The NeverEnding Story 1984
I got this movie in a bundle of other movies and decided to watch it. I have heard some good things, but I was too old for this movie when it originally came out. There are a lot of fairy tale or fantasy special effects movies that came out in the 80's and they mostly look terrible, with characters that are obviously puppets and some really bad matte scenes. This movie is no exception. So many things just looks like cheap props, with doors that don't open smoothly and crumbling scenery that looks fake. Still, the movie makes use of a lot of aerial scenes of landscape or clouds that looks good at least. I felt like the movie really takes a long time to get moving. It is reasonably interesting as this story takes place, but like so many quest movies I don't see how the main hero has any idea what to do, but always seems to go in the right direction. My score for the movie would be significantly lower except that everything ties together nicely in the end and gives meaning to everything that has happened. I can't be too harsh about the bad special effects since that is all they had at the time and some of the animatronic animals almost look good with somewhat complex eye or facial movements, but you still never believe it is anything but a puppet. The soundtrack was a big deal at the time, but the electronic score has aged maybe even worse than the special effects. Another problem is the movie mainly concerns two boys and it is just hard to get good performances from actors that young. They do okay, but just not that effective, often given the thankless job of looking at things in wonder. And there aren't many roles for adults in the film to shoulder the load, like Harry Potter would have. Some people probably love this movie from their childhood, but it didn't really work for me.
Written: 16 Oct 2024
Owned on: Digital