Favorite underrated fantasy films

[mittean]

I just saw a pretty awesome fantasy movie. Mythica: A Quest for heroes, with Kevin Sorbo. Reminded me of some of the great fantasy movies I saw when I was younger, like LadyHawke. It's on ConTV.com, which is like free Netflix for Geeks, lol. I love it.

What are some of your favorite fantasy films that aren't the Lord of the Rings?

BTW, if anyone wants, the movie is here - http://on.contv.com/WatchMythica

[arcane_asp]

I still think Willow was one of the most underrated fantasy movies out there :smallwink:

Also still like both Krull and Hawk the Slayer, though they are a bit dated now I guess...

That said, I would like to nominate the 2000 release of Dungeons and Dragons for some kind of "horrendous, misguided attempt at movie" prize.

[Eonas]

I have a bit of a soft spot for Book of Vile Darkness, actually. Partly because of the brilliant dark atmosphere the soundtrack manages to infuse even some of the goofier scenes, partly because of the incredibly good creepy child scene, partly just because it was far less horrible than I'd anticipated it'd be.

As for really underrated fantasy films, Nightwatch gets the vote from me. Definitely one of the most stylish and innovative urban fantasy/horror films I know of.

[Kalmageddon]

I'll have to say "The Thief of Bagdad (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Thief_of_Bagdad_%281940_film%29)" from 1940, it was such an amazingly epic movie for the time and I'd dare say that some of the practical effects hold up pretty well even for today's standards. I watched it when I was very young and re-watched it when it sometimes was on television, never changed my mind about it. I just love that movie. :smallbiggrin:

Though I have the impression that it's not a movie that is talked about that much today, it has been met with a ton of critical acclaim, so I guess it's not really underrated... If so, Krull can have my vote as well.:smalltongue:

[veti]

I have an irrational love for The Company of Wolves (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Company_of_Wolves). The transformation effects are horrible and lame, and worse, gratuitous, but just about everything else about the movie I find entrancing. Beautiful music, lovely sets, thoughtful script, and more symbolism than you'd find at a tarot card convention. Even the wolves just look sooo cuddly...

[mittean]

That said, I would like to nominate the 2000 release of Dungeons and Dragons for some kind of "horrendous, misguided attempt at movie" prize.

Yeah...for sure. I think all of the D&D movies are pretty lackluster, especially for their budgets, which is why I was impressed by what these guys did with Mythica (http://on.contv.com/WatchMythica).

[mittean]

As for really underrated fantasy films, Nightwatch gets the vote from me. Definitely one of the most stylish and innovative urban fantasy/horror films I know of.

Nightwatch is one of my absolute favorites. I had the fortune of being introduced to Timur Bekmambetov, a hero of mine, a few years ago at AFM. Brilliant Russian director.

[Psyren]

Moving outside the "swords and sorcery" subset of fantasy, this is an unconventional example, but The Mummy was one of my favorites - having an interesting "Fighter Mage Thief" group dynamic with Rick, Evy and Jon.

Another of my favorites was Push, (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pl3KNqCEtQ4) which had a fairly well fleshed-out psionics system that belonged in a smarter movie. Also, Chris Evans and Djimon Honsou (Korath in Guardians of the Galaxy) had a great rivalry going.

[comicshorse]

Being an unashamed Ray Harryhausen fan I'm going for the 'The Golden Voyage of Sinbad'
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0071569/?ref_=nv_sr_5

The best of three Sinbad movies and has the wonderful battle with the statue of Kali armed with six swords !

[mittean]

Moving outside the "swords and sorcery" subset of fantasy, this is an unconventional example, but The Mummy was one of my favorites - having an interesting "Fighter Mage Thief" group dynamic with Rick, Evy and Jon.


I actually think the Mummy is the best "party-adventure" movie made.

[Alent]

I'm not surprised to see Krull made the list, but it was my immediate first choice. I often end up introducing it to people, so it definitely slides into "cult classic" status.

Aside from that... I may be one of the only people who actually enjoyed the Dungeon Siege movie "In the name of the king". It was campy, predictable, and made of cliche, but it was fun despite that and still beat the socks off most sci-fi channel original movies.

[SVamp]

willow for me, a real favourite.

I greatly enjoyed !egend too, but lady hawke was just brilliant.

Definitely enjoyed krull. "Lord" hawk the slayer, eh, I really liked it as a very young kid. I enjoyed a lot less as an adult, making me cringe in several scenes, and each time he was called "lord hawk", whereas the rest of the movies on my list I still very much enjoy.

And of course there's the ones everyone remembers like Laberynth and such, very nice.

Now I think I'm off to check out mythic, sounds interesting.

[Zaydos]

I saw the thread title and went Krull!

Legend must be added as well (50% on Rotten Tomatoes, really!? :smallannoyed:). For the beautiful cinematography and music if nothing else. Plus it remains in my mind my introduction to fantasy.

Kull the Conqueror would make the list too, a second Conan movie with Kevin Sorbo as Conan*. I tend to like Kevin Sorbo. And it was more enjoyable than the Conan remake and better than Conan the Destroyer or Red Sonja.

*Technically Proto-Conan would be more accurate as the original Conan story was a re-writing of a Kull story which didn't quite fit Kull.

And got to say I loved the original Clash of the Titans.

[Psyren]

Aside from that... I may be one of the only people who actually enjoyed the Dungeon Siege movie "In the name of the king". It was campy, predictable, and made of cliche, but it was fun despite that and still beat the socks off most sci-fi channel original movies.

Please don't give Uwe Boll money :smallfrown:

[Logic]

Dragonheart (not the sequel) The Black Cauldron (the Disney animated movie) and Dungeons and Dragons (2000) (I know it sucks, but I can't help but say there are big places where this movie simply works.)


Please don't give Uwe Boll money :smallfrown:

Agreed. Uwe Boll is one of the worst directors of modern times, and we live in a time where Jason Friedberg and Aaron Seltzer can churn out up to two craptacular movies a year.

[Lurkmoar]

Fire and Ice, (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fire_and_Ice_%281983_film%29) the animated movie. Maybe not Ralph Bakshi's best effort, but still entertaining. Dark Wolf is awesome.

The Last Unicorn. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Last_Unicorn_%28film%29) That movie still gets me teary iced at the end. Bonus points for Christopher Lee playing the head villain.

[Killer Angel]

Can we consider Dragonslayer (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dragonslayer), an underrated fantasy film?
Because it marked my youth.

[Zaydos]

Dragonheart (not the sequel) The Black Cauldron (the Disney animated movie) and Dungeons and Dragons (2000) (I know it sucks, but I can't help but say there are big places where this movie simply works.)


Fire and Ice, (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fire_and_Ice_%281983_film%29) the animated movie. Maybe not Ralph Bakshi's best effort, but still entertaining. Dark Wolf is awesome.

The Last Unicorn. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Last_Unicorn_%28film%29) That movie still gets me teary iced at the end. Bonus points for Christopher Lee playing the head villain.


Can we consider Dragonslayer (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dragonslayer), an underrated fantasy film?
Because it marked my youth.

The only one I didn't love is the Dungeons and Dragons movie (I left complaining that gold and red dragons are immune to fire), well ok Fire and Ice didn't cross the love threshold but was good.

[Alent]

Please don't give Uwe Boll money :smallfrown:

It was packaged as a 2 for 1 with a movie I was buying anyway and couldn't find packaged by itself. I'm guessing they'd had too much trouble selling it and decided to bribe people to take it, because the two BDs for one deal was cheaper than the bargain DVDs on the shelf.

By the point they hit that level, I don't think the sales statistics even matter anymore, Uwe Boll got his money loooong in advance, anyway. (I'm pretty sure BD/DVD sales statistics are purely wholesale figures, anyway.)

[Psyren]

It was packaged as a 2 for 1 with a movie I was buying anyway and couldn't find packaged by itself. I'm guessing they'd had too much trouble selling it and decided to bribe people to take it, because the two BDs for one deal was cheaper than the bargain DVDs on the shelf.

By the point they hit that level, I don't think the sales statistics even matter anymore, Uwe Boll got his money loooong in advance, anyway. (I'm pretty sure BD/DVD sales statistics are purely wholesale figures, anyway.)

Yeah but... Uwe Boll tho.

[TheThan]

There are a lot of good ones listed already, but I’m going deep into the vault and pulling out one I doubt anyone has seen.

That movies is called the warrior and the sorceress, an Argentinean affair from 1984. It stars a drunk David Carradine (seriously I swear he’s sloshed through this whole movie) as a mercenary warrior named Kain. He wonders into a desert town that’s controlled by two warring factions battling over the only well in town. It’s basically Yojimbo or A fist full of dollars.

Now I like this move, I like it a lot, David Carradine is always entertaining, even when he’s drunk or not giving a crap. However this film is not exactly for kids, the female lead is topless through the entirety of the film, in fact I think all the female characters are topless. The show is about as low budget as you can get, with little in the way of special effects although since it’s from 1984, what little there is, is all practical. Running time is just shy of an hour and a half. One of the most interesting things is that this movie is produced by Roger Corman, who isn’t exactly a small name.

Apparently according to wikipedia its considered a cult classic. If you’re a fan of Roger Corman’s films, or David Carradine, or you’re just in the mood for a lot of violence (although there's not alot of gore) and nudity, look into it. heck if you're into sword and sorcery, then look into it anyway.

[Eldan]

It doesn't sound like a fantasy film from what you're describing. Where's the fantastical element coming in?

[TheThan]

It doesn't sound like a fantasy film from what you're describing. Where's the fantastical element coming in?

It’s got swords and a couple of monsters, some very vague magic. It’s supposed to take place on another world but you’d never know that. Really the fantasy aspects are a bit downplayed but they are there. I'm trying to not spoil too much of the film's details.

[johnson]

My favorite Underrated Fantasy Films, which i mention under here :

1. Wizards (1977)
2. Jabberwockey (1977)
3. The Hobbit (1977)
4. The Lord Of The Rings (1978)
5. Dragonslayer (1981)


That's it....................

[Cheesegear]

Underrated?

Beastmaster.

[Yora]

I think sadly most fantasy movies are pretty bad, and actually overrated. Can't really think of any I would consider underrated, except perhaps the most recend adaptation of Chinese Ghost Story. But it seems to me that most of the problems people have with it is that it's different than the more well known earlier one.

[danzibr]

Out of all these, I can say I really liked Krull and Willow. I've seen a few others, but don't think they were underrated (though Wizards has one of my favorite scenes of any movie, ever).

I do want to watch the ones I haven't seen.

[Darth Credence]

If you liked Mythica, Arrowstorm (the production company) has a Christmas movie called the Christmas Dragon that is set in the same world, and Mythica 2 is currently on Kickstarter to raise money for special effects. They also have a number of unrelated fantasy and sci-fi movies, although I think Mythica is probably their best so far. A friend's daughter is one of the makeup people, and they do almost all of the filming here in Utah.

[Killer Angel]

I still think Willow was one of the most underrated fantasy movies out there :smallwink:

Also still like both Krull and Hawk the Slayer, though they are a bit dated now I guess...

That said, I would like to nominate the 2000 release of Dungeons and Dragons for some kind of "horrendous, misguided attempt at movie" prize.

Willow is, indeed, good.
D&D is bearable, only on saturday night, if you're with friends and beers.

[SowZ]

Yor: The Hunter From the Future.

What other movie has a scene where the main character stands on the edge of a massive canyon, shoots a giant bat with a horribly under drawn shot from a longbow, then jumps on the bat, (which has gone into instant rigor-mortis,) and uses it as a hang-glider to cross said canyon?

What other movie ties a He-Man action figure to a yo-yo string, pushes it across a cardboard chasm, then 'seamlessly' intertwines said shot within the edit of humans in the real set acting out the most dispassionate man v. robot fight in the history of cinema?

What other title has an entire cast, men and women, dressed in loin cloths and skirts? With said cast doing acrobatics and fighting all movie long? And not a single actor or actress has deemed to wear underwear?

[Gopher Wizard]

Wizards by Ralph Bakshi is good. And I know it's pretty widely panned, but I also like his version of the Lord of the Rings.

[mittean]

Kull the Conqueror would make the list too, a second Conan movie with Kevin Sorbo as Conan*. I tend to like Kevin Sorbo.


The film I was talking about in the beginning, MYTHICA (http://on.contv.com/WatchMythica), stars Kevin Sorbo. One of the reasons why I brought it up is it does have a similar feel to some of the classic movies we've all listed here, but it just came out. Totally worth giving it a look-see and a share so more people become aware of it. :)

[Zaydos]

The film I was talking about in the beginning, MYTHICA (http://on.contv.com/WatchMythica), stars Kevin Sorbo. One of the reasons why I brought it up is it does have a similar feel to some of the classic movies we've all listed here, but it just came out. Totally worth giving it a look-see and a share so more people become aware of it. :)

Yeah, I've added it to "I need to watch this soon" because of that fact. I also wish I could find Andromeda on Netflix.

And I love this thread because I have opinions (Bakshi's LotRs was fun as a child and I should re-watch it, Wizards was not great but interesting enough to be really worth watching for the novelty, Fire and Ice was ok with good moments but not as good as Wizards).

[mittean]

Yeah, I've added it to "I need to watch this soon" because of that fact. I also wish I could find Andromeda on Netflix.

And I love this thread because I have opinions (Bakshi's LotRs was fun as a child and I should re-watch it, Wizards was not great but interesting enough to be really worth watching for the novelty, Fire and Ice was ok with good moments but not as good as Wizards).

Haha, that's awesome. Same. It's funny how I've known about and seen almost all of these films mentioned in my life, but this jhust mnakes me want to revisit.

As Darth Credence said, check out the Christmas dragon as well. It's a lot of fun. And go find the Mythica 2 movie on Kickstarter and give them some love. These are the kinds of films that should be on the classics list of 20 years from now, and our kids should look back fondly on the films that got them to love fantasy and good stories. :)

[TheThan]

Yor: The Hunter From the Future.

What other movie has a scene where the main character stands on the edge of a massive canyon, shoots a giant bat with a horribly under drawn shot from a longbow, then jumps on the bat, (which has gone into instant rigor-mortis,) and uses it as a hang-glider to cross said canyon?

What other movie ties a He-Man action figure to a yo-yo string, pushes it across a cardboard chasm, then 'seamlessly' intertwines said shot within the edit of humans in the real set acting out the most dispassionate man v. robot fight in the history of cinema?

What other title has an entire cast, men and women, dressed in loin cloths and skirts? With said cast doing acrobatics and fighting all movie long? And not a single actor or actress has deemed to wear underwear?

buahahaa

Yor's world he's the MAAAAAAAN!

you know, Yor: the hunter from the future was alot more obscure before spoony got his hands on it. but yeah, that movie is great for the Lulz.

[tomandtish]

I have a bit of a soft spot for Book of Vile Darkness, actually. Partly because of the brilliant dark atmosphere the soundtrack manages to infuse even some of the goofier scenes, partly because of the incredibly good creepy child scene, partly just because it was far less horrible than I'd anticipated it'd be.

As for really underrated fantasy films, Nightwatch gets the vote from me. Definitely one of the most stylish and innovative urban fantasy/horror films I know of.

I have to agree with both of these. Nightwatch was an excellent urban fantasy (Daywatch wasn't quite as good, and they apparently aren't continuing the series). WHile the special effects were horrible in Book of Vile Darkness, they actually did a decent job with the plot.

Does anyone remember The Sword and the Sorcerer (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0084749/?ref_=fn_al_tt_1)? So bad it's good. Spring-loaded three-bladed sword and all!

[Killer Angel]

Does anyone remember The Sword and the Sorcerer (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0084749/?ref_=fn_al_tt_1)? So bad it's good. Spring-loaded three-bladed sword and all!

Yes, I remember it, and I'm glad that someone else remembers it too.
But i wouldn't define it "favorite underrated film". :smallwink:

[Darth Credence]

Does anyone remember The Sword and the Sorcerer (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0084749/?ref_=fn_al_tt_1)? So bad it's good. Spring-loaded three-bladed sword and all!

This could be the saddest thing ever, but I've been known to quote that movie. Only the "I have no quarrel with you bit", but it still comes in handy from time to time.

[TheThan]

Does anyone remember The Sword and the Sorcerer (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0084749/?ref_=fn_al_tt_1)? So bad it's good. Spring-loaded three-bladed sword and all!

Yeah i remember it, it's pretty good. it's in my collection.

:smalltongue:

[Killer Angel]

Yeah i remember it, it's pretty good. it's in my collection.

:smalltongue:

mmm....
My memories are, indeed, very old. Should I give it another chance? :smalltongue:

[TheThan]

mmm....
My memories are, indeed, very old. Should I give it another chance? :smalltongue:

I think it’s alright. The entire middle section is really light on the fantasy. And there’s quite a bit of backtracking. But it’s not the worse movie I’ve ever seen. the action is simple and not really gory or elaborate. if you can get it for cheap sure it's worth picking up. like most of the these movies don't expect it to blow your mind or anything.

[comicshorse]

Not sure if this is crossing the line into martial arts movies (or even where you draw that line ) but 'Zu Warriors from the magic mountain'
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zu_Warriors_from_the_Magic_Mountain

I first caught this way back when Jonathan Ross presented a series of Hong Kong movies late at night on BBC 2. I loved all of them but at this was the first i saw it has a special place in my memories and helped start off an interest in Hong Kong movies