Owls of Ga'hool: Legend of the Guardians

This is one of the most visuall stunning films I have seen in a while, for the single reason that it is about owls. Owls are not a species that have been explored much in narrative, especially movies. The only thing similar I can think of are the Silverwing books which were adapted into a brief 2D animated series where the characters were anthropomorphasized rather then drawn realisticly.

The owls almost strike that perfect balance between actually looking like real owls and having human enough expression to make them relatable characters. If they err, they err on the realism side; it can be a tad difficult to tell characters apart simply because they do look so real.
Add to that the fact that we have owls in battle armor and this movie looks pretty awsome. Animals in armor is always cool. Remember The Golden Compass? Yeah, it was universally considered a pretty terrible movie, but nobody can deny that that polar bear was kick-ass.
Not to mention the stunning and sweeping backgrounds of this movie, from eerie mist filled forests, amazing Owl cities, and evil fortresses of misery, every setting in this movie looks incredibly. So props to the visuals on this, this is some wonderfull work!

The only area where the movie begins to fall apart is in some of the key plot points which just arent fleshed out or explained well enough. Now this movie is based on a series of books, so I am sure that there is information that was left out from the film, and Im actually quite interested in reading the books now. Although the movie is still complelty enjoyable it does feel a little bit forced when key details remain unexplained. What ARE these evil/magical 'flecks' of metal? How on earth does 'moonblinking' work? If the movie might have slowed down a little bit to explain some of these things it would have felt much more well rounded.

Depsite this, its still a very engaging storyline with sympathetic characters.
The movie also makes some very interesting statements on war and the glory of battle. The concepts of fighting for what is right and yet, not enjoying, or taking glory from it, is a key underlining aspect of the story and its characters.
It leaves room for a sequel, which I suspect is because it is based after all on a series of books, which probably continue a long ways past this movie.

The music is great, including a great theme track from Owl City, a band I fall more in love with the more I hear from.
Also? Owls in Battle Armor!!