Saturday 29 December 2012

Rise of the Guardians


 
Rise of the Guardians appeared with very little promotion but the knowledge that Hugh Jackman voices a rabbit is more than enough to get me to the cinema.  It is more out of formality than anything else that I would like to confirm, for the record, that I have not read the books the film is based upon.  It may be a different blog but I do enjoy singing the same tune.
PLOT:  Jack Frost (Chris Pine) wakes from his summer sleep and finds himself transported to the North Pole where he must help the Guardians - North (Alec Baldwin), Tooth (Isla Fisher), Bunny (Hugh Jackman) and Sandy to defeat the evil Pitch Black (Jude Law).  END PLOT

The plot of Rise of the Guardians plays out like an animated mash-up between The Bourne Identity and The Avengers although admittedly I wasn’t able to make these comparisons myself.  This is no bad thing as it puts a different spin on what is essentially a familiar coming of age storyline.
The voice work of the cast is excellent with Alec Baldwin’s Russian Santa and Hugh Jackman’s Australian Easter Bunny being the most memorable and entertaining of the bunch.  Jude Law does deserve a mention for his uber posh English villain Pitch Black.

There is plenty of humour mostly in the form of the idiotic elves or put-upon Yetis but as it transpires that I have a genuine affection for Rise of the Guardians I found the humour more entertaining than I probably should have.
Rise of the Guardians is a gorgeous film and the 3D version does add some depth to the animation.  Unfortunately the pop out moments never stray beyond a few snowflakes at the beginning and end of the film.  The film was enjoyable enough to look past this but if the option was there I would have chosen 2D.

Pixar has held the monopoly on animated films for years but they were easily knocked off their pedestal with How To Train Your Dragon.  While not quite up to the standard of How To Train Your Dragon, Rise of the Guardians does show that the quality of Dreamworks animation is on the rise. 
Rise of the Guardians gets an 8/10 but poor box office returns means that we may not get any more films in the franchise which is a shame. 

4 comments:

  1. It had some terrible box office returns stateside as well, that being said I've heard it was solid. At least it was an enjoyable experience!

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    1. It was very much solid - I would even say it was stronger than solid!

      Such a pity it didn't do well at the Box Office.

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  2. I thought it was a great wee movie, the santa was brilliant and the naughty nice tatoo's were class although Eden wasnt so keen on the swearing easter bunny.

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    1. I can't believe that Eden didn't like the BLOODY swearing bunny! ;-)

      Glad you enjoyed it!

      K

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