Top 10 Fantasy Movies

 

Fantasy – According to Dictionary.com, is an imaginative or fanciful work, especially one dealing with supernatural or unnatural events or characters.

I got thinking about my greatest fantasy movies of all time? What would be my top 10? Growing up, as a kid, fantasy movies were my true love.  These movies, the fantastical, elves, ogres, swordplay, magic, I loved it all.  The fantasy style is what I fell in love with more than ever.  Still to this day, I geek out, when I see a new movie coming out.  It was my original movie love.

The problem I had with this was, there is such a wide variety as to what’s called fantasy.  What is it? What does it entail? Pretty much 99.9% of fantasy movies also have elements of drama, romance, action, horror even sci-fi.   There are too much, and too many sub categories.  So I decided some of the greats would have to be left out.  Fantasy genre is a lot like Rock and roll; with alternative, heavy metal, classic, hair…there are just too many divisions of it.  So somewhere along the way we need to classify them.

So to me – my list may not include what all fantasy is to others, and it won’t.  I will be eliminating tech, horror, comic(which is listed as fantasy as well), and many others.  Even though they all have fantasy elements, I’m going with what I call traditional fantasy.  I want creatures, magic, battles, strange characters.

This was a very difficult process for me, I really thought about it, and this was my list that I came up with.  Maybe you will agree, maybe not, but here are my top 10 fantasy movies.

10- Legend(1985) This movie had everything one could ask for as far as creatures went for me.  Unicorns, elves, pixies, demons, a phenomenal soundtrack, perfect battle of good vs. evil.

9-The Dark Crystal (1982) I saw this in the movie theatres as a kid, and was blown away.  Done with almost all muppets, great story with magic, some nasty skesis, and wicked cool monsters.

8- Labyrinth (1986) The Goblin King. How awesome was Bowie as the Goblin King? As well as having pretty girl Jennifer Connelly.  As the big sister trying to save her little brother, before he turns into a goblin.  She runs into some real bizarre creatures along the way in her heroic journey.

7- Sinbad and the Eye of the Tiger (1977) This movie got a lot of flack for being super lame.  Ok, the story was pretty frail, with the whole baboon-prince transformation thing, but I’m not putting these in for excellence in acting or screenplay writing.  I am listing as my favorite, cool fantasy movies that are a great watch.  The battle with the troglodyte and saber-tooth was terrific, with enjoyable special effects, again with some sweet stop motion baddies.

6- Clash of the Titans (1981) Neat claymation. I was sold on Medusa, who was vicious.  The Kraken, whose toy, my mother bought for me, and the evil whip wielding Calibos, who was terrifying to a young child. As an 11 year old kid, I did think the story was a tad puzzling, but I had a thing for dangerous monsters that were taken down by a good sword fight.  This also spawned my mythological affair I went into afterwards.

5- The Beastmaster(1982)You wanna talk supernatural powers? Dar was produced from a bovine!  The true beastmaster is born! Wicked cool monsters in this one, the witches were terrifying; the Juns were the perfect barbaric clan, and the ability to communicate with wild animals, and Tanya Roberts? I was sold the minute Dar emitted his first hawk cry. A very fun movie, that is easily locked into.

4-Conan the Barbarian (1982) As a little kid, I probably shouldn’t have been watching this movie, looking back now, but I did. This movie captivated me, of course ending with me having posters, the copying of the famous Conan sword swing, to imitating the Conan “Krom”.  Carrying a powerful musical theme that gives me chills to this day. And this was sword play at it’s best to me.  Conan, the abrasive, hero seeking revenge for his people. Conan the Barbarian was absolutely one of the all time best, with realistic swordfights, no jumping backflips, just real sword fights.  

3- The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Rings(2001)Being a fantasy nerd, that I have been, I was incredibly stoked for this movie to come out.  Loving the carton movie, The Hobbit, I was familiar with this story. (Shamefully, hadn’t read the series at this point). I was not disappointed in the least.  They pulled off everything that I wanted in a fantasy flick. Looking for devastating baddies, how about The Balrog?  Ya, incredible.

2- The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers(2002)We learn so much more of nasty little Gollum throughout this movie. He is a very disturbing character, and we learn more and more about his demented existence.  Again they bring in great creatures, with the Ents in this installment, and they looked amazing.  The battle of Helms deep was fast paced, exciting and treacherous. Overall, an absolutely fantastic movie.  You genuinely root for for the little hobbits throughout this movie.

1-The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King(2003) Just continually gets better, coming to the climax of the final battle.  We have thrilling fight scenes, that have a great feel to it, and an ending, when Aragorn returns home, that gave me chills in the theatre. I was so satisfied after seeing this final one, I was saddened that they were done with the trilogy.  I looked forward to them coming out year after year. With this trilogy as a whole, it will go down in movie history as being one of the all time greats, if not the best.

So there ya have them.  My top 10 fantasy films of all time, maybe some surprised, some not so much.  But I still feel I needed to give some accolades to some of the others that didn’t make my top 10 (I probably could have done a top 25).  Some fantasy love goes out to Highlander, Krull, Time Bandits, Princess Bride, Hellboy 2, and Dragonslayer, to name a few.

Also, looking forward to some upcoming releases like Prince of Persia, The Sorcerer's Apprentice, the remake of Conan, and of course The Hobbit.