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Films With Friends: Rise of the Guardians Review

 
Gardians Smushed
Gardians Smushed
Gardians Smushed

 
At A Glance...
 

Genre:
 
Age Rating:
 
Actor: , , ,
 
Length: 1:37
 
Release Date: 11/21/2012
 
Studio: Dreamworks Animation
 
Story Line: When the evil spirit Pitch launches an assault on Earth, the Immortal Guardians team up to protect the innocence of children all around the world.
 
Producer: Guillermo del Toro, Michael Siegel, William Joyce
 
Final Score
 
 
 
 
 
4/ 5


User Rating
1 total rating

 

We liked?


Superb animation, creative re-imaging of classic characters and great casting

Not so much?


The movie's villain could have been expounded upon to add more to the story.


Final Fiendish Findings?

Overall, I’d say The Rise of the Guardians is a great film, fresh and entertaining with a storyline that left everyone satisfied and perhaps wanting more. I would not be surprised to see a sequel of this film in a couple years time if the box office receipts tally up well. However, I hope that they can keep up the momentum of this film ,which made the time fly by.

0
Posted November 26, 2012 by

 
Full Fiendish Findings?
 
 

Welcome to our new column, Films with Friends.About once a month or so, I will be posting a review of a movie that encompasses not only my opinion on the film, but those of others that went to see the movie with me as well. Offering a full review followed by comments of friends, this column hopes to give you a more wide sweeping view of what movie goers think of the latest films. This month…

 

 

Rise of the Guardians, directed by Peter Ramsey.

Rise of the Guardians hits theaters right in time for the holidays, with a cadre of classic children’s characters in tow. However, these are not the archetypal holiday figures you may be used to; this film provides a bold re-imaging of those characters we all grew up with. Santa (Alec Baldwin) is an imposing Russian figure with tattoo sleeves that goes by the name North. The Easter Bunny (Hugh Jackman) is Australian with a penchant for boomerangs. And Jack Frost (Chris Pine) is a rambunctious and somewhat troubled 300 year old with no memory of his past. So right away you can expect something fresh and new from this film.

From the trailer (you can see it here) you might expect a pretty straight forward comedy adventure, but surprisingly you get a lot more. The story delves into themes like the value of childhood, the innocence of belief, and the memories you make which can shape you into who you become. Recognition and the need to connect with the world around you is also an overarching theme that appears in both Jack’s story and the actions of the movie’s villain Pitch (voiced by Jude Law). But the messages are not heavy handed, and therein I believe is one of the major successes of this film. Many children’s films tend to beat the audience over the head with its message, but Rise of the Guardians doesn’t. Rather, it tells a story and leaves you to draw your own conclusions. It respects its audience while at the same time entertaining them, and it does indeed entertain.

The film’s running time of roughly an hour and a half is not wasted; the pace is great with no lulls or lack of action. It is a pure adventure comedy with a couple battles and some great comedic scenes involving both the main cast and supporting characters, most notably the elves and yetis that work for North. The voice acting is well done, especially in the case of Alec Baldwin. If I didn’t know previous to seeing the movie that he was the voice of North, I would have been surprised when reading the end credits. The animation was impeccable, which is what we’ve come to expect from the Dreamworks team, and the style with which they presented each guardian really lent a lot to their overall character.

One negative thing that I can say about Rise of the Guardians is that the villain, Pitch, could have perhaps used a bit more flushing out. His intentions and reasons are stated, but with such an interesting character it would have been nice to see some more of his story. As it was, he was a good villain but was left  a bit two dimensional with the little insight we were granted.

The tooth fairy also could have used a bit more explanation. She was beautiful (as you can see here) but I am still a bit confused as to why she seemed to be part humming bird. Though her world and work were well defined, I felt a quick word as to her look could have left me a bit less puzzled by her presentation.

Overall, I’d say The Rise of the Guardians is a great film, fresh and entertaining with a storyline that left everyone satisfied and perhaps wanting more. I would not be surprised to see a sequel of this film in a couple years time if the box office receipts tally up well. However, I hope that they can keep up the momentum of this film ,which made the time fly by.

 

But don’t take my word for it…(The Friends opinions):

Name: Mike
Age: 29
Occupation: Liason/ IT Student
Mike’s Opinion: The movie was not at all what I expected, which was a good thing.  While the trailer paints the movie as a jovial fun time, there is a darker element to the overall story, coupled with a story about childhood innocence.  The voice acting was phenomenal and every character seemed well written.
Rating: 4/5 Stars

 

Name: Heather
Age: 30
Occupation: Mortgage QA/Library Science grad student
Heather’s Opinion: I enjoyed it and thought the animation was gorgeous. I’m not a fan of sickeningly sweet kids’ movies, but this had enough darker elements. The character designs and details, like Santa’s tattoos and the Easter Bunny’s stone eggs, were great, but I wish the elves were featured a little more – you pretty much see all of the funny elf parts in the trailers/previews.
Rating: 4/5 Stars

 

Name: Evan
Age: 31
Occupation: Podcaster and Corporate Drone
Evan’s Opinion: I like that it felt like it had a mythology written by children, with the man on the moon being the boss and all, but still had enough going on that showed off the adult backgrounds, like the Celtic eggs for the Easter bunny. Good voice work, especially Alec Baldwin.
Rating: 4 /5 stars

 

 

 


Laurel Deneen

 
Lover of movies, television, theater, comics and general nerdery, Laurel hails from Minneapolis Minnesota. She has a geeky husband who requires more than the average amount of attention, a dog who thinks she's a dragon and she secretly longs to be a penguin.


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