The Shadows

Not the best technically or visually appealing movie. Supported by the Irish film board.

I stumbled across this movie on Tubi and I was already not expecting much going in. Right off the bat I've seen people compare this movie to the Chronicle's of Narnia, it is not a rip off in my opinion. First off I want to say that this movie is low budget, now low budget doesn't mean bad if the writing is good. The plot is messy and gets pretty contrived and lazy towards the end. The story starts off ok, I actually think the premise is pretty good. The shadow people and their world, the evil witch and the crown are all interesting. Even the little boy I found myself thinking he was a good character and his adventures with the shadow people were interesting, however the plot starts to fall apart when you can tell the writers needed a bigger budget and couldn't pull off the scenes they wanted so they just got lazy with the plot, resolving conflict in a very cheap and anticlimactic way. The third act of the movie just isn't very good. The themes were kind of unclear towards the end. Moving onto music, it was alright I guess? The audio is very strange in this movie because the people are literally whispering. I do like the witch's design and makeup very nice. All together While I was decently entertained in the beginning and middle of the movie I was losing interest towards the end and was kind of bored. It is watchable but there is a lot better out there.

I always enjoy the unwinding of a good tale, and Guardians of the Ancient Shadow Crown was a spirited journey, steeped in myth and legend. The witch, played by Natalia Kostrzewa, was mesmerizing. If you enjoy a wholesome family film rounded out with a bit of the 'ole supernatural, than give this a watch.

Normally I don't review these films. This one, I initially thought was a 1960's Narnia film because of the 3 minute intro. I was surprised that it was a 2014 film. Irish film, and clearly based on narnia, and the storyline is intriguing. Like 1960's films, it moves slow and uses contrast and shadow of dramatic black and white films. The witches crown reminds me of the necklace Arwen wears. But the dialogue is hard to understand in the beginning. The witch is like an Evil Eve from a dark Eden. 8 minutes in it has a scene reminiscent of Halloweentown. Similar to Netflix's 'shadow and bone' series about the books of the same name.

Decent for its obviously VERY low budget. (One of the props is an old doorknob in disguise) The story is decent but derivative, er, um, inspired by other sources. It holds promise but only barely delivers. Maybe they hoped to do a sequal.

Too much of the dialog is whispered, the witch is a little campy at times, especially at the beginning. The tiny bit of comic relief (look for the doorknob) was a nice try but feels a little forced or out of place. The camera cuts were a little overdone

I did like the mythology/world building (even if derivative.) I'll have to see if I can find the story it was based on.