Review of Legend (1985) by Jake C — 12 Oct 2018

Of the Theatrical Release:

The problem with LEGEND is simple-that is to say, the fantasy universe of the movie so compelling and overwhelmingly captures the trappings of its generic, mythical antecedents that it suffers by the inevitable comparison, seeming slight and superficial for having boiled down the hero's journey/creation mytheme to its structural essence. In the end, despite how deeply and imaginatively and beautifully realized this fable is in all its details, from the stunning make-up and creature effects to the eery electronic score by Tangerine Dream, the story (mythos, in Greek, mind you) nonetheless remains too stripped down, too black-and-white (whatever the eye-popping color of the actual film), too structural to pull the viewer into its world. All the lovely details, which all work on their own, just never quite add up to much more than scattered flashes of imagination, suggesting a world without ever really building one real enough for these elements to exist within.