Horror Movie Reviews
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Title: Legend (2005) |
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Review of Legend
- This strange, 1985 experiment by Ridley Scott (Blade Runner) starred the up-and-coming Tom Cruise in a fairy-tale world of dwarfs and unicorns and demons. After the horn of a unicorn is broken, darkness and winter descend upon the world. Cruise's character, helped along by a magic sprite played by David Bennent (The Tin Drum), descends into hell to save paradise. This movie is almost a classic case of art direction gone amok. The somewhat amorphous Cruise doesn't lend much dramatic focus or artistic definition, but the drama between Tim Curry's satanic majesty and Mia Sara's character, who becomes a sort of princess of the netherworld, is pretty captivating. A mixed experience all around that makes one wish it had been more successful. --Tom Keogh
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Comments for Legend
- Posted on 2008-07-03
Warning about this version of the Movie
If you loved the original movie and soundtrack DO NOT BUY THIS DVD. It is altered and much of the original music is different. I WAS VERY DISAPPOINTED and whomever "monkied" with this version of the movie for the DVD made it a worse production than the original.
Score: 1
- Posted on 2008-06-18
Paid for new I recieved Used.
I recently purchased Legend from this company. I paid for it new price and I recieved a Used Copy. It was already opened and the DVD's were scratched as well as parts on inside cover were damaged. I am dissapointed with that.
Score: 1 - Posted on 2008-06-17
2 & 1/2: A Gorgeous Disaster
If this film had been blessed with a cohesive, original plot and adequate writing to match its truly breathtaking cinematography and art direction, it could have been a classic.
Instead, it was a gigantic commercial and artistic failure for director Ridley Scott and...well, practically everyone involved. Tom Cruise--at the time hot off the 'Risky Business' craze--was lucky to have escaped with a career after this massive blunder.
The story? Well, an evil Satan-type named "Darkness" wishes to put the kibosh on sunlight (his destroyer) by killing a couple of unicorns and kidnapping a hottie-Princess while he's at it. Thwarting his plan are a scraggly "forest-child" (Cruise) and a gaggle of elvish midgets (or Little People). That's the story/plot. The dialogue is even worse. Stilted, and full of more vacuums than a black hole, the writing and pacing is hideous, under-developed, and throwaway.
Sadly, this need not have been the case. Strictly visually, this is an absolute triumph. Utterly beautiful, captivating, surreal, exquisite, almost operatic, if you will. Sets, locations, costumes, scenery--all achingly superb. To watch this film with the sound turned completely off while playing something from Mozart is to trip the light fantastic, as they say. What you "see" is the genius of Ridley Scott as a visual film-maker. What you "hear" and perceive is one of the most bafflingly awful scripts ever thrown (like cold spaghetti) against a film of this expense and presumed ambition.
The performances are at the mercy of the bad bad writing, though David Bennent as Gump manages to wield the charisma pretty well. Cruise is awful. Mia Sara briefly engaging. Billy Barty criminally underused. Tim Curry is unintentionally, hysterically hammy in his scenes as Darkness (except maybe during the otherwise badly cut "wooing" interlude with the madeover princess). Alice PLayten as Blix is impressive, but mostly because of the genuinely frightening costume. The unicorns manage to get all of their lines right. The chick who played the fairy, Oona, is convincing. Whomever was inside the Meg Mucklebones costume was VERY convincing.
Anyhow, this deluxe version features the theater-cut and the remastered Director's Cut, and it must be admitted that the added scenes in the latter DO help the story make a little more sense, flesh it out a bit more, but it's still a comparatively crappy tale. It's also debatable whether the original score is better than the cool Tangerine Dream score that was eventually used for the film's commercial release in the '80s. Both have their merits, but neither can save the meat & potatoes of this paradoxical flick.
The consolation is that it is so mesmerizingly beautiful that every fan of fantasy MUST own it and cherish it for this quality alone. It's almost Felliniesque in its power to visually entrance the viewer. I'm telling you again, if there had been a savvy story, proper pacing, and worthy dialogue, this could have been up there with Scott's immortal cult classics. But it ain't.
Get it anyway if you're a Scott and/or fantasy buff, or get it for the real young kiddies who won't care how utterly wretched the writing is, and so you can scare them senseless. Young and old will be glued to what they see on the screen and thrilled by that alone.
Score: 2
- Posted on 2008-05-31
Quality
I have always loved this movie, it's the perfect type of fantasy movie. Tom cruise as a young man in shorts and chainmail and a wicked rendition of the devil played by Tim Curry. Totally wicked.
Score: 5
- Posted on 2008-05-21
A fantasy masterpiece
Best Fantasy movie ever! Heads above LOTR. Jack (Cruise) must penetrate the frightful castle of Lord Darkness (Curry) and fight him following the kidnapping of a unicorn. Lily (Sara) is wooed by Darkness. Jack must win her back and save the unicorn before the sun sets forever. For best results, watch with the Tangerine Dream Soundtrack. Easily in my top 5.
Score: 5