Everyone has had the experience of walking out of a theater after seeing afantasymovie 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. Sometimesfantasy 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.
Evengood fantasy films bomb at the box officesometimes, or suffer from production bloat. Yet for all their struggles, many of thoseunderperforming fantasy films become cult classicsgiven 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.
Hook
Cast
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. 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.
With a disappointing box-office take and lukewarm critical reception, Steven Spielberg’sHookis 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 inHook’s final cut, and thathis 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,Hookis 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.Hookis 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.
The Black Cauldron
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.
Disney’s loose adaptation of Lloyd Alexander’s first twoChronicles of Prydainbooks struggled from inception all the way to theaters. While pre-production onThe Black Cauldronbegan 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 inThe Black Cauldron, andthe film sat in the vault for yearsuntil finally getting a home video release in 1997.
There’s no denying that the difficult production process left its mark onThe 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 labelingThe Black Cauldronas having almost killed Disney. The film’s cast give excellent performances, only hampered by the script’s inconsistent tone, andthe animation is gorgeous from start to finish, including the first use of CGI in a Disney film.
Reign of Fire
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.
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 andMatthew McConaughey’s wild and unhinged portrayalof American soldier Denton Van Zan. Roger Ebert called it a"grim and dreary enterprise"(viaRogerEbert.com), and he wasn’t wrong.
None of that criticism detracts from the fact that there isa genuine, fast-paced fun toReign of Fire, or how much work went into designing and animating the film’s dragons. While cinematic dragons beforeReign of Firewere often erudite, noble creatures, such asDragonheart’s Draco,Reign of Fireportrayed 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 toReign of Firewhere credit is due (viaVice).
Krull
Krull follows a prince who, along with a group of companions, embarks on a quest to rescue his bride from a fortress controlled by alien invaders that have descended upon their planet. Released in 1983, this science fiction fantasy film intertwines elements of adventure and heroism.
On paper,Krullisnotoriously 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 ofExcaliburmeetsStar Wars” (viaVariety), and Siskel and Ebert gave it two thumbs down. Years of development hell and rewrites meant thatKrull’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 atKrullhave 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.
1The 13th Warrior (1999)
Directed By John McTiernan
With a script based off Michael Crichton’s 1976 novelEaters 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 Warriorwasanother attempt to turn one of Crichton’s books into a critical successa laJurassic Park. Unfortunately, it wound up replicating the outcome of the other films of the 90s that attempted the same thing – it flopped.
The 13th Warriorremains one ofthe 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 Warriorhas 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 animatedBeowulf.
