Legend: A rather overlooked fantasy Tom Cruise film

I've been on an 80's kick lately as far as films are concerned and in my "travels down memory lane" I have rewatched a bunch of films that I originally saw when I was a kid. A lot of the time, I regret going back and revisiting the films because time has not been very kind to them. As epic as an adventure that Legend was, audiences simply didn't take to the film and it ended up losing money. They probably got that money back later with VHS and later DVD sales, but when it was released in 1985, people simply didn't like it.

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For me, the failure of this film didn't make much sense because we had a relatively huge budget for the time-period, we had an up and coming heart throb of an actor in Tom Cruise and we also had some of the most amazing costume work that films had ever seen and an amazing actor in Tim Curry playing the role of The Lord of Darkness.

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The story itself is rather childlike in that the Lord of Darkness wants to put the earth into a state of eternal darkness and he can do so by capturing mystical unicorns that can only be discovered by someone who is pure of heart which obviously is not the Lord or his minions. They instead make a trap as Princess Lili is able to summon them and of course the unicorns are immediately captured.

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Sound goofy enough yet? Well it gets weirder.

The minions who killed one of the unicorns and captured the other are of course, easily followed by the hapless Princess Lili as she follows them back to the Lord of Darkness' lair and it is there that she is of course also captured and now Jack (Tom Cruise) has to get the help of some magical buddies to rescue her as well as save the world from eternal darkness.

I will admit it isn't much of a story and we all know how this is going to turn out without even watching the film. The story isn't what makes this film pretty damn great in my mind. The costumes, the lighting, the music, and the makeup were just outstanding given the time period. Also, the complete lack of CGI at the time meant that virtually everything we see on screen had to be meticulously created by Ridley Scott and his team.

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Later on the innocent Princess Lili ends up in an evil outfit of sorts and became the goth fantasy of every boy that saw the film.

I'm not going to say that the acting was particularly good in this movie because it didn't need to be. Some of the characters are downright annoying especially Honeythorn Gump who is an always shirtless elf boy who is full of wisdom.

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I very rarely appreciate child actors in leading roles and this was something I felt even when I was still a child.

Critics recognized what I now realize in that the dialogue and acting wasn't particularly good for anyone involved because as Roger Ebert said "the effects were so good that the roles could have been played by almost anyone." I can identify with this because it is true. Tim Curry is an exceptional actor but I didn't even realize that it was him playing the Lord of Darkness until I was an adult.

_{It was very rare in the 80's for films to not have a deep-voiced narrator}

Should I watch it?

If you are a fan of fantasy films and also enjoy seeing things that not just everyone has already seen, Legend might be a good choice for you. This is a very dark film considering the PG rating and I am pretty surprised they were able to pull that off in such puritan times. I know that the imagery of the Dark Lord was able to invade my nightmares a time or two and I am sure I was not the only kid this happened to.

While the story is pretty weak and of course exceptionally predictable, the effects and makeup is extremely well done especially considering the time-period. I've seen this multiple time and still gladly would watch it again. It is, IMO, a piece of cinematic history. Despite very poor box office performance the film was nominated for multiple awards including BAFTA's and Oscars.

What did you think of Legend?