LEGENDARY (Eric Styles, 2013)

[Travis]

I finally saw it. I wouldn't say it is a good movie but isn't that bad. I expected it to be a lot worse.
Dolph was great in it except his character was very cliche.

I couldn't help but notice he moves pretty stiff in it like he has a bad back or something. Also, he is hard to understand in some parts.

[Scifibuff5]

It's once again not unwatchable but after seeing it on El Rey months ago, the best I can say is that I got to see it for free. It's got it's heart in the right place, going for another fun Indy Jones romp and obviously the marketing wanted to play up the whole Adkins Vs. Dolph factor but much like movie blogger Direct To Video Connoisseur summed up, it was made with the wrong kind of sauce.

It won't break your heart or make you swear off Dolph's choices for good but it's definitely the best way to make people not get into his films if you show your pals this forgettable fluff. It's the kind of film that while not offensively bad, it does become intolerable after a good hour because the viewer is not getting to see what they wish to see and the film is too self-indulgent.

[Jox]

The soundtrack CD is on sale for 5€ at Kronos Records
http://www.kronosrecords.com/speclearsale.html



Paul Leonard-Morgan's score is one of the few recent orchestral soundtracks with THE EXPENDABLES and IN THE NAME OF THE KING 2... The last ones before were Stefano Mainetti's THE SHOOTER / HIDDEN ASSASSIN and SILENT TRIGGER.

[Jox]

The Filmmakers Podcast talks to writer Andy Briggs about LEGENDARY (at 23:38)
https://soundcloud.com/thefilmmakerspodcast/andybriggs
https://itunes.apple.com/gb/podcast/the ... 0393274020

Apparently Briggs and his brother Peter (HELLBOY) were uncredited writers on earlier drafts of JUDGE DREDD, FREDDY VS. JASON and ALIEN VS. PREDATOR...

[Jox]

Rehearsal footage posted by actor Murray Clive Walker
www.instagram.com/p/BeAMtV_BpYS/
direct link to video:
https://scontent-cdt1-1.cdninstagram.co ... 5568_n.mp4

[Jox]

Scott Adkins talks LEGENDARY in the "Adkins Undisputed" podcast
https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/l ... 0510832357

[Jox]

Score / soundtrack review
http://www.buysoundtrax.com/larsons_sou ... _4_15.html



Interview with composer Paul Leonard-Morgan (DREDD)
http://www.buysoundtrax.com/larsons_sou ... 19-16.html

Q: Another film you’ve done which is more fantasy oriented is LEGENDARY: TOMB OF THE DRAGON, which touches on a bunch of things – it’s an action film, it’s a fantasy, it’s a little bit of a caper movie, and it’s also a monster film. How did you come in and treat those various elements?

Paul Leonard-Morgan: Do you know what? The timing on that was just brilliant, because without getting too deep and heavy, my second child had been very unwell - she’s fine now, but I’d basically been living in hospital with my wife for about two and a half months, so I wasn’t speaking to anyone, and then she got out and she’s fine and my agent said “I’ve actually been putting these people off for the last two and a half months, but you probably don’t want to do it because you’re getting your head together, but there’s this kind of caper movie.” I asked what it was, and it was bizarre because the previous two years had been THE NUMBERS STATION and LIMITLESS and DREDD – really dark, murdery, twisted stuff – and suddenly, my daughter’s born and then she’s fine after being in hospital for a time, and that year was just a year of these fun, happy soundtracks! So I had this caper thing. then I had the MINIONS shorts come along, and then I had WALKING WITH DINOSAURS and suddenly it’s “hey! He’s the happy animation guy!” That’s fine - let’s forget about the deaths and drugs, I’ll go for the happy animation guy anytime! So LEGENDARY came along, and I read the script, and thought “You know what? I can do with a bit of happiness in my life!” It was basically a family movie and I’d never done one of those before, so I thought I’d give it a try! It was actually a rollicking ride – it had a sense of humor and lots of big action pieces where I could really get into the orchestral stuff and have really bombastic drums. It was just one of those films where you’re going to go and have a bit of fun for a couple of months.

Q: One of the things I like about that score, beyond its overall tone, is how you’ve treated the monster – the dragon. It’s always kind of iffy in the film – is it really a monster, is it a figment of legend, and you’ve got this music which really adds a presence to that creature as they’re investigating it.

Paul Leonard-Morgan: I think there are two sides to the film. One is obviously the kind of caper side where they’re just going around trying to find clues – one of the tracks is called “Fun at the Morgue,” so it was always going to be tongue-in-cheek. But as far as the actual creature itself, it was a case of “how do you make something scary, without doing what’s been done a million times before?” So I got some really raw percussion – let’s think back to what it was like in The Land Before Man with these monsters, and if you didn’t have electricity or you didn’t have machines, you had people hitting things, whether that was a cave man hitting walls or people just hitting some sort of metal, that was the idea behind it. Then I thought well, yeah but also need to make people feel for this creature, whether it’s fear or empathy or however you’re feeling towards the creature; so I got some brass instruments, trombones and horns and everything, which I can’t play for the life of me but I just blew into them. Then de-tuned them and tied them together, layered them up against some other samples, and you’ve got this really, raw, shouting-from-the-depths of this dinosaur creature. So that was my thinking: percussion and raw, de-tuned brass.

Q: How did you treat the more muscular action music? Apart from everything else you’ve also got these two rival action heroes, Dolph Lundgren and Scott Adkins, and they’re at odds.

Paul Leonard-Morgan: It’s funny, isn’t it? You’ve got these martial arts guys in there, and then they’re going around trying to steal secrets! It’s one of those films where you just don’t take it too seriously. I think if you start going, wow, we need to kind of do this, or do that, then you start questioning, well, why are they in China chasing after dragons?

Q: It’s like suddenly we’re in a Jackie Chan movie or something!

Paul Leonard-Morgan: Yeah, totally! And then out come the guitars and we’ve got PULP FICTION and RESERVOIR DOGS….! Dolph does these fantastic baddie faces: do you trust him or do you not trust him? Scott is clearly a Hollywood heartthrob who everybody loves, so it’s going back to a comic book character, one’s the villain and one’s the goodie. Let’s play them up a bit and have a little fun with it.

[savagesketch]

New episode has arrived! Richard Hawes from The DTV Digest is back once again, this time helping me discuss the misguided monster adventure, LEGENDARY! Why in a film with two action stars is there zero action present? Listen in to find out!

https://imustbreakthispodcast.wordpress ... legendary/

Feel free to rate and review the show on iTunes or Stitcher!

[Jox]

A couple notes as I listen to the episode to answer some of the questions you were wondering about:

US: DAY OF RECKONING was filmed 1 year before (May 2011), EX2 was shot 6-8 months prior, LEGENDARY lensed right before BATTLE OF THE DAMNED (and followed THE PACKAGE by 2-3 months)...

EDIT:
The mobile video game was actually released, as I was able to download it on my phone back then, not sure it's still out there but I must have posted the link on this thread back in 2013-2014 so it must be here...

EDIT 2:
US:DOR was released on 3D Blu-rays in Canada, the UK and Germany.
LEGENDARY was released on 3D Blu-ray in France, Germany and Brazil (and I saw it screened in 3D when it was shopped at the 2013 Cannes Film Market).