GUARDIANS OF TIME (2022)

GUARDIANS OF TIME (2022)

Tagline: None.

(Action, Adventure, Family) [PG]

ACE Entertainment has been involved in some pretty crappy crap. Stuff I wouldn’t watch even blindfolded, but both GHOSTER and this movie have some appeal for young audiences. For some reason, the studio does seem a little obsessed with dragons. So yeah, this movie has another dragon just like GHOSTER did. I think going in, I half expected a really crappy ASYLUM-style movie with magic chicks kicking everything, but no, this is a very tame, very light-hearted tale for kids. The posters as a result are super misleading and really for no reason at all. ACE could have easily just said, this is a kid's fantasy adventure along the lines of BRIDGE TO TERABITHIA or THE SPIDERWICK CHRONICLES only on maybe one-fourth of the budget. 

Where this one kind of gets lost is in how complicated the time powers work in this thing. I was able to get my head around it, but I kind of doubt the target audience is going to. The other issue is that this isn’t a complete story. The ending kind of leans heavily on the idea that they thought this would be successful enough to make a part II. There are a few pacing issues, but for the most part, it moves right along. I am also a bit concerned that they seemingly just erased one of the major characters. This isn’t Optimus Prime dying in TRANSFORMERS concerning, but it’s very “let’s pull the rug out from underneath these kids” which kind of sucks. 

Acting wise Ava Torres plays Alex who spends most of the movie worried that she is too young to hang out with the other girls. She is basically the opposite of Dani from HOCUS POCUS. Ava does a great job in the role and it seems that just about everyone is impressed with her. She is probably 10 years old now in real life and has a resume with 18 projects either done or in production. Samantha Ryan takes on the role of Sybil the oldest of the four main girls in the movie. This was her only role to date and she does a good job as does Carley Colemon as Zoey. Coleman was only in one other acting job aside from this. That was a short. We also get Nia Salaam who plays Theo. She also does a solid job and like Carley and Samantha, this was also her first feature film. The main male lead ends up being Michael Nguyen who plays Pamphilos. I will say he was good in the role, but no one in this thing is going for an Oscar or anything. 

It’s not very often you are going to get raptors, aliens, and dragons in the same movie, but that is what’s going on here. This thing is hindered by a shaky plot and no real effort to give us an emotional connection to the characters. Having said that, this is a movie that is made for kids. So adults bashing it for not meeting some counseling session the film was supposed to have in store for them is really weird. The movie is also clearly made on a budget, but the design work is actually pretty cool as well as the concepts. 

Overall this movie is not the best kid’s movie ever made, but it’s okay. This one gets a 3 OUT OF 7. I have definitely seen worse. This movie is not nearly as bad as some of the haters make it seem. 

GRAPHICS ARE THE PROPERTY OF ACE ENTERTAINMENT FILMS GROUP AND ARE USED FOR REVIEW PURPOSES ONLY.