It's impossible to watch a fantasy film nowadays without comparing it to Peter Jackson's LORD OF THE RINGS TRILOGY . In fact even Jackson's adaptation of THE HOBBIT suffers in comparison with his earlier masterwork . I went in to Ridley Scott's LEGEND not expecting much . It's a film that rather mediocre reviews on its release in 1985 and cemented the director's reputation as an artist only interested in visuals to the detriment of emotion and narrative
Certainly on a visual level there's little that can be criticised even in a cinematic post LOTR world and one can't help thinking that perhaps Jackson has borrowed the visual look from Scott when he adapted the Tolkien books . There is a subtle difference and that is Scott shoots a few too many medium shots in comparison to Jackson . Jackson concentrates on an ambitious sweeping spectacle that shows off the sets and locations to the best of their function where as Scott seems to lack this ambition . This isn't perhaps not a fundamental criticism since one doubts if Scott was allowed the laissez faire artistic control Jackson was allowed . The New Hollywood attitude of film making had ended in near disaster for the studios about three or four years earlier and one can understand the studio producers wanting to be charge of a production rather than the director
And this is where LEGEND fails . It's a film that gives the impression that the producers don't know who to market the film for. LORD OF THE RINGS is a rare film that celebrates Aglophile culture where as LEGEND seems to be a film that is trying - and failing to appeal to a trans-Atlantic multiplex audience . Tom Cruise has never been prettier but seems miscast as a hero who is rather rather wet as opposed to heroic . Likewise the whole file suffers from a lack of focus as to who the film will appeal to . The somewhat unrealistic nature fantasy based nature of the film won't appeal to a more mature audience while the very impressive make up and demonic characters will absolutely terrify young children . Interesting too that a common complaint on this page is the incoherent plotting of the narrative . Quite often I found myself asking where the story was heading In
summary this is considered to be one of the weaker films of Ridley Scott . By a bitter irony the directing and visual aspects are in fact the best thing about LEGEND which is a film that strikes the audience that the audience as being a film that is confused as to its market . Certainly it owes more than a bit to Tolkien but by the same token Peter Jackson may very well owe a bit to Ridley Scott
Certainly on a visual level there's little that can be criticised even in a cinematic post LOTR world and one can't help thinking that perhaps Jackson has borrowed the visual look from Scott when he adapted the Tolkien books . There is a subtle difference and that is Scott shoots a few too many medium shots in comparison to Jackson . Jackson concentrates on an ambitious sweeping spectacle that shows off the sets and locations to the best of their function where as Scott seems to lack this ambition . This isn't perhaps not a fundamental criticism since one doubts if Scott was allowed the laissez faire artistic control Jackson was allowed . The New Hollywood attitude of film making had ended in near disaster for the studios about three or four years earlier and one can understand the studio producers wanting to be charge of a production rather than the director
And this is where LEGEND fails . It's a film that gives the impression that the producers don't know who to market the film for. LORD OF THE RINGS is a rare film that celebrates Aglophile culture where as LEGEND seems to be a film that is trying - and failing to appeal to a trans-Atlantic multiplex audience . Tom Cruise has never been prettier but seems miscast as a hero who is rather rather wet as opposed to heroic . Likewise the whole file suffers from a lack of focus as to who the film will appeal to . The somewhat unrealistic nature fantasy based nature of the film won't appeal to a more mature audience while the very impressive make up and demonic characters will absolutely terrify young children . Interesting too that a common complaint on this page is the incoherent plotting of the narrative . Quite often I found myself asking where the story was heading In
summary this is considered to be one of the weaker films of Ridley Scott . By a bitter irony the directing and visual aspects are in fact the best thing about LEGEND which is a film that strikes the audience that the audience as being a film that is confused as to its market . Certainly it owes more than a bit to Tolkien but by the same token Peter Jackson may very well owe a bit to Ridley Scott