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What Are Your Favorite Fantasy Films ?


GAROVORKIN

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Well obviously Lord of the Rings.. but that is too obvious. There are a few others, mainly that I loved growing up

- Legend ( Ridley Scott)
- Willow
- Labyrinth
- Dark Crystal
- Krull
- Beastmaster
- Conan the Barbarian
- Red Sonya
- Excalibur
- Never Ending story
I'm more than happy to admit that almost all of them except maybe Labyrinth are deeply flawed and possibly a bit shit. However they appeared at a time in my childhood where there were really no other outlets for fantasy, so I hoovered up anything that I could find. I guess the 90's pretty much killed these kind of movies as I can't recall many after that.. maybe that goddawful D&D movie.

Recently I guiltily enjoyed the Warcraft movie on some level.



 

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A hard question, inasmuch as before LOTR there weren't many good ones. 

But here's a list: 

  • Labyrinth
  • Willow
  • The Neverending Story (my childhood memories of it, definitely not when I rewatched...)
  • Excalibur
  • The Last Unicorn

The various lists on Wikipedia or IMDB contain a lot of stuff like Gremlins or Ghostbusters that I don't always think of as "fantasy". Similarly I'd put Miyazaki movies in a category of their own - as my essentially permanent avatar suggests, Nausicaa is one of my favourite movies ever. 

A propos: 

 

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I know its obvious, but the LotR trilogy is probably the best Fantasy adaptation IMO... it had the budget, the actors, the location, the direction was top notch,  and was better written than the typical Fantasy flick... RotK even won best picture

Avatar was nominated for best picture... I thought it was OK

Excalibur was great...

The Princess Bride is a classic.... and Stardust should have been

The Wizard of Oz... Willy Wonka

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I have to echo many of the choices of previous responders:

Labyrinth

The Dark Crystal

Willow

Excalibur

The Princess Bride

Conan the Barbarian (the Destroyer was pretty meh)

LOTR (The Hobbit films were a travesty)

Watership Down

The Masters of the Universe (I kid, I kid)

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On 11/11/2017 at 7:40 PM, Eggegg said:

 

 
- Conan the Barbarian
- Red Sonya
 
 



 

John Milius's Conan is unique. It is an ADULT sword and sorcery fantasy, he gave a proper treatment of Robert E Howard. Conan comes off a little more  ball peen brutish than even Howard had him, but that may be due to Arnold's acting. It has an absolutely gorgeous score by  Basil Poledouris.  I know of no other R-rated fantasy like it , well of the sword and sorcery type. I don't know if one could do another R rated film like it. Sandahl Bergman is the most unusual female action character that I have ever seen.  

For instance Red Sonya should have been R rated , should of had a better story and of all things Sandahl Bergman should have been Red Sonya! That was sorely disappointing fantasy film.

Conan the Destroyer was an abysmal  sequel to Conan it could have been so much better they really fumbled that one.

I am not all that really taken with Robert E Howard, I sure like his fiction better than Edgar Rice Burroughs. If STARZ or even HBO wanted to do a fixed-up Conan , in the style of Millus, I could see a success , I mean keeping the R-rating the same edge as that first movie.

 

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On 13/11/2017 at 9:18 PM, Martini Sigil said:

I know its obvious, but the LotR trilogy is probably the best Fantasy adaptation IMO... it had the budget, the actors, the location, the direction was top notch,  and was better written than the typical Fantasy flick... RotK even won best picture

Avatar was nominated for best picture... I thought it was OK

Excalibur was great...

The Princess Bride is a classic.... and Stardust should have been

The Wizard of Oz... Willy Wonka

Stardust still makes my list I have to confess. 

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LOTR - Jackson

LOTR - Bakshi

The Hobbit/ROTK - Rankin/Bass

Watership Down

The Never-ending Story

The Princess Bride

Willow

The Dark Crystal

Labyrinth

Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory

The Sword in the Stone

Highlander

Krull

The Beastmaster

The Last Unicorn

Conan The Barbarian (1982)

Red Sonja

The Secret Of Nimh

The Black Cauldron

Masters of the Universe (I don't kid)

 

 

Do These Count?

Big Trouble In Little China

The Goonies

The Last Dragon

 

On 11/11/2017 at 8:40 PM, Eggegg said:


I'm more than happy to admit that almost all of them except maybe Labyrinth are deeply flawed and possibly a bit shit. However they appeared at a time in my childhood where there were really no other outlets for fantasy, so I hoovered up anything that I could find. I guess the 90's pretty much killed these kind of movies as I can't recall many after that.. maybe that goddawful D&D movie.
 

IMO, yes there were flaws with the 80's movies but still none of the 90's were as good but you could find some here and there that felt kind of 80's fantasy-ish, but by then they also had the 90's flavors too.

Dragonheart was one.

Even though it was based on a video game I'd put Mortal Kombat here.

And that reminds me a Jean Claude Van Damme movie, not Street Fighter though, but The Quest

I would classify any of those movie as watchable, but none of them would make my favorites list though.

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A lot of my favorites have already been named (Willow, Princess and Labrynth as a big 3), so I'll just throw out one that I love to this day.

Sword and the Sorcerer - It is cheesy and B grade, but I love it.  You can't go wrong with a sword with 3 blades that fires 2 of the blades like missiles.

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6 minutes ago, Manhole Eunuchsbane said:

Wizard of Oz has to top the list, methinks. Seems like the Fantasy Movie Primer for most folks my age anyway. And of a generation before as well.

I'm not sure why, but Wizard of Oz never even crossed my mind.  I think, in my mind, I place that movie outside of a genre or something, but that would top my list for certain. One of the all time great movies.

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Do we mean high fantasy here (sword & sandals, or orcs etc) or anything that can be considered fantasy because it's story elements are fantastical and far from reality?

Conan the Barbarian  - even if it is not as close to the source as people make out it is a pretty epic film with an amazing score.

Hellboy - for some cool, well done Lovecraftian weirdness.

Dragonheart - because....dragons!

The 13th Warrior - not sure it's fully fantasy but i love it anyway.

Stardust - because it's just a really well made film with a good story and some really good characters. And it looks brilliant too.

Raider of the Lost Arc - because why not. It has some brilliant fantasy plotting even with it's lean towards being an action film.The hero, the ancient relic, the evil overlords trying for dominance, the damsel in distress, the showdowns with the bad guys, the mystical and supernatural elements.

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