Legend (1986) [Blu-ray]

Have you ever gotten stuck walking behind someone and get road rage? For 15 years this was my existence. I had worn this movies VHS OUT. It was my guilty pleasure. Unicorns fairies, goblins, demons and a pre-Scientology Tom Cruise.For nearly two decades, I was on the hunt for this movie, no not just this movie, the ORIGINAL. It's one of those things we take for granted but a good score makes all the difference and not to disparage on the director but this ionic 1980s fantasy film is not even remotely the same without the original score by Tangerine Dream. It's like having your cereal with tepid tap water. Elements are the same, but it's lacking.If you love fantasy, practical effects, and are ready to be immersed in its own world, come see this with Tim Curry as Big D aka the Devil.Just watch the theatrical version....

Legend has been remastered and is finally coming to Blu-Ray. What you're essentially getting is everything that was on the Ultimate Edition DVD released years back plus a new English DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1, BDLive, My Scenes and Pocket BLU. That means you will get two versions of the movie: the original theatrical release with the original score by Tangerine Dream and the Director's Cut with and additional 20 minutes of footage and film score by Jerry Goldsmith. Unfortunately it will not have the "International Version" that people overseas have been able to get on DVD, nor is the original 150 minute work print.Legend is one of the few fairy tale movies not geared toward children. It is also one of the most visually striking, comparable in my opinion only to Del Toro's masterpiece Pan's Labyrinth. Like most fairy tales the story itself is rather simple. Darkness wants to overcome light. The hero wants to save the day and rescue his maiden. There are little subplots like a bit of a love triangle and Darkness trying to seduce the hero's maiden. It's not deep storytelling, but it sets the stage for all the good stuff.And what's so good about it? Well what is Ridley Scott good at (especially in his early career)? A setting that is so immersive and rich in detail that you can get lost in just experiencing this world he created. The forests are magical and have the look and feel of something old and enchanted. The swamps are eerie and desolate and paint the perfect picture of what evil places should look like. The dungeons are foreboding and full of an atmosphere that personifies what Hell could be like. This movie sells the fact it's a fantasy film in spades with just the sets alone.If Legend stopped at sets it would still be a great movie, but Scott didn't stop there. The mystical creatures are just as impressive. Sure the unicorns are just horses with a horn pasted on them. Sure the pixie/elf/gnome like characters look good, but aren't all that incredible. But when you feast your eyes on the gallery of the dark creatures you start seeing some awesome creations. The troll in the swamp is a wickedly done up hag. The goblin Blix is just as creepy looking. Darkness is the absolute best looking devil character you will ever see; hands down. You will not recognize Tim Curry as this seminal character. Then again you won't recognize any of these actors in makeup. Top it all off with an eye for the type of cinematography that maximizes that dream-fantasy feel and you get some amazing results.The acting is also impressive for a fairy tale film. Tom Cruise may look at bit wooden as the hero Jack, but I think it belies the innocence and naive nature of his character. Mia Sara nailed her performance as the very human and naively flawed Lili. Tim Curry absolutely steals the show as Darkness in spite of being hidden behind some impressive and massive prosthetics and makeup. The score for the theatrical release was by Tangerine Dream, which definitely dates that version of the film to the 80's with it's new age feeling synth tracks. Doesn't really fit the medieval setting too much, but it's not totally distracting either. Goldsmith's score on the Director's cut fits much better with the era, but musically is so very bland. As far as soundtracks are concerned it's a toss up, but I have to give a little nudge to Tangerine Dream in spite of it being synthy.This is a single disk release, but it is a BD-50 disk, which should have plenty of room for both movies and all the extras without any compression issues. Visually the movie never looked better. Now the Blu-Ray mentions that the Director's Cut was from an inferior print and won't look as good as the theatrical cut, which had the advantage of a number of good source prints to choose from. If you ask me I don't really see a difference. Both movies stand out in color and details. It's not a night and day difference from the DVD, however it is enough of a stand up difference in clarity to do the double dip. I believe it's just the Director's Cut that is remastered on DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 while the theatrical edit is Dolby Digital 5.1 respectively. As stated before this Blu-Ray release will have all of the original featurettes from the previous DVD release. Here is a breakdown:Commentary by Director Ridley Scott - This is one of his better commentaries and is full of interesting production tidbits. The commentary is on the Director's Cut.Creating a Myth: The Making of Legend - This is an extensive documentary with interviews from major cast and crew members (with the notable exception of Tom Cruise). You hear about the massive sets created, then destroyed by a tragic fire as well as other tidbits on how the movie was made.Lost Scenes - Two scenes are in here. One is an alternate opening scene and the rest are more stills and art composites putting together scenes that I think were never filmed.Isolated music score by Tangerine Dream - Self explanatory. This is on the theatrical release.Trailers, TV Spots and Photo Gallery - All of the promotional materials for the film.In addition to the original features (likely still being presented in standard definition) there are some Blu-Ray exclusives as well. Not in the way of new commentaries or documentaries, but more or less the application type features. Here is the breakdown of those:BDLive - There is potential that alternate or scenes previously deleted may show up in the future via BDLive. Same goes for additional interviews and features. In my experience, however, is that this feature is sorely underutilized.My Scenes - This lets you bookmark scenes that you can share with other registered users with Universal Studios.Pocket Blu - I think this is another feature used in some Blu-Rays from Universal. You can use your iPad or iPhone as a remote as well as other neat features like bonus contend, soundtrack lists and posting options.All in all if you are a fan of fantasy films this should be on the top of your list. It is a little known classic of that genre. If you have the original DVD release it is still recommended to snatch this up as the remastering really does update the visuals in a big way, plus uncompressed HD audio is also welcome. If you never got this movie now is the time to do it. The likelihood of another edition coming out similar to Ridley Scott's Blade Runner that includes the work print and new features is unlikely as this film never really garnered nearly as much attention. In other words this is likely the best we will get.

awesome

This is the review for the Legend (Ultimate Edition) [Blu-ray] and I have to say it is a great piece of work Ridley have done at last.The picture and sound quality is just perfect. It is as if shot yesterday with HD camera, the most recent one. No grainny, with the most picture sharp, the most beautiful as it can have.To begin with, I urge you not to watch the theatrical release version which is 1 hour and 30 minutes version with Tangerine Dream soundtrack. I am not saying that Tangerine Dream is a bad artist but Jerry Goldsmith's soundtrack is much better and it fits perfect with the movie. And plus the director's cut which is 114 minutes long makes more sense in many ways. It is the perfect film itself. On the other hand, the theatrical release version has so many problem not just because it is a shorter version but it has other problems such as the moment when the evil king's first appearence. Ridley wanted him to appear him way later but in the theater release version, he appears at the beginning and that makes the movie's tenstion away.Ok, the main review.Ridley Scott made three or if I may add one more, four great great visually stunning film in his life, and then he concentrates more on making boxoffice hit movies from then on. Maybe he is tired of not making popular movies anymore and he wanted to have more fame and then everything became not that exciting anymore.The lists are <BLADRUNNER><BLACK RAIN><LEGEND> and if I may add one more that will be <SOMEONE TO WATCH OVER ME>..Among them this one is the most stunning beautiful eye blindingly shot film ever made.He used the nature so well that it almost look like we are in the totally different world somewher like heaven or somewhere not even exist.The forest always has pollens flying as if they are snow or fog. So beautiful that makes us dreaming or even doped watching at the world in a totally different way,Birds flying, animals hopping, all kinds of flowers everywhere, trees,..beautiful sky and endless woods.And most of all young Tom Cruise and angel look Mia Sara, the princess. Even one look can melt your soul girl.Not only that. The palace where the evil king lives is a gothic like place just like the movie <BLADE RUNNER>.The color pattern he used.Blue, Red, yellow, purple and all kinds of so much vivid colors that make our eyes almost blind.The night scenes and dark palace shots are just so great to even look at.The all kinds of creatures that are not humans, they are not childish at all. They are totally original.The Gump is so cute but mature at the same time, he is a true leader. A small figure but very lovely.The small angel like female figure is just lovely-sorry I don't know the name- it is like tinker bell.And all the other charactors are not like kid's stuff at all.Some very real and not childish at all. Some very scary and perfect.Tim Curry who played the darkness-the evil king was so perfect that he was almost scary for children.The most amazing part from the movie was when the good team creates the light beam by reflects with a bunch of iron plates and destroy the evil deeds. The beem was blue and was so beautiful.The Jerry Goldsmith's music was just perfectly fits with the beautiful movie which was not shown for the movie first released in the theater version and Ridley himself was not all pleased.I again urge you not to watch the Theatrical version.All in all. This is one of the best Ridley Scott ever made and I would say the best fairy tale movie in history.You cannot miss this one.It is a bliss that now it is released in bluray in a perfect condition. The Ultimate Edition has both Director's Cut and Theatricla Cut and both are pitcure, Sound perfect. But as I said don't waste your time watching the Theatrical version.The end.WHERE TO FIND:Both selling from Amazon US and UK the price is almost the same. But since Amazon Uk is selling the US version I prefer buying from US.Korea is out of order for this product. It is sad.ART: 98/100BOXOFFICE/FUN: 95/100MUSIC: 95/ 100ACTING: 98/ 100EDITING: 98/100DIRECTING: 98/100SEXUALITY: na/100ACTION: 85 /100BLOOD/GORE: 70/ 100

One of a kind 1980's movie, a must watch.