Legend is Ridley Scott's fantasy epic with cinema's greatest incarnation of the devil!

When Legend arrived in 1980 it was pretty much forgotten about straight away. Scott's fourth film after Blade Runner, unlike the previous film Legend still hasn't received the critical adoration it deserves.

Scott wanted to make a fairy tale for adults and his depiction of a fantasy world has yet to be bettered, even in the CGI laden Lord Of The Rings movies.

Scenes of a fairytale wonderland, blossom floating in the air and unicorns playing in a stream soon give way to a far darker atmosphere as the Lord of Darkness (Tim Curry) grows in power.

The story (what there is of one) concerns The Cruiser travelling to the depths of hell to restore peace and order to his world after a unicorn's horn is broken, plunging the world into eternal Winter. This gives us a great scene where Mia Sara as Princess Lily, returns to the family we see her visiting earlier on only to find them frozen.

Cruise himself doesn't really contribute a great deal other than being the archetypal good looking hero. Although it's interesting to note that this film was clearly made before Cruise's dental surgery!

According to director Ridley Scott his film Legend was a direct influence on the groundbreaking Legend Of Zelda Nintendo console game series. Game creator Shigeru Miyamoto has acknowledged the film as his inspiration for creating the classic series

Far more interesting is Tim Curry's splendid Darkness who has to be the result of one of the most brilliant make up jobs in movie history. Rob Bottin's work is so effective that any kind of CGI work done nowadays in creating a "Darkness" would pale in comparison.

Although it received some very unkind reviews, to be fair to audiences at the time they did have to make do with a Tangerine Dream score. Its suitable dreamy atmospherics made the film feel much more like a perfume commercial than anything else. Ridley Scott has since tinkered with his original version and reinstated the late Jerry Goldsmith's wonderful score, adding a more epic feel to the proceedings. Listening to the score now, its clear how ahead of his time Goldsmith was, the music echoing another great fantasy movie The Lord of the Rings, while at the same time adding Goldsmith's character detail themes so often found in his work with Joe Dante.

The director's cut, currently only available as a Region 1 DVD is far superior to the original 80s release, containing as it does far more depth of character. The vital moment when Darkness is finally revealed to the audience has so much more impact now as the this version holds the sequence back until about halfway through the movie. Darkness therefore gives a much stronger impact when we first see him. His booming voice in the early scenes is all we have to conjure a vision of him in our minds.

Elsewhere, changes serve to flesh out the movie which originally suffered from some sudden edits. If you liked Legend then you will love this and certainly if you were never a fan this won't change your mind.

For some the visuals are simply too sumptuous and although its visually alluring sometimes the amount of detail onscreen overwhelms the slight story. I say, just revel in the sights and sounds of a perfectly created fantasy world, immerse yourself in a living, breathing fairytale.

A visual feast which you'll either love or hate, either way the film deserves reappraisal for taking its fantasy concept seriously and in the days of Harry Potter movies that is something to be said.