thor outclass everyone, Rise does a very similar thing. Really minus Jack Frost and The Sandman the other Guardians don't really do a lot, mainly because in comparison to those two, they can't. The film has these long and drawn out sequences to try and give the other Guardians something to do knowing that when the final fight comes they'll largely be left feeling like a spare part. I don't want to end this on a downer, I loved this film and these sequences were a lot of fun but they wouldn't have been needed if they had just beefed up these characters more so they had more to do in the final battle. I mean all of these guys are Guardians, so why don't they all have the same level of awesome powers?

So do I recommend it? Rise of The Guardians has largely been lumbered with the title 'Avengers but for kids' and that is meant in a derogative sense. And although it carries many of the Avengers problems and some of its own, it also corrects many of the Avengers problems too, really creating the fantastic film the Avengers had the potential to be. I thought ParaNorman was the best kids film of 2012, I was wrong.

Think About It!

-Locke