11-30-2022, 12:23 AM
Willow (1998)
I couldn't remember a thing about the original beyond Val Kilmer was in it and there were midgets. Turns out there were lots of little people. Too many for my comfort level.
It's dated now. The storyline is clunky and the effects are mediocre. The performances are underwhelming (what did Val ever do beyond his smarmy typecast?) Jean Marsh hams it up as the villainess, but it's lost on the rest of the cast.
Warwick is good, the only redeeming performance. Although his whole tribe are basically hobbits, his size doesn't hamper his leading role stature. From Wicket to Willow...
The Fight Choreographer was Bill Hobbs but it doesn't show. The fights are slow and telegraphed. It's as if Bill just didn't have talent that could move. Or he wasn't engaged enough and phoned it in. There is a lot of sword fights.
There is some fine panoramic shots in the beginning - accentuated by the fact that this predates CGI so you can tell some of the landscapes are genuine. And that's a lot of little people in the little people village. Too many. There are also some large armored army sequences that are impressive because they're fairly real (probably some overlapping).
But given that it was Lucas and Howard, I expected more. I know why I forgot this. There wasn't much to remember.
Now that I've reminded myself, I'll tune in tomorrow to this new installment.
I couldn't remember a thing about the original beyond Val Kilmer was in it and there were midgets. Turns out there were lots of little people. Too many for my comfort level.
It's dated now. The storyline is clunky and the effects are mediocre. The performances are underwhelming (what did Val ever do beyond his smarmy typecast?) Jean Marsh hams it up as the villainess, but it's lost on the rest of the cast.
Warwick is good, the only redeeming performance. Although his whole tribe are basically hobbits, his size doesn't hamper his leading role stature. From Wicket to Willow...
The Fight Choreographer was Bill Hobbs but it doesn't show. The fights are slow and telegraphed. It's as if Bill just didn't have talent that could move. Or he wasn't engaged enough and phoned it in. There is a lot of sword fights.
There is some fine panoramic shots in the beginning - accentuated by the fact that this predates CGI so you can tell some of the landscapes are genuine. And that's a lot of little people in the little people village. Too many. There are also some large armored army sequences that are impressive because they're fairly real (probably some overlapping).
But given that it was Lucas and Howard, I expected more. I know why I forgot this. There wasn't much to remember.
Now that I've reminded myself, I'll tune in tomorrow to this new installment.
Shadow boxing the apocalypse