My weekly movie reviews. You can also read these on letterboxd.
This week focuses on two films in the Sword & Sorcery genre.
LABYRINTH (1986)
Rating: 3 out of 5 Stars
I never saw this when I was young (weird, I know) and perhaps that is some explanation for the disconnect I have with this movie now, a “classic” whose status I have trouble justifying.
The imagination on display is astounding. From Henson’s creatures to his world creation, LABYRINTH impresses. But it’s almost too much. It seems like there’s a new creature every two minutes, a bombardment of ideas that just get louder and louder. I told my girlfriend that I have a personal storytelling rule of having only one obnoxious character/creature in a script. This movie has an abundance and it grates on your nerves after a while along with the out of place musical element. I get the whole David Bowie got to have him sing thing but it was misguided. It just reminds us constantly that we’re watching a rockstar, not the Goblin King, and most of the musical sequences feel like little music videos. The best one, and only one that should have made the cut, is the ballroom scene where he doesn’t actually sing!
I get the arch of Connelly’s character but that doesn’t quite work either. What exactly is her dream? I never understood exactly what she desires. To be a princess? To marry the Goblin King? He’s no prince charming, that’s for sure. It’s hard to feel her struggle when the dream isn’t well established.
Visually stunning and highly creative, I admire elements of LABYRINTH but I don’t get why some people love it. P.S. I would not consider this “Sword & Sorcery”.
Watched on Tubi.
WARCRAFT (2016)
Rating: 2 out of 5 Stars
This film defied my expectations in all the worst ways. For years, I’ve thought there’s no way it could be as bad as the reviews stated. This is Duncan Jones we’re talking about…
But the main issue is that anyone could have directed this movie. Not one second of the film proves that it was made by a real director, one with a vision, and not a studio computer. In fact, if the movie came out today I would wonder if it was an AI creation. None of the ingenuity Duncan brought to MOON, SOURCE CODE, and even MUTE is evident here.
The performance are stale. I’m not too familiar with Travis Fimmel’s work but he can’t carry this picture. He’s dull as the hero. Ben Foster gives his most subdued performance in a movie where he actually needed to do some fun things. Everyone else is forgettable or silly. But the film’s greatest sin is that it fails to intrigue, to entertain. It’s not involving at all. Like the age-old critique of video game movies, it feels like watching someone play one.
I hoped there might be something hidden here, something good that critics and audiences missed at the time but there isn’t.
Watched on Tubi.
