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Legend (Ultimate Edition) Customer Reviews (4 - 6 of 68 Reviews)

awesome
this movie is by far one of my favorite older movies. i love watching this movie.

The dreams of youth are the regrets of maturity.
In school you are sometimes asked to summarize extremely lengthy books into one or two sentences to evaluate your knowledge on that certain piece of literature. To me, that always seemed ridiculous because how could you accurately depict the true value of a 300-page book within two measly paragraphs? That feeling is exactly my reaction to Ridley Scott's overly produced and underly executed film, Legend. Throughout the film I felt that Scott had the potential to go anywhere and everywhere, really making this underground cult fantasy film bigger than The Neverending Story and Lord of the Rings put together. I felt this way because 80s fantasy films seemed to be less commercial and more imaginative than those released in the past decade. I was waiting for a stronger outing of Willow, but instead I saw Legend disintegrate right before my eyes. It was as if Ridley had 300-plus pages of material, but had to condense it all into two very small paragraphs. What ultimately happened was that we, the viewer, were cheated out of quite a bit of potential visuals, creative lands, and mythical creatures. We were instead handed a body of work that seemed to grasp at straws instead of development, weak heroic characters with an exaggeration on Curry's over-the-top "Price of Darkness" portrayal, and a finale that teetered on sarcasm instead of excitement.

Legend, in my eyes, begins with an unsettling "bang". We see no characters outside of a menacing voice that speaks in rhyme and talks about the end of light. Scott pulls us gracefully in by giving us these highly imaginative characters and a world that we think will be full of Hensen-esque creatures. Alas, immediately after pulling at our dark sides, he slaps us in the face with what seems like an hour of pointless drivel with conversation between the Princess Lilly and her man-boy Jack (played by Mia Sara and Tom Cruise respectively). Caught between horrid writing, unfamiliar past experiences, and a uni-brow the size of Kansas on Cruise's face, we are left with nothing to do except wait. With the promise of unicorns and a possible dark future, we wait. The unicorns finally appear and darkness does become momentarily triumphant, but what never brings us back to that immediate opening of dark delight is that Scott never recreates it for us. Legend fails, not just because of the shallow acting, but because the story never quite hits the momentum it had at the beginning of the film. While this critic blames Ridley's choice of Sara and Cruise as our guides, I do think he could have strengthened the story to be a bit more energetic and sweeping. I felt trapped throughout this story, as if the walls that contained Princess Lilly were the actual boundaries of the film. This hurt Legend. Unlike other fantasy films of this nature, the walls of a structure may encase our hero, but we know there are bigger and more exotic things happening around the fictional planet. With Legend, I never felt that. I felt as if Scott kept us on a lighted path without the comfort or luxury of any outside imagination. I needed, maybe even wanted, to see more of this planet Scott created, but the door was shut abruptly in my face.

I would like to state again that I thought Scott had good intentions with this film, but the final result (either from its original bad screenings to the infamous "director's cut") just didn't feel like it was worth the two hours one had to put into the movie. Scott had some (I stress "some") moment of excitement, moments of imagination, and moments of sheer fantasy, but they were all clouded by the brazen push of over-the-top melodrama and visions. What makes most fantasy films work is that you care both for the story as well as the characters. In Legend, the story seems weak because we care nothing for the characters. Cruise's portrayal of Jack could have been done by anyone who passed Acting 101, while Curry does give the BEST performance of the film, it is another case of "anyone-itis". Without the horns or the bold eyes, anyone could have been underneath the mask. Curry did great, but take him out of the costume and ask the question, does he stand-alone? Follow this up with some elves and dwarves that seemed more cliché than original, and the final result is an ill-fated Legend. I wanted to like this film. I knew about the cult-ish status of Scott's fantasy attempt, but in the end, I felt bored instead of moved by the overall picture.

Overall, I cannot recommend a second viewing to this film. I went in expecting a larger-than-life Willow or Neverending Story (or at least enough darkness to counter Alien or Blade Runner), but instead finished the film thinking that in today's standards this would have counted as a "direct to video" release. Scott, as well as his brother, are fabulous directors and continue to push the boundaries on modern cinema, but Legend failed. Legend failed because of the story as well as the acting. Both were not in place, therefore, both could not work together. During the commentary, Scott mentions his passion for Cocteau's Beauty and the Beast, but it was obvious that he was just name-dropping to gain film critic's respect. Legend, if anything, insults Cocteau's masterpiece. From the wrongly used word of the title (not a legend but a fairy-tale), to Cruise's uni-brow, to the cheaply forgettable ending, Legend didn't impress and it would be very difficult to sit through another viewing without some cash in hand.

Grade: ** out of *****

NOT one of the best
Tom Cruise struggles with the forces of darkness,goes on an epic journey--and suffers from a perpetual Bad Hair Day.His Afro IS this movie's special effect.Thankfully,Ridley Scott moved beyond this clunker.

The premise involving the unicorns is cute,but cuteness isn't enough to save the movie.

The "Epic Journey" is long,boring&drawn-out.The final music video is so terribly sappy (and it is BAD '80 music),it's practically unwatchable,let alone hearable.

If you want to a GOOD cheesy fantasy movie from the '80s,get "Krull" instead.Or,if you enjoy ogling a blue-eyed short,hairy-footed hero,sit down for all 9 hours of "Lord of the Rings."

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