Visually spectacular... but that's about it

Rating: 5/10 (30 March 2013)

I can say that I really had high expectations for this movie and I was actually kind of excited for Dreamworks to do a movie that was more drama/action oriented than their usually comedies... but this isn't what I was hoping for.
The movie establishes the main character as Jack Frost, who is just your average... holiday? Ummm... pagan deity? Random being that no one ever believed in? It's never really established what Jack Frost is other than a dude who wants to be believed in. Since nobody believes in Jack Frost, that also means that no one can see him. However, Jack Frost is chosen by the "Guardians" which are apparently... a group of holiday figures and kids' stories that... protect kids... I guess. The Guardians are chosen by the moon and apparently the Man on the Moon is the almighty deity/being that decides everything... as you can see things aren't really explained in this movie too clearly. The moon never talks yet everyone talks to it which just kind of comes off as odd.
Either way the Boogey Man (also known as Pitch Black) is returning and is jealous that all of the Guardians get so much attention and yet he doesn't so he decides to rule over the world in a reign of fear and terror. He does this by... making kids scared and not believe in the Guardians so that then the Guardians become weak and powerless. Now this concept actually sounds pretty interesting, BUT the awkwardness and rushed manner of this movie kind of ruins it.
Let me clarify a bit more: As I mentioned earlier a lot of stuff happens without much explanation like who is the Man on the Moon and why does he choose Guardians and holiday figures, or why is the device used to choose Guardians is obviously the Haakskeekah ritual, how come Pitch Black's powers and abilities increase and decrease at random for the sake of making the movie fair, why do important scenes flash by quickly and unimportant 3D spectacle scenes get so much attention? Don't get me wrong, this movie had a lot of potential and it looks absolutely wonderful, but everything that makes a good movie is pretty much missing.
The action: I'm not going to lie, I was really disappointed by the action in this movie. The movie promised action in the commercials and maybe some intense fights but pretty much every fight in this movie is over within a minute if even that. All of the action is rushed and kind of dull. For example Sandman had a lot of potential for some cool action and yet he only uses these tiny sand whips. This didn't make much sense because Sandman is supposed to be a sort of counterpart of Pitch Black. When Pitch Black is weak then Sandman is strong... but he isn't! Also in the end of the movie *spoilers* Pitch Black has a giant army of darkness that is really impressive but then one kid touches it and a piece of the darkness turns into hope... but what about the rest of the sea of darkness? It just disappears from one shot to the next with no explanation or visual of where it went. To add to that, Pitch Black's defeat didn't make any sense. It would've been clever if the movie had explained that his Nightmare's hunt fear, but that was never established in the movie. In the movie he creates Nightmare's to scare people, not to hunt down their fears.
There are some other issues such as there being multiple scenes in the movie which are there just for the 3D effects. What makes it more annoying is that most of the movie's time comes from these "spectacle" scenes, so while I'm sure it was cool in the theaters it just doesn't really translate well onto the TV. The movie puts a strange emphasis on a group of kids who we see many times and this is one of the most annoying things about the movie is that the plot relies on us understanding some pretty cliché and generic kids. What makes it even worse is that since none of the kids are the main characters it also means that we don't get to know them other than the plot devices that they are... it's like having a main character who isn't the main character.
All in all Rise of the Guardians isn't a terrible movie but it is definitely a weak movie. The plot is rushed, many things aren't explained, a lot of the characters are hard to get interested in, the dialogue is so so, the action is okay, the movie focuses a lot on spectacles to progress the plot, and in the end the movie just seems like another "holiday" movie. The plot isn't strong and the movie isn't great yet people will still watch it and enjoy it... oh yeah and the movie has that whole "believe" message that all holiday movies have. If there was one thing I liked it was that in the beginning of the movie Santa Claus is listening to the Stravinsky's Firebird Suite and throughout the movie his interjections are usually the names of Russian composers.