Everyone has had the experience of walking out of a theater after seeing a fantasy movie and being absolutely flabbergasted by what they just spent the past two hours watching. More than any other genre, it sometimes feels like fantasy films – especially older ones – can be a dumping ground for every terrible script or hackneyed director in Hollywood. Sometimes fantasy films can be so bad they’re good, and sometimes they’re just bad, and then there’s a third category: films that don’t deserve their bad reputation.
Even good fantasy films bomb at the box office sometimes, or suffer from production bloat. Yet for all their struggles, many of those underperforming fantasy films become cult classics given enough time and enough people willing to cast aside their preconceptions of them. These five films all have something redeeming about them, from moments of acting brilliance to gorgeous production quality – it just takes a willingness to enjoy them, rough edges and all.
5
Hook (1991)
Directed By Steven Spielberg
Directed by Steven Spielberg, Hook stars Robin Williams as Peter Banning, a harried American lawyer who, after his children are kidnapped by Captain Hook, finds out that he is Peter Pan, having lost his memories of Neverland. In order to rescue his children, Peter must find his childlike spirit of adventure and regain his memories as he does battle with Hook and his crew. Dustin Hoffman stars alongside Williams as Captain Hook, along with Julia Roberts, Maggie Smith, and Charlie Korsmo.
- Release Date
-
April 10, 1991
- Runtime
-
142 minutes
With a disappointing box-office take and lukewarm critical reception, Steven Spielberg’s Hook is an odd film, at once extremely introspective and optimistic and yet also never quite sure if it’s supposed to be epic or sentimental. Spielberg himself said he was disappointed in Hook‘s final cut, and that his lack of confidence in making it led to him making some regrettable production decisions.
Yet setting aside the delicate matter of Steven Spielberg’s ego, Hook is a genuinely joyful and touching film. Robin Willams gave a phenomenal performance as Peter, embodying the frustration of someone so out of touch with their inner child that they’ve lost all patience for fun. Dustin Hoffman’s villainous scenery-chewing as Hook is as much a delight as it is surprising to see him acting so against his type, and yet it’s wildly successful. Hook is a far from perfect film, but it also never tried to be one. It’s just a fun story about not taking yourself too seriously.
4
The Black Cauldron (1985)
Directed By Ted Berman And Richard Rich
The Black Cauldron is an animated fantasy film from Walt Disney Studios, directed by Ted Berman and Richard Rich. Released in 1985, it follows the young hero Taran and his quest to prevent the evil Horned King from obtaining a powerful magical relic known as the Black Cauldron. Featuring the voices of Grant Bardsley, Susan Sheridan, and John Hurt, the film combines elements of adventure, mystery, and dark fantasy.
- Release Date
-
July 24, 1985
- Runtime
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80 Minutes
- Cast
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Grant Bardsley
, Susan Sheridan
, Freddie Jones
, Nigel Hawthorne
, Arthur Malet
, John Byner - Director
-
Ted Berman
, Richard Rich
Disney’s loose adaptation of Lloyd Alexander’s first two Chronicles of Prydain books struggled from inception all the way to theaters. While pre-production on The Black Cauldron began in 1973, indecisiveness and studio pushback meant that work on the film didn’t actually begin until 1980. Concerns from executives about the intense nature of the film’s climax led to it being pushed all the way back to 1985. Its disappointing box-office performance meant that Disney lost all faith in The Black Cauldron, and the film sat in the vault for years until finally getting a home video release in 1997.
There’s no denying that the difficult production process left its mark on The Black Cauldron, right down to the painful last-minute cuts in the climactic end fight that are obvious to the eye and ear of any half-awake viewer. Yet nothing is awful enough to warrant labeling The Black Cauldron as having almost killed Disney. The film’s cast give excellent performances, only hampered by the script’s inconsistent tone, and the animation is gorgeous from start to finish, including the first use of CGI in a Disney film.
3
Reign of Fire (2002)
Directed By Rob Bowman
In a dragon-ravaged England, a British survivor and an American ally fight to stop fire-breathing dragons seeking global dominance after centuries underground. The Brit, leading survivors, aims to slay the King of the Dragons, driven by his mother’s death in a dragon attack and the hope of safeguarding his still-living love.
- Release Date
-
July 12, 2002
- Runtime
-
102 Minutes
- Director
-
Rob Bowman
Reign of Fire, Rob Bowman’s saga of post-apocalyptic English dragon-hunters, did manage to break even at the box office, and also managed to not get completely dragged through the coals by critics, but the film definitely developed a reputation for being unwatchable. Audiences in the early 2000s had trouble with the film’s monochromatic visuals and Matthew McConaughey’s wild and unhinged portrayal of American soldier Denton Van Zan. Roger Ebert called it a “grim and dreary enterprise” (via RogerEbert.com), and he wasn’t wrong.
None of that criticism detracts from the fact that there is a genuine, fast-paced fun to Reign of Fire, or how much work went into designing and animating the film’s dragons. While cinematic dragons before Reign of Fire were often erudite, noble creatures, such as Dragonheart‘s Draco, Reign of Fire portrayed them as dangerous, feral animals, and used some brilliant changes in the design of their bodies to convey their bestial nature. The digital effects work done to bring these beasts to life with surprising realism is reason enough to give credit to Reign of Fire where credit is due (via Vice).
2
Krull (1983)
Directed By Peter Yates
This fantasy adventure film is set on the planet Krull, where a young prince must rescue his bride from an evil entity known as the Beast. Armed with a magical weapon, the Glaive, the prince embarks on a perilous journey, assembling a band of allies to confront the Beast and its army in a fortress that shifts locations each day.
- Release Date
-
July 29, 1983
- Runtime
-
117 Minutes
- Cast
-
Ken Marshall
, Lysette Anthony
, Freddie Jones
, Francesca Annis
, Alun Armstrong
, David Battley
, Bernard Bresslaw
, Liam Neeson - Director
-
Peter Yates
On paper, Krull is notoriously one of the worst sword-and-sorcery films of the 1980s. It was a box-office flop, failing to make back even half its budget. Reviews called it a “blatantly derivative hodgepodge of Excalibur meets Star Wars” (via Variety), and Siskel and Ebert gave it two thumbs down. Years of development hell and rewrites meant that Krull‘s creative team had struggled to finish it at all, and those pains were obvious to the audiences of the time.
Critics and cinematic scholars looking back at Krull have found the vehement reactions to the film were overstated. The score, one of legendary composer James Horner’s earlier works, still holds up as one of the best fantasy film scores of the 80s. Director Peter Yates, although not used to working with fantasy tropes, clearly brought a sense of professionalism to the production that many sword-and-sorcery films lack in retrospect. For all its flaws, Krull‘s greatest sin was simply being too ambitious – a sin modern films are just as likely, if not more so, to commit.
1
The 13th Warrior (1999)
Directed By John McTiernan
The 13th Warrior is a historical action film that follows an Arab poet assigned to join a group of Norse warriors on a mission to battle a mysterious and deadly enemy. Set in the time of Vikings, it explores themes of cultural clash and heroism amidst gripping action sequences and period drama.
- Release Date
-
August 27, 1999
- Runtime
-
102 Minutes
- Cast
-
Antonio Banderas
, Diane Venora
, Dennis Storhøi
, Vladimir Kulich
, Omar Sharif
, Anders T. Andersen
, Richard Bremmer
, Tony Curran
, Mischa Hausserman
, Neil Maffin
, Asbjørn Bear Riis
, Clive Russell
, Daniel Southern
, Oliver Sveinall
, Sven Wollter
, Albie Woodington
, John DeSantis
, Erick Avari
, Maria Bonnevie
, Richard Ooms
With a script based off Michael Crichton’s 1976 novel Eaters of the Dead, which itself was a loose adaptation of the legend of Beowulf (combined with historical accounts of 10th-century northern Europe from Arabian traveler and scholar Ahmad ibn Fadlan), The 13th Warrior was another attempt to turn one of Crichton’s books into a critical success a la Jurassic Park. Unfortunately, it wound up replicating the outcome of the other films of the 90s that attempted the same thing – it flopped.
The 13th Warrior remains one of the biggest box-office bombs of all time, losing almost $230 million due to a budget bloated from extensive reshoots. Omar Sharif, who played minor character Melchisidek, took a four-year break from acting because of his terrible experiences on set. Yet for all that, The 13th Warrior has nuggets of greatness to it. Vladimir Kulich, who played the Viking hero Buliwyf, provided a fantastic performance, as did Antonio Banderas as Ahmad ibn Fadlan – one of Hollywood’s first and only Muslim heroes. Besides, it was significantly kinder to the source material than 2007’s awful animated Beowulf.
Sources: RogerEbert.com, Vice, Variety
