Willow

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Kristine H Willow is a remarkably original and exciting fantasy adventure. Sometimes, there is a movie you love when you’re a kid that you come to realize is not as good when you’re older, such is not the case with Willow. Sure there’s some cheesy 80’s goodness throughout but overall it’s thrilling and led by a stellar cast. Rated 4.5/5 Stars •  Rated 4.5 out of 5 stars 02/17/25 Full Review Landon J A childhood classic for me. I remember being about 11 and watching this nightly on my tiny 11in CRT on the bedside. Always falling asleep at the same time, during the giant two headed creature scene. On re-watching, some pretty glaring flaws show through to me. I found the brownie characters to be really annoying. Some highly nonsensical character decisions, particularly Sorsha's decision to fall in love with Madmartigan on seemingly a whim? I wonder if anyone else found the eerie similarities with the LOTR movies? I think this would be an appropriately beloved title for contemporary younger audiences, and perhaps modern kids with a penchant for 80's quirkiness. Not appropriate for any other demographic though, lol. Rated 2/5 Stars •  Rated 2 out of 5 stars 02/07/25 Full Review nick s Had some good moments but overall trying too hard to force story and character beats rather than let them develop organically. Written by George Lucas so plenty of silly sidekicks. The story felt pretty generic - a prophesy about a mystical princess, a wicked queen, a hobbit on a big adventure, the redemption of a bad character etc etc. Warwick Davies was the standout. He seemed to be the only one taking the quest seriously. Rated 3.5/5 Stars •  Rated 3.5 out of 5 stars 02/04/25 Full Review Jacob B Why did critics take a big smelly dump on this film? Sure, it's not great and, even amongst '80s fantasy films, I do think there are better films such as The Dark Crystal and Labyrinth but I thought Willow was a delightful adventure in its own right. Warwick Davis is likeable in the lead role, the characters are memorable, the set design is immersive, it has a fun mix of action and comedy, features groundbreaking visual effects (though the Ray Harryhausen-style stop-motion animation does hold up reasonably well) and James Horner delivers a rousing, orchestral score. Admittedly, some things could've been handled better such as one character's Heel-Face Turn (which has a bit more depth to it in the deleted scenes) and those little guys called Brownies could be annoying sometimes but overall, I do think this is an underrated fantasy adventure that's worth watching at least once. It's certainly a much better Lucasfilm-produced Ron Howard film than the impersonal Solo was, anyway. Rated 4/5 Stars •  Rated 4 out of 5 stars 01/20/25 Full Review Jay W "Willow" follows a lot of the basic high fantasy tropes. There are wizards, elves, a dark lord and a prophecy about a chosen one destined to defeat the dark lord. What helps "Willow" stand out is that the "chosen one" is still a baby. With the dark lord knowing the prophecy, she pulls a Ramses and decrees to search all babies for the chosen one. Through means of trying to hide the baby, she ends up in the hands of Willow. So, the focus of the story is not on "The chosen one" but instead the random person who happened to stumble into the situation. That is an interesting twist. Willow, himself is never mentioned in the prophecy, he just is the one taking care of the chosen baby. But man, this movie makes a lot of strange decisions. It can become very clear that this was written by George Lucas. The story begins by putting a fellowship of characters together, only to have the group break up about two scenes later. It is difficult to grasp how the rules of this world work. There is one scene where the evil wizard just turns everyone into pigs, why couldn't she just use that power to begin with? There is a plot point where a love potion is used on a character, and they do the good old Bond style of: kiss her until she likes it. There are a lot of obnoxious side characters and they get far too much screen time. The story takes back seat for a long stretch of the movie and it chooses the oddest things to focus on. There are bonus points of originality, but boy is it ever strange. I can see it being some people's favorite movie, but for me it is too unfocused, confusing and filled with annoying characters. There is a little magic, but it falls short of coming together. Rated 2/5 Stars •  Rated 2 out of 5 stars 12/01/24 Full Review Emilliano Jr S A beloved 80's classic which fascinates us until today. It's like Harry Potter & LOTR in one. Teary eyed after watching it again for more than 30 years. Rated 4/5 Stars •  Rated 4 out of 5 stars 11/25/24 Full Review Read all reviews

Willow

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