Ridley Scott's "Legend" was released at time when fantasy adventure stories were really taking off. Such films as "The Dark Crystal", "Labryinth", "The Never Ending Story" captured the mind and the imagination to many places that can only be dreamed upon. "Legend" was a bit different than the three fantasy stories that I have mentioned. For one thing, it did not do very well at the box office at the time. The characters were one-note and the story was thinner than a spaghetti string. But there is something that makes "Legend" stand out above the rest. It is the fairy-tale atmosphere goes very deep and in the end you'd be amazed at how well crafted this movie really is.

This simplistic story is about Princess Lili (Mia Sara) and her boyfriend Jack-of-the-Green (Tom Cruise) were enjoying a fairytale atmosphere together. Then all of the sudden, Jack points out to Lili two gorgeous unicorns standing together that cross balances the lines between good and evil. As a precaution, Jack tell Lili not to touch them. But Lili's temptation get the best of her as she walks over to the unicorns, a group of goblins take advantage and successfully confiscate the unicorn's horn. Shortly after that, winter comes into effect as and the balance is now messed up.

Lily and the other unicorn enter a dark world and are held hostage to the Lord of Darkness' chamber where he becomes smitten by her purity and uses that purity so that she becomes corrupted before destroying the last unicorn. Meanwhile Jack joins forces with a group of faeries to rescue Lili and to prevent this demonic miscreant from blocking out the light.

A very young Tom Cruise's character Jack was very painfully underdeveloped. Sure he looks like the typical warrior fantasy hero sporting loincloth clothing and carrying a mighty sword, but overall this is Cruise's most forgettable character in his career. There's no history or any background to hold one's interest. But still his voice and his way of carrying the character makes Jack a definitive hero.

The real characters that truly carry the story was Mia Sara's Lili and Tim Curry's Lord of Darkness. Underneath all that heavy makeup and over-the-top dialogue, Curry adds the right amount of malice and yet can also come across as sympathetic. Sure he's as evil as they come, but deeper inside, we see a very lonely devil who think his darkness balances the good and the light. And that is why he's asking for Lili's love as she becomes attached to his dominion.

Lili's transformation from the fantasy light-bright princess, to the runaway bride to the Gothic-laden princess was engaging to say the least. Lili's transformations are handled with precision and care and teaches the lesson, that to get by in a fight against evil in fantasy environments means to break some rules and go against moral issues and as she goes deeper to becoming evil, she still manages to keep her humanity alive. And whether good or evil, Lili is eye candy the whole way through.

The cinematography was best thing that makes this movie stand out very well. The fairy-tale flowers and forestry is saturated with many vibrant colours. As for the Darkness' chamber, the dark colours is what I would have expected coming from an evil fiend like him.

It's not a mainstream film at all, and many people might be turned off by its bizarre ways, but I think it's execution is terrific in terms of trial, temptation, lust, and the fight for good against evil.

When I was a child I was totally freaked out by the presence of the Lord of Darkness. He was and is still to this day, one scary looking dude. This is no way a kid-friendly fantasy adventure story. I haven't seen this movie in years, but just today I rented the DVD and it brought back so many memories and the story itself, though thin and very short, but entertaining and enthralling. I highly recommended to children 9 years and older, mostly because the bad guy is one scary demon.