Legend: Limited Edition Blu-ray Review

THE MOVIE — 3½/5

Plot Synopsis:  Darkness (TIM CURRY) seeks to create eternal night by destroying the last of the unicorns. Jack (TOM CRUISE) and his friends do everything possible to save the world and Princess Lili (MIA SARA) from the hands of Darkness. Enter a world of unicorns, magic swamps, dwarfs and rainbows.

Quick Hit Review: The fantasy-adventure genre was apparently pretty big in the 1980s with the likes of Willow, The Never Ending Story and others. Personally, I wasn’t all that into the genre growing up during that time period outside maybe He-Man and the Masters of the Universe, gravitating more towards The Real Ghostbusters animated series and Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles and didn’t see some of the fantasy flicks in theaters or on home video. So a movie like Legend really wasn’t on my radar and seeing it for the first time (and to note, my first viewing was the Director’s Cut), it was alright with plenty of excellent production and make-up designs but pretty thin on story and more specifically, characters.

Legend appears to be oddball within Ridley Scott’s repertoire and if I hadn’t known any better, would’ve thought this was something from Steven Spielberg (Hook) or Ron Howard (Willow). It’s a “one of these is not like the other” meme. As it is, this not a wholly bad film as there is plenty of wonderment to look at. The aforementioned production design and make-up effects were well done and the performance from Tim Curry, under a ton of make-up, as Darkness was great.

The two leads with Tom Cruise and Mia Sara were okay, though seems Cruise wasn’t exactly the right person as a, I guess, jungle man, was just off from his very first scene. Mia Sara for her part was fine as an ambiguous princess however neither she nor Cruise get very much to work with as their characters are vastly underwritten and could’ve been fleshed out a bit more.

All that said, I still found myself entertained by Legend. It’s certainly one of Ridley Scott’s lesser films on my list yet still enough going on to keep me engaged.

SPECIAL FEATURES – 4½/5

This two-disc set comes housed in a clear HD keep case which side-slides into a thick slip case. Also included are a perfect-bound book, large fold-out double-sided poster, glossy full-color portraits of the cast and six double-sided postcard sized lobby card reproductions. The interior sleeve is reversible with the original theatrical artwork on one side and newly commissioned artwork by Neil Davies matching the art on the slip case.

Disc One (U.S. Theatrical Cut):

• Audio Commentary by Paul M. Sammon, Author of Ridley Scott: The Making of His Movies
• Isolated Music Tracks, with one by Tangerine Dream and the other is the Music & Effects Track
• Remembering a Legend (30:45) — This is a retrospective featurette with interviews by various members of the cast and crew.
• The Music of Legend (15:12/13:09) examines the competing music scores featuring score experts Jeff Bond and Daniel Schweiger, and Austin Garrick & Bronwyn Griffin from the band Electric Youth. Split into two parts, one looking at Jerry Goldsmith’s score and part two on Tangerine Dream.
• The Creatures of Legend (10:28/16:15) — Another one split into two parts, looks at the make-up effects and illustrations.
• Incarnations of a Legend (20:47) is a new visual essay written and narrated by critic Travis Crawford discussing the different versions of Legend and how they came to be.
• The Directors: Ridley Scott (58:33) — Featurette from 2003 in which the director discusses his career up to that point, including Legend.
• Television Version Opening (1:26) — For the TV edit, a voiceover was added to the opening text crawl.
• Music Video (5:23) for “Is Your Love Strong Enough?” by Bryan Ferry.

Disc Two (Director’s Cut):

• Audio Commentary by Director Ridley Scott
• Creating a Myth: Memories of Legend (51:03) — Featurette produced by Universal in 2000 with interviews by Ridley Scott, Writer William Hjortsberg, Producer Arnon Milchan, Actors Mia Sara and Tim Curry and many others.
• Original Featurette (9:44) was produced to promote the film from 1985, sourced from a VHS duplicate copy.
• Lost Scenes — Only two, one an alternate opening and another entitled “The Fairie Dance”
• Storyboards — “Intro/Three Goblins”, “Lili and the Unicorns”, “Mortal World Turned to Ice”, “Jack and the Fairies”, “Find the Mare, Lose the Alicorn”, “Jack’s Challenge”, “Meg Mucklebones and the Great Tree”, “Downfall of Darkness”
• Alternate Footage (9:00) are alternate takes and angles used in versions of the film released overseas to compensate for material removed from the Director’s Cut.
• Screenplay Drafts — You can read either the First Draft or Shooting Script.
• Trailers & TV Spots includes two theatrical trailers, the international trailer and US TV spots.
• Image Galleries —Production Stills, Continuity Polaroids and Poster & Video Art

VIDEO – 5/5

For the purposes of this review, I’m focusing on the TC and as such, the picture quality was pretty dang good, detail is incredibly sharp and well defined. Colors are vivid and bright throughout and black levels appear very nicely balanced without seeming crushed and detail can still be discerned within. The natural film grain and noise is ever present here giving the film some great texture, probably as near theatrical experience.

AUDIO – 4½/5

OVERALL – 4/5

Overall, Legend is an odd film compared with others directed by Ridley Scott and while the characters are thin and underdeveloped, this is almost compensated with great production design and the make-up and prosthetics are all well done. This “Limited Edition” release by Arrow Films offers up great video and audio transfers and a solid selection of bonus features.