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The premise of genetically-altered super-soldiers is as old and worn out as the hills, but as Marvel has demonstrated, if handled well, it can be entertaining, stimulating, and fun.

Guardians is none of these things.

A ponderous, shambling effort, with CGI that ranges between decent (for the machinery) to amateur (for Ursus), pacing and directing that will send you to sleep, and characters that have all the charisma of an old-school telephone dial tone, "Guardians" is barely watchable.

The frustrating thing is that there were some genuinely good ideas in this movie when it came to some of the set pieces and choreography of the fight scenes, but they were so clumsily executed it just leaves you disappointed. The director has no clue how to build tension appropriately, and I was grateful for the small handful of intentional jokes spattered through the film - they helped compensate for the many unintentional ones made as a result of a lack of acting and animating talent.

Not recommended.

Whilst widely panned by critics, and considered inferior to its predecessor, "Through the Looking Glass" is hardly the travesty it has been made out to be. While it certainly takes a great deal of liberty with the original material it is based on, and lacks the energy and drive of the original, it dares to pace itself more slowly and give characters more heart than the original, pun intended. We finally get to see how the Red Queen came to be the decapitation- happy individual she has become, given a decent if slightly heavy- handed fable on the nature of time, and the movie focuses more on the key characters required to tell the story, rather than trying to spread it too thinly over many minor characters. Do I recommend this? Yes. It's not brilliant, but it's worth a watch, if one is in the mood for something a little more slower paced.

There is a lot to say in favor of Zootopia, and I think its message of tolerance is a good one. The animation is excellent, the characters personable and engaging, the sound-track appropriate, there is plenty of humor, and the pacing neither rushes nor drags.

However, the movie is also terribly cliché, derivative, overly referential, and the good message it has is not delivered with any subtlety, instead beat into the viewing audience in a ham-handed manner that sadly detracts from the movie. The message of tolerance I feel is also muddied given the nature of the distinct predator and prey species portrayed in the movie; whilst humans are humans, and it is only our behavior that categorizes us as aggressive or submissive, in the world of Zootopia, there certainly was legitimate reason to be concerned when only predator species were "reverting" to their primitive aggressive ways.

Despite these flaws, it's an enjoyable family movie. Recommended.

I'm still giving this movie a 3 out of 10, simply because of the setting visuals which are spectacular without a doubt. But all the wonderful rendering in the world cannot save a fumbling clichéd plot and weak characters.

Stereotyped characters that are at their weakest (Pixar's former worst effort in this regard was in Cars 2) are the worst offenders here. There's a distinct lack of real character development that makes you want to connect with the protagonist - or anyone - in this film. This isn't what I would expect from Pixar.

The main character rendering is so at odds with the gorgeous backgrounds, that it feels more like a demo reel for scenery rendering than a movie. If as much love and attention was put into the rendering of the characters, it would have been a step in the right direction towards redeeming the story... but there is the biggest flaw of all.

The story is hackneyed, clichéd, old, tired... and nothing is brought to the table to make it stand out in any way at all. Just because you swap the characters of a Boy And His Dog movie to be a Dino And His Human, it's not enough, not nearly enough to make the story special. So much potential was wasted. And for a world populated predominantly by dinosaurs, the entire world feels so *empty*. We meet a bare handful of dinosaurs. I get that the story is set in the "wilderness", but whilst the Plant kingdom is rendered in all its glory, Kingdom Animalia is basically no-where to be seen, resulting in a sterile, lifeless environment for the most part.

Pixar should have shelved this story, and never bothered bringing it to theaters, cut their losses, and moved onto something else.

For a start... it definitely did not warrant a theatre release.

No additional effort was put into the animation beyond the TV series other than the opening credits animation, at all. Would have been a nice two-parter to link the existing My Little Pony seasons 3 and 4 together.

Two, it's so obvious the entire movie is a giant advertisement for Hasbro to sell anthro-based dolls based on popular characters. The way the characters are introduced and stylised, it's just glaring and grating.

The basic story? As predictable as ever, even for a MLP episode. Which is fine for a MLP episode, but not for a movie, hence back to my original belief it didn't warrant a theatre release. The fact that it's set in such a tedious and over-used setting as a school formal? Awful. So much opportunity for this to have been done better was wasted on a cliché. The ponies are regressed to teenage years when in Ponyville they are already mares, ie mature. The movie should have reflected this, and used it to encourage girls (and guys) in a more positive direction than what it does.

The writing was about as standard as the series, but I'm disappointed with the whole image of the movie. Everyone is thin and anaemic, with the exception of Snails, and lo and behold, the unpopular "bad guy henchman" is fat. The ONLY fat person in the entire movie. In the series, all the ponies are rounded, or at least full-bodied; all this movie does is perpetuate the stick-insect mentality of fashion that girls are now being encouraged to pursue. Which leads to...

Concepts of friendship are nice to see in this movie, and I'm glad they are there. But the series does a much better job of teaching those concepts in a manner that isn't muddied by imagery that is counter-productive to many children's' self-esteem. This movie is a step backwards for the quality of the show, not a step forwards.

So, overall? Poor. It *could* have been so much more. Instead, we got dreck. It's 4, perhaps a 5 out of 10. For the absolute littlies only, and I say that with hesitation given the body-image impressions it's setting up for them.

I hope this stays a one-off, and is never attempted again.

The only reason I couldn't give the film a full 10 stars is because the dialogue, whilst understandably aimed at a much younger audience, was almost patronizingly simplistic in places, and relied far to much on repetition to get the message across. Fewer words and more subtle actions could have achieved a truly brilliant film, though I'm hoping this is just a side-effect of the subtitling; an English dub with more carefully chosen words would easily overcome this very minor flaw.

That said, this film is a real gem. When Gabu the Wolf "accidentally" befriends Mei the goat, a bond between them forms that is far stronger than either one anticipates. Each finds in the other something neither has had before (though this is made less obvious with Mei than it is with Gabu), and they defy both of their respective kinds to seek a friendship that would be permanent.

As an adult, I have to admit that some of the dialogue and the choice of editing during the film made it seem that there was something in their relationship that was quite carnal in nature: Their both wearing of scarves; Gabu's recollection of how he didn't fit in with the other wolves and his later lamentation of why he was born a wolf. One could quite easily assume that this was an allegory for a homosexual relationship. The friendship could have been demonstrated to be just as strong without such suggestions being made, but an innocent young child watching this film will not likely draw such conclusions. Instead, they will simply see two unlikely friends forge a wonderful friendship, and this is how it should be.

The music is wonderful, and the visuals are stunning; the high-definition version of this film is jaw-droppingly beautiful to watch. The voice work is typically childish in delivery (given the nature of the film) but it doesn't detract from the emotion that is delivered throughout the film.

You know a film has succeeded when you reach the end of it, you wipe a tear from your eye, and you wish both protagonists all the best with the rest of their relationship.

I would recommend this film to all.