Legend - The Director's Cut

Last night I was sitting down to dinner and started flipping through my Netflix Watch Instantly list to see what I wanted to watch. I was recently crushed by the abrupt mid-season end to the original Battlestar Galactica series, and I needed something to improve my spirits. I had added the movie Legend because it had pretty good reviews on Netflix and it looked like it was in the same vein as Labyrinth (a timeless classic, I might add).

Legend was made in 1985, directed by Ridley Scott, and stars Tom Cruise, Mia Sara, and Tim Curry. Sounds good so far, right? I'll say right now that I only got about 15 minutes into the movie before I couldn't take it anymore. The film starts with the longest scrolling text intro I have ever seen. It doesn't help that it's chock full of clichés about the light banishing darkness and the magical power of unicorns and the birth of legends.

Tim Curry plays "Darkness," a being of pure evil with two huge devil horns. But something's just not right. You know how Tim Curry does that dramatic "mouth pop," for lack of a better term? It just doesn't seem right on the Lord of Darkness. Check it out: Youtube scene.

Tom Cruise plays the innocent peasant Jack, who loves Lily (played by Mia Sara). His teeth are pretty gnarly, and he does a pretty all-around terrible job of acting. He was the main reason I had to turn it off, but the score by Tangerine Dream didn't entice me to stay either.

The one good thing I'll say about it is that the costumes are very good. As you can see in the video, Tim Curry looks to be wearing about 20 pounds of costume, and it looks very convincing, very devil-like. He wasn't red in the beginning of the film though. He was more of a navy blue with bright green eyes.

Who knows? Maybe if I had kept watching it would have improved, but I kind of doubt it. I think the whole movie is in parts on Youtube, if you're really interested, and it's on Netflix as well.