Perhaps I’m a bit biased because of memories from childhood (point of reference: I bought a BRAND SPANKING NEW Atari 2600 and had an “Oh, Joy!” moment) but this is certainly right up there in the “as good as it gets” department for this sort of film. Dialogue and SFX are cheezy, of course. But this is a fantasy movie made in 1981…I think that’s almost a given.
What sort of film is it? It’s a D+D/Fantasy flick. Not a fictional movie that happens to be set in a fantasy “world”. What’s the difference? The ‘Lord Of The Rings’ trilogy are movies based in fantasy worlds. ‘Dragonslayer’ and ‘Krull’ are D+D/Fantasy flicks. Two completely different categories.
The difference between these two categories, assuming both are “good” for what they are, is depth.
Depth of characters, depth of plot, depth of emotions/reactions that require/allow intellectual and/or philosophical analysis…as opposed to simply sitting back and enjoying the escapist ride. Don’t get me wrong…I LIKE this, to an extent. I like several movies of this sort. They just honestly aren’t very GOOD if I’m going to be brutally frank about it. And I am.
Think of it as your favorite junk food: very enjoyable in small doses but not really WORTH anything and if you have too much you might want to throw up.
Highlights: Medusa battle and mechanical owl self-test.
Grade: C+