From Zack Snyder, director of 300 and Watchmen, comes a CGI story based on a childrens' adventure series.

The story centers around a young owl, Soren, who yearns for the same type of adventures as told in folk stories about 'The Guardians', warrior owls that may or may not exist. Soren and his brother, Kludd, are kidnapped by 'pure' owls (large scary ones that use small owls as slaves). Soren escapes and begins a perilous 5 minute journey to find and get help from 'The Guardians'.

There was nothing in this movie that utterly failed, but nothing memorable either. Its animated by the same company that brought you 'Happy Feet', which I absolutely hated. I felt the penguins just weren't all that animated and the owls here have a similar problem. Its also difficult to distinguish some of the owls from the others. The story is certainly aiming for a younger child audience but it has dark themes and some pretty aggressive fights scenes towards the end. My 6 year old daughter actually asked to sit on my lap half way through a fight scene. The voice work is passable, but Jim Sturgess just annoyed the hell out of me with the constant, pleading tone in his dialogue.

The 3D didn't work for this movie the way it did for 'How to Train a Dragon', but it did add a much needed sense of depth to the adventure during the flying scenes.

It is meant to be the first in a series, but it would have to be a critically acclaimed sequel to garner interest after this effort.

Barely worth a theater visit, mostly likely best viewed in 3D.

2.5 Stars.