!!Warning spoilers!!
This movie is about an ex army ranger that goes on a camping trip to propose to his girlfriend. But at night she is taken by a monster and a year later the man is released from a psych ward and decides to revisit the same woods to find the answers to what exactly attacked them that night.
So I am a fan of cheesy monster movies and animal movies such as Anaconda and Lake Placid and Abominable. I don't judge too harshly on low budget movies because when you have a low budget you gotta work with what you have. As long as there is decent writing, has it has something fresh and interesting to offer, and if decent decisions are made, then I'm usually pretty happy. Low budget does NOT have to mean low quality in story telling.
Now with Big Legend there are a few decent things about it, but also a lot of just terrible things about it as well.
Positives: -The movie has a beautiful setting. The forest they chose to film in is absolutely stunning and is very nice to look at throughout the film. The greenery is practically neon and it reminds me of the forests I grew up near.
Negatives:
Final thoughts: Overall the movie looks very nice due to a good quality camera and a beautiful setting. But the writing is just so weak once the story really gets going. The best writing and acting in the movie is when he gets out of the hospital in the beginning and is looking at memories of his girlfriend. Unfortunately it begins to go downhill. The set up of the movie isn't the most original but it's also not terrible, and you could do a lot with it. The overall idea of the movie and the ideas of some of the scenes isn't bad but the execution just falls completely flat. There are way too many illogical decisions ESPECIALLY since they make such a big deal of him being an army ranger. The writers have a blatant lack of survival knowledge and so the character just doesn't make any real great survival decisions. The characters are alright, but you stop caring about them with each terrible decision and it really kills the film.
I honestly wouldn't recommend the movie to friends. It doesn't have anything, not even one especially great scene that is worth sitting through the film for. If you want to see a cheesy low budget kinda not great Bigfoot movie, I recommend Abominable from 2006. It's also has some weak writing but it has a compelling set up with interesting character limitations and it has a pretty decent monster and some good gore and tension. It's a great example of a low budget cheesy kinda bad movie, but they have some really interesting things going for it that make it worth a watch. Unfortunately this is not the case with Big Legend. It has the cheesy low budget kinda bad movie vibe. But with nothing to make it worth watching. With the exception of the cinematography, It's not that far beyond a student film.
I give it two stars. One for the beautiful setting throughout and decent acting in the beginning of the movie. And two, for the decent effects and overall decent monster. There are way worse monster movies out there, but there are much better monster movies as well.
This movie is about an ex army ranger that goes on a camping trip to propose to his girlfriend. But at night she is taken by a monster and a year later the man is released from a psych ward and decides to revisit the same woods to find the answers to what exactly attacked them that night.
So I am a fan of cheesy monster movies and animal movies such as Anaconda and Lake Placid and Abominable. I don't judge too harshly on low budget movies because when you have a low budget you gotta work with what you have. As long as there is decent writing, has it has something fresh and interesting to offer, and if decent decisions are made, then I'm usually pretty happy. Low budget does NOT have to mean low quality in story telling.
Now with Big Legend there are a few decent things about it, but also a lot of just terrible things about it as well.
Positives: -The movie has a beautiful setting. The forest they chose to film in is absolutely stunning and is very nice to look at throughout the film. The greenery is practically neon and it reminds me of the forests I grew up near.
- The acting, at least in the first 1/3 is pretty decent. But it does go down hill the longer the movie goes on. And I mean DOWN HILL.
- The movie uses practical effects which is always nice. The effects are low budget for sure but not terrible. I've seen way worse in other movies.
- the movie has a couple decent jump scares.
- the monster is overall creepy looking though it is obvious it's a guy in a suit, BUT they still pull it off decently when the full monster and it's face is revealed. It's low budget but I buy it.
Negatives:
- like I've mentioned before, the acting in the second half or so of the movie just gets awful, almost unbearable. The hospital scene at the end is just cringeworthy. Lance Hendrickson does a decent job with his little monologue but I think that's because his voice is so low and cool.
- the lead character is supposed to have been an army ranger for 12 years and yet he makes very little smart survival or tactical decisions throughout the movie. He seems like he has no more knowledge than a regular person that just enjoys the outdoors and has taken a hunter safety course.
- NO ONE MAKES A SMART DECISION THROUGHOUT THE ENTIRE MOVIE. NOT ONE SMART DECISION. LITERALLY NOT ONE. I'm serious, it's just series of bad bad bad bad decisions the entire movie. The lead has AMPLE opportunities to shoot and kill the monster, and chooses not to shoot, so many times that it becomes laughable. He does decide to shoot it at one point, which does legitimately hurt the creature, and then he chooses NOT to shoot it again and instead let's it walk away. LETS IT WALK AWAY YOU GUYS. And let's not mention the fact that he walks past his own WORKING CAR to another camp site, a mile away, to then be disappointed that there is no keys for the other guys truck. And even if he needed to use the other guys truck, you are telling me an army ranger Of 12 years doesn't know how to hotwire a vehicle?
- The big fight scene/confrontation at the end is just laughable and riddled with bad decisions. He chooses not to use his gun (which has proven to hurt the creature) until the end, and even then, the writers decide to have him blow up a propane tank THAT IS LIKE 20 FEET AWAY from the monster. The monster happens to light on fire and then he does not shoot it to kill it but let's it run off. He used spears and a knife before he chooses to utilize the gun he has. Makes zero sense.
- the dialog is weak. There are a couple decent lines here and there but it's just weak and amateur writing that is not compelling.
- some of the editing makes no sense. They will jump from day to night and night to day but it's not jumping time. Like it's just showing two separate scenes that take place at two separate times that have nothing to do with each other in a montage that just makes no sense. It would normally be to show a time jump as a few days pass, but they keep showing the same scenes of the same day so it doesn't make sense at all.
- there is a moment where the monster does a jump scare in the woods at night as they are sitting around a campfire. They had just been attacked earlier that day and one man is shining a flashlight through the darkness and the men see it duck behind a tree. One man then says "it doesn't like the fire" and the other man says as he is looking around "it must be gone for the night". Ummm no I'm pretty sure it's right behind that tree.
- the blood throughout the movie IS ORANGE. Like blatantly orange. Why? There is no reason and it is very distracting and brings you out of the story. I know it's low budget but fake blood is not hard to make. Literally corn syrup and red food coloring works wonders. It's genuinely laughably orange. Looks like they killed the Oompa Loompa's from the chocolate factory.
Final thoughts: Overall the movie looks very nice due to a good quality camera and a beautiful setting. But the writing is just so weak once the story really gets going. The best writing and acting in the movie is when he gets out of the hospital in the beginning and is looking at memories of his girlfriend. Unfortunately it begins to go downhill. The set up of the movie isn't the most original but it's also not terrible, and you could do a lot with it. The overall idea of the movie and the ideas of some of the scenes isn't bad but the execution just falls completely flat. There are way too many illogical decisions ESPECIALLY since they make such a big deal of him being an army ranger. The writers have a blatant lack of survival knowledge and so the character just doesn't make any real great survival decisions. The characters are alright, but you stop caring about them with each terrible decision and it really kills the film.
I honestly wouldn't recommend the movie to friends. It doesn't have anything, not even one especially great scene that is worth sitting through the film for. If you want to see a cheesy low budget kinda not great Bigfoot movie, I recommend Abominable from 2006. It's also has some weak writing but it has a compelling set up with interesting character limitations and it has a pretty decent monster and some good gore and tension. It's a great example of a low budget cheesy kinda bad movie, but they have some really interesting things going for it that make it worth a watch. Unfortunately this is not the case with Big Legend. It has the cheesy low budget kinda bad movie vibe. But with nothing to make it worth watching. With the exception of the cinematography, It's not that far beyond a student film.
I give it two stars. One for the beautiful setting throughout and decent acting in the beginning of the movie. And two, for the decent effects and overall decent monster. There are way worse monster movies out there, but there are much better monster movies as well.