Rise Of The Guardians

Although not set around the feastive period, Rise Of The Guardians is this years Cinematic Christmas Feeler. Jack Frost teams up Santa Claus, The Easter Bunny, The Tooth Fairy and Sandman to help thwart the Boogieman - Pitch Black.

Called upon by The Man in The Moon, Jack Frost (Chris Pine) the spirit of winter wonders the world alone and unseen, controling and adjusting the snow and frost to cause fun, inconvienience and necessity. His Lone Ranger days are over when the Guardians; Brought together to protect the hopes and beliefs of children all over the world are threatened by the return of Pitch Black (Jude Law) and are instructed to enlist his help.

Descriptions of these legendary characters have been passed on through time; The Sandman, a weirdo in pyjamas who throws dust in your eyes to help you sleep, The Tooth Fairy a small and cute being with butterfly wings who barters your teeth for some change, but as times have progressed it was about time that these legends got a makeover.
Voiced by Alec Baldwin; Santa "Schwarzenegger" Claus is a Russian accented tattoo sleeved badass whose reindeers rival the biggest and fastest stallions and who's helpers are less elves and more Sasquatch. Equipped with a pair of swords I'd take the phrase; Santa Clause Is Coming To Town a little more seriously if I knew he was round the corner.
Close your eyes and picture a mix between Bugs Bunny and a bench pressing kangaroo and you have the Easter Bunny. Mr Not-So-Cute-And-Fluffy has a slight temper and is in constant competition with Jack Frost over a decades old 'Misunderstanding' as Hugh Jackman delivers a comical performance and gives a slight insight into the magic behind the world of Easter.

The best character by far had to be Jude Laws sanctimonious Pitch Black, who was somewhere between the Grim Reaper and Hades. We can hardly blame the guy for wanting to cause fear and misery when it's in his nature to do nothing else. Yet his silky yet sinister voice makes it hard to be on his side as each word ripples another round of goosebumps. As he is the ultimately the reason for destroying the hopes and dreams of children all over the world. Dramatic. But True.

Though the scenes were beautiful and the graphics were amazing it sometimes felt as though you had started listening partway through a conversation as random unanswerable questions who just pop into your mind from time to time such as where did Pitch Black come from and how did he escape? Why is The Man in The Moon in charge? Perhaps however these are just the nitpicky questions of an adult, in the mind of a child the movie ticks all the right boxes from the loveable main character to the slightly sympathetic for Villain.
Although revamped to give a more modernised feel and physical personification they are all still very much the characters of stories we grew up loving. This may be no Arthur Christmas but this film will definitely get you buzzing for the magic of Christmas and may reignite that small torch of belief we all still have buried within us.