A RAMBLE IN FOREIGN LANDS : "LEGEND"

This is NOT a film I would have expected from Ridley Scott. On many levels. On one hand it is an old school fantasy with all the visual effects – or lack thereof – pertaining to its era. But to be fair, technology was a tad limited and frankly he made up for the lack of special effects, computers and whatnot in his later films. Secondly, it is a fantasy, as it’s a fairy story. Literally. Yes, Scott later made a bit more of a name for himself in the genre of historical epics but hey. A man can change his mind. No, it’s just that when I picked this one up in the library and it actually said “directed by Ridley Scott” on it, I kinda took a double take. But it had Tim Curry in it. On a smaller and slightly less important note, there was a very young Tom Cruise in it. What, I asked myself, could be the harm? I was write to gamble, as it turned out. This, boys and girls, is a “proper” good one. For this particular Legend we are transported to a magical land. A land of gnomes and fauns, of mystical forest dwellers and beautiful princesses. In this land, there is one particular princess of the name of Lilly whose beauty and goodness is known far and wide. Many would like to wed her but her heart belongs to only one person and that is Jack (Tom Cruise – and I can’t help but feel that he was rather unimaginatively named for this one but hey ho…). Now Jack is a forest dweller. But this doesn’t stop the fact that he responds completely to Lilly’s feelings. Their happiness is almost complete when suddenly, a well-meant error plunges their entire existence into jeopardy. Jack must pit himself against Darkness (Tim Curry – almost unrecognizable under the makeup but the voice gives him away)or the rule of evil will be supreme and dawn will never come again. The film has many good sides. The great imagination used in writing the story is one of them. We revel in the new world created and there are a lot of original characters to sympathize with and get excited with. There is one small problem though. If you are somehow unfamiliar with fantasy as a genre, don’t make this the first film you watch. I have seen A LOT of fantasy in my day so I know the basic “rules” of the game but the one problem I found with Legend was the utter lack of backstory. Characters and events erupt out of nowhere, willy nilly with no more than the absolute minimum of explanation required. It can get just a tad discombobulating. But once you suspend your disbelief utterly and completely and resign yourself to the fact that you will have to actually get through the film with the bare minimum of exposition required, it is fun. Tom Cruise suits his role perfectly even though he is from time to time a tad wooden (but then again that’s how I always think he is so possibly someone who usually likes him a lot would love him? I’m not sure). Tim Curry makes an absolutely terrifying Darkness and the most is made of his wonderful voice by not showing him full on right until the end thus revving up the suspense and getting us to concentrate on “the voice” (sigh). Like I said, this one has the odd shortcoming here and there. But then again, which of us don’t? Thoroughly enjoyable.