Legend of the Guardians: The Owls of Ga’Hoole (2010)

This is an animation film directed by Zack Snyder and based on the books “Guardians of Ga’Hoole” by Kathryn Lasky. Beside than having owls as the main characters, in my opinion, nothing is special about this animation. It is about the usual fight between good and evil and expected victory of good over evil.

Soren (Jim Sturgess) is a young barn owl. He lives with his parents, older brother Kludd (Ryan Kwanten) and younger sister Eglantine (Adrienne DeFaria) in the forest. His father tells his children the stories of Guardians of Ga’Hoole. They are mythical group of warrior owls. In the past they saved all owlkind from the evil “Pure Ones”. Does it remind you of anything? Oh, right. Nazis.

One night in the forest Soren and his brother Kludd are kidnapped by two owls. The owls bring them to the home of evil Pure Ones. There, many little owls kidnapped from various places are turned into slaves. Those who do not protest and who are weak are sent to be pickers. While stronger, faster and obedient owls get trained and become soldiers.

Though barely able to fly, Soren and his little friend Gylfie escape from slavery. They fly after Guardians of Ga’Hoole in order to bring help, inform them about evil Pure Ones’ plans and save little owlets.

This is an enjoyable film for children and might be a little bit boring for adults. As different kinds of owls were depicted in the film, those who love owls and can distinguish one kind from another will definitely enjoy it, too.

Reviewer's rating: 6.5 out of 10

The Last Airbender (2010)

This film is based on “Avatar: The Last Airbender” TV series for children aired for three seasons from 2005 to 2008. I loved these series! The idea, quotes, wisdom, stories, characters, all were perfectly worked out and each season brought only fascination and joy of watching.

I had those TV series on my mind when I strived for watching this film (I am sure many others thought like me, thus film earned lots of money). I was utterly and highly disappointed from the beginning of the film. “The Last Airbender” is an example of how beautiful and amazing masterpiece can easily be spoilt by wrong filming and wrong person. I call it masterpiece, because an animation so incredible designed for children makes adults to watch it with pleasure as well.

The film was directed or I should say ruined by M. Night Shyamalan. If you are familiar with TV series, you probably know about four human nations (Water Tribes, the Earth Kingdom, the Fire Kingdom and the Air Nomads), that the world is divided into, in the story. Each nation has one of four natural elements: water, earth, fire and air. The lives of people in each nation are based on these elements.

Benders are people who can control and manipulate the element of their nation using martial arts. There is only one person in the world, who can bend all four elements: Avatar. He is the spiritual entity of the world that keeps peace reincarnating into the next nation every time after the death and learning to bend each element from the start in each of his lives.

When Aang, young airbender is told that he is an Avatar, surprised and sad that he cannot be like everybody else, he leaves the Air temple with his flying bison Appa and gets stuck and frozen in ice for 100 years. While the person who keeps peace between all nations is away (people believe he is dead), Fire nation starts a war invading and capturing other nations and benders.

Katara (Nicola Peltz) and Sokka (Jackson Rathbone) are brother and sister from the water tribe, who find Aang (Noah Ringer), the Avatar. This is where the film starts. Whole film is rushed over the first “Book”, which is also season and depth of characters, the wisdom, stories, motives and arts are lost in this rush. The scenes are paced irrationally. The performances are dull and unlikable and the script is garbage. Aang in series smiled a lot, but Noah Ringer seemed confused and concentrated on being something special. Fire nation, that was depicted with squinty eyes and white in series, turned out to be Indian. Beside than intentional mistakes, there were number of unintentional wrongs in the film. For example, Earthbenders were trapped in Earth and they did not fight back. Where on earth did Kyoshi warriors go?

Any person, who is not familiar with series, will get even more confused than those, who are familiar. Do not watch this film unless somebody threatens you with death. Instead watch TV series, which you will most definitely enjoy with your family.

Reviewer's rating: 4.0 out of 10