Good start, but then it gets ruined

Awesome Movie

Great movie. Not sure what people expected but I found it highly entertaining.

The story, direction, characters, and writing/dialogue is akin to taking a tranquilizer shot to the neck, but everything else was so well done.

Well, this is a pretty normal story of a man trying to become a knight but in a different reason for doing so. Although all his life he wanted to be a knight, he lives in a time where it was outlawed to be a knight. His father wants him to be a lawyer but of course he doesn't want to be one so he runs away to become what he wants. I'm not going to lie, there are a lot of clichés but they still were able to keep it slightly new. We have a boy that goes against his father's wishes, a love interest who doesn't actually care about him, a sort crazy wizard (mimicking the dragon from 'Quest for Camelot'), a cast out knight as the bad guy, and normal teachers for the boy to learn from. Though there are all these clichés, there are some things that stand out such as the laws that were being passed but sadly those are not as prominent. I mostly see a movie that tried to be like every other story about a knight. It's sad because they could have done so much to make it better and yet stuck with the normal ideas.The animation is actually rather nice, looking a bit cartoony but overall similar to 'How to Train Your Dragon' in some of the detail work. The background is so detailed that it makes the characters look slightly bland. They do fit in with the rest of the world but sometimes they I wish that they had a bit more texture to them. As for the movement, it's actually very fluid and believable even if slightly overboard. The characters don't really stand still very long, always using there hands and being a bit over the top in some occasions.The voices are alright although somewhat hard to listen to at times since our main character has such an overpowering old English voice. This is a voice that I would have thought would be on a person in a romance type setting, not from a pip squeak body like him. Don't get me wrong, the voice is pleasant compared to what they could have picked for him but it's not a voice I picture coming out of our main character. When other characters speak in the old English dialect, sometimes I can't understand what they are saying like the old man in the beginning or the little girl. The voices seem to be muddled together, like they are mumbling. The music really does not fit the show. It's just to pop starish and not enough medieval tone. I felt like I was pulled out of the story every time they started playing the soft pop songs. Don't get me wrong, the songs are good but they just don't fit.I liked the show but it didn't stand out for me. It felt as though I was watching similar movies so I can't give it a very high rating.

Wonderful story about a young boy becomes a man as he embarks on a quest to become a knight , as he wants to follow in the footsteps of his grandfather and join the Knights of the Roundtable . It deals with Justin (Freddie Highmore voice) lives in a kingdom where bureaucrats rule and knights have been ousted. Justin, the son of chief counsel to the Queen, lives in a kingdom where knights have been outlawed, and the land is over subscribed with laws for everything imaginable. His dream is to be become one of the Knights of Valour, like his grandfather was, but his father Reginald (voice by Alfred Molina) , the chief counsel to the Queen , wants his son to follow in his footsteps and become a lawyer. After an inspiring visit to his beloved grandmother and bidding farewell to his supposed lady-love Lara (Tamsin Egerton) , Justin leaves home and embarks on a quest to become a knight. Along the way he meets the beautiful, feisty Talia (Saoirse Ronan) ,and is mentored by three monks Whilst an unlikely candidate for knighthood, Justin must rise to the challenge quickly when banished former knight Sir Heraclio and his army, lead by Sota (Rupert Everett) , return and threaten to destroy the Kingdom . As Sir Heraclio (Mark Strong) wants Justin to join him and fight by his side. When the teen refuses, the king has no other choice but to unleash his flesh-hungry horde of vicious warriors on Justin and his girlfriend. Can he save the Kingdom from impending doom and a few other clichés? .This amusing 3D cartoon has great animated sequences well staged with stylish and vitality , adventure , romance , outstanding final and results to be pretty entertaining . Enjoyable action sequences in castles , monastery , falls , including amusing ending confrontation at the climax of the film and a fun flying croc . Well produced by Antonio Banderas, fresh from providing his sexy Spanish tones for four Shrek films, has clearly decided that providing the voice of a cat in some near decent animated movies has given him all the knowledge he needs to produce similar animated box office gold . While the film has an addictive color and design graphics and 3D computer generator animation itself is extremely attractive, we are in presence of a film too simplistic and Manichean in his story to end. So, unfortunately, not much progress in achieving empathy and convey emotions that excite. Along his quest, the protagonist encounters a slew of quirky characters, a fun plethora of secondaries , as a strange wizard called Melquiades voiced by David Wailians , the handsome Sir Cloirex voice by Antonio Banderas ; the monks : Blucher , Legantir and Braulio voiced by James Cosmo , Charles Dance and Barry Humphries respectively , who teach and test him in the ancient ways of the Knights of Valour . The character "Sota" is inspired in one card of the Spanish deck, which is equivalent to the Jack in the international Deck, and has a very similar look to this character. Also, the name of the villain, Heraclio, matches the best known publisher of card decks in Spain, Heraclio Fournier .Furthermore , this funny movie contains a nice Original Music by Ilan Eshkeri . Colorful and glimmer Cinematography by Javier Fernández .This Spanish motion picture was well written and directed Manuel Sicilia . Worthwhile seeing , better than average . The film will appeal to kiddies and teenagers .

A classical story. A boy whose grandfather was the last knight of a kingdom and was killed by a fallen comrade chose to follow his grandfather's path. He found the holy land of knights, received training, defeated the fallen knight to save the kingdom and found his true love. In short, it can be said to be very similar to Star War. However, "Justin and the knights of Valour" is far more underdeveloped. The story is totally predictable and there isn't a single surprise during the entire movie. It can only be considered as a watchable movie for kids with its "our hero will surely win" approach.I give it a 4

The main attraction was the voice cast, full of talented people and what a line-up. The trailer wasn't really all that promising, it was of the competently animated but thinly plotted with flat jokes kind of animated film. Unfortunately, Justin and the Knights of Valour as a film wasn't that much better than its trailer. Was it completely terrible? No. Justin and the Knights of Valour doesn't have amazing animation but it is very competent and colourful with nice textures. The only not-so-good thing in this regard was the dragon, too bumblingcrocodile-like in design. It's pretty much the same with the music, rousing and pleasant to listen to if not particularly memorable. Freddie Highmore is a likable protagonist and the wise monks played by Charles Dance, James Cosmo and Barry Humphries are a nice touch and provide what spark there is to the story.Was Justin and the Knights of Valour disappointing? Yes it was, one of the weakest animated films of 2013, or at least what has been seen by me so far.The voice cast are talented but their talents are not used well and most didn't seem to be connecting with the material. Saiorse Ronan brought some sass to her role but often sounded forced, Antonio Banderas sounded uninterested in a pale imitation of Puss in Boots role(sadly that was true of Alfred Molina as well), Rupert Everett camps it up and over-compensated and David Walliams is painfully unfunny and is just annoying. Mark Strong was reasonably good, but he had material that was beneath him and suffered from a villainous character that was poorly written and underdeveloped.They were let down by a rather dreary script that is laden with jokes that are flat in alternative to witty and dialogue that is rather lacking in life.As well as a thin story that didn't do anything imaginative or fresh with a predictable premise. The pacing felt stretched out and dull with the writing as vapid as it was, and the film ends on an unsurprising and somewhat syrupy note. The archetypal characters lack colour and interesting personalities, so it's not easy to root for them. They're poorly developed too, Strong's character was written as almost feeling like an afterthought and seems to be just there as a form of obligatory conflict.All in all a very disappointing animated family film, there was a lot of potential but the film does little with it. This is of course a subjective personal opinion- and to be taken with a pinch of salt- from a 21 year old who adores animated films and is aware of who they're mainly aimed at. That's not attention-seeking, merely to stop any stereotyping, condescension or parental ignorance(like the old, annoying and unnecessarily patronising "it's a kids film don't be so cynical). 4/10 Bethany Cox