Legend (1985): **

Legend is set in a non-specified fantasy land, where goblins, dwarves and fairies abound. Princess Lili (Mia Sara) prefers to wander through the forest and sing than stay at her stuffy palace. Her close friend Jack (Tom Cruise) lives in the forest and teaches Lili how to talk to the birds. One day, Jack takes Princess Lili to see the last two unicorns left in the world. Lili is entranced and goes to touch one of the unicorns despite Jack urging her to stop, which allows the goblins led by Blix (Alice Playten), under the orders of the Lord of Darkness (Tim Curry), to kill it. The world is plunged in winter and Lili is captured by the goblins. Jack must stop Darkness from killing the last unicorn and save Princess Lili, aided by the elf Gump (David Bennent), the fairy Oona (Annabelle Lanyon) and a bunch of dwarves.

Visually, Legend is absolutely stunning. Assheton Gorton’s production design is fantastical, in the forest trees tower above our characters, their thick roots snaking across the ground. Bluebells and lilies cover the forest floor near a waterfall descending into a deep clear pool. As winter descends in the forest, it is covered in a blanket of shimmering snow. There is a lot of glitter on show in Legend; it’s as if someone had detonated a colossal glitter bomb on the set. Darkness’s lair is grandiose: tall carved columns line the gigantic hallways; fireplaces, statues and gargoyles are plentiful, emerging from the rolling fog and steam that permeants the lair. Director Ridley Scott has an eye for the epic staging of his scenes which Alex Thomson brings to life in his cinematography. The audience see glorious shots of a unicorn racing for its life in a storm of cherry blossom petals, the dark outlines of skeletons and bony trees half-submerged in a swamp, and Princess Lili running through a blizzard. It’s a visual delight to watch the scenes unfold.

All of this is undone by a frustratingly weak plot and bland characterizations. Ridley Scott evidently drew a lot of inspiration from the original Grimm fairy tales and has incorporated a substantial amount of plot points or objects into Legend. Jack finds a sword and shield, he can talk to the animals, he fights, he tricks a water hag with flattery and he can solve riddles. But there’s no sense that Jack has a specific personality or strength that helps him during his quest, he can overcome any obstacle because the plot dictates he shall. It gets worse with the treatment of Princess Lili. Lili is blamed for causing the winter storm and the death of the unicorn, despite the fact that Jack could have just told her what would happen if she touched a unicorn instead of being vague about it. Later, Princess Lili is tempted into evil by shiny diamonds, which contradicts the fact that: one, she is shown to prefer simpler things and two, she’s a princess she probably has plenty of her own bling. There is no set-up for the audience to believe that Lili would be tempted by material possessions and only reveals the film’s gross gender politics. The main female characters only exist in Legend to tempt the male characters and to express their desire to get into Jack’s tunic. By the end of the film, our two main ‘heroes’ have barely developed and they skip away hand-in-hand into the sunset.  

Thank goodness we have Tim Curry to provide some entertainment. Curry easily has the stand-out role as Darkness, our horned and cloven-footed antagonist. He gives a big performance, a necessity under all the prosthetics, but also conveys his infatuation in a subtler manner. Tom Cruise cycles through his three facial expressions as Jack – bewilderment, happy and angry – but stays mostly on bewildered. Mia Sara gives a stronger performance although she is limited by her role of Princess Lili. David Bennent’s performance as Gump is just plain bizarre and the dubbing over of his voice by Alice Playten doesn’t help matters.

Legend suffers from a poor plot and weak characters. Optimal viewing would involve hitting the mute button and soaking in the scenery. 

Note: This review is on the European cut of Legend.