Max Magician and the Legend of the Rings (2002)

The Worst Film Ever

For all the hype it got I was expecting a lot more!

Don't Believe the Hype

There is, somehow, an interesting story here, as well as some good acting. There are also some good scenes

Someone bought me this DVD for Xmas about four years ago, and I never opened it or watched it until recently. Let's say I severely regretted doing so. I honestly should have chucked it unopened in the garbage bin after I came to this website and checked the reviews. Too bad I can't turn back time, like an hour and a half of it approximately.I hate to bash movies, but this one is begging for it. I have watched quite a few low budget movies, some of them being fantasy/sci-fi. The low production values are usually a little bit of a distraction, but a strong script and good acting can pick up the slack in other areas of the movie at least enough for me to enjoy it. That is SO not the case here.There are a few good things about the movie and I'll list them first so I won't seem 'biased'. 1. Whoever did the make-up did a fairly decent job. 2. Max is a cute kid 3. Fetch is hot and I love his accent and 4. The princess is very pretty. That's about it. Everything else was just god awful, the worse thing being the sound. It doesn't line up with the voices, the sound goes in and out, there are strange noises in the background, etc. The sound effects are also extremely cheesy. Basically it's a hot tranny mess all up in the sound department.The next worst thing is the special effects. I wouldn't call them 'special' by any means. I actually thought this was a much older movie because the effects make it look extremely dated. Whoever imposed the 'sparkles' on the film had a computer that was about 20 years old. Anybody, even my mother-in-law (who can't use a computer to save her life) who owns a recent computer, can make better special effects than what are shown in this movie. I kid you not.Next is the acting. Actually, I wouldn't call it that--I'd call it 'reading off of a poster board in the background'. This isn't the worst movie I've seen (though it makes the top 5) but in terms of acting ability, it is the only film I've ever seen where not one person in the film can talk like a real live human being. I swear they all sound like robots (which would have probably have made it a cooler movie).The plot--oh, I don't know--I have seen lamer plots, but this one is pretty bad. There is absolutely nothing original about it. It freely rips off ideas from much better movies--like Harry Potter, Lord of The Rings, Star Wars, etc., but it most resembles The Neverending Story. It pains me to think of the wreck they made of my favorite childhood movie. I'll never be able to watch it in the same way again.All in all, this movie is really horrible and I beg you not to see it. Though, actually, I thought of another thing that was good about it. 5. It gives amateur filmmakers hope, because I can't think of anyone who could make a movie and do a worse job. Anybody, even someone who's never directed, acted or even seen a movie before could make a far superior film and have thousands upon thousands of DVD's created and placed in the bargain bin at Wal-Marts all over the country. I don't know how to act or direct but it might be worth it for me to make a low budget Merchant-Ivory type film. At least I know how to write a decent script and my computer is only a year old instead of 20. Just those two things would make my movie infinitely better than this one, and your amateur movie, no matter the genre or plot, would be an improvement on this one also.

Let me start off by saying this movie made my friends and I laugh our head off. It was clear that this movie wasn't supposed to be funny. It was just that bad. Our favorite parts were: The random fart the king-guy with horns makes. Oh, and you can totally tell he is reading his lines off of his hands. Oh, and when he can't think of what to talk about he just goes "AHHHHH!!!". His henchman, uh... not the worm guy, but the other one...Fetch (great names)had such a weird accent and poorly dubbed lines that we had no idea what he was saying half the time. In the beginning the mom calls her own son a loner. Plus she looks like the same person who played the elf-girls mom. We think that they are half-brother and half-sister. Okay the end (so if you don't want me to spoil it for you, don't read). The FOUR soldiers that Max brings from the ground. OH!!! four guys in heavy metal!! YAY!! we can win now!!! The evil horn-guy is attacked by mice and disappears. but then later he is a mouse and he is kept in Max's room. Oh, yes. Let's keep the bad guy as a PET!!! Novel idea!! Overall, wow. If you like films that were made on a fifty dollar budget this film is for you!! The film isn't all bad... the makeup was pretty decent.

The six year old in the house was given this as a gift. I don't know if the person was intentionally trying to cause the harm to our sanity or not. Yes, true grasps of sanity were stripped away with the viewing of this.I have suffered Care Bears, Dora, even Elmo... and in comparison, they are high cinema.The costuming looks as if the local Live Action Role Playing group was approached and told to bring their outfits. The fight scenes look of the same caliber. And if I continue on the LARP hypothesis, the back story of the fantasy world could come from them also.If this is so, then I am sure that those that play the game fully enjoy it and it is a compelling story, but there is too much missing to fully pull in an audience not in the know.All in all, not a compelling story, nor dynamic acting.

I have seen this movie and while if your expecting Lord of the Rings quality or Harry Potter you will be sadly disappointed. But if you take it as it is, expecting a very low budget movie, it's not that bad. Sure the plot is a little shaky at times, but it's a fun little romp for fans of fantasy who don't have a large choice of movies. I have certainly seen worse.And it does have many good qualities. The make up and prosthetics are really quite good for a movie with so low a budget. And it is a movie that has a good message for kids: that you have to believe in yourself.With that said I would not recommend this movie for those of you who easily are disappointed in movies. I wouldn't even recommend it for the casual review. But if you a fan of fantasy and have an afternoon or a child to entertain, why not watch it. There are a lot more movie's out there that don't even try to have a heart. It least this one does. But I guess whether or not it succeeds as entertainment is still up to the viewer.