7 Reasons Why Willow is Better Than Lord of the Rings

 

 

The 1988 movie Willow is better than Lord of the Rings. That's me puffin away as the unpopular opinion puffin of the week. You heard me correctly, the movie that according to an un-sourced internet rumor was supposed to be an adaptation of the JRR Tolkien Lord of the Rings Books after George Lucas failed to secure the rights, did a better job being its own thing than did the Lord of the Rings trilogy. And before you fight me on this, I'll tell you why, no I'll show you why:

Story

Simplicity. Less is more. An aging out of control queen has advisers who foretell of a prophecy that a baby will be born and grow to destroy her. So she orders babies with a certain mark to be killed. A woman smuggles a baby out to save her, and then the baby is found by a simple little farmer with big dreams. Willow has to return this baby because the townspeople think she a bad omen, but on the way, he learns the baby is a Princess named Elora Danon who is prohesized to bring about Bavmorda's destruction, and gets stuck being the infant's caretaker and guardian. Since she is in danger, he must protect her, he finds an unlikely friendship in a swordsman and some brownies, and sets off to find a sorceress who could destroy Bavmorda to ensure the baby princess' safety.

The stakes of the story are the baby was almost murdered by an evil woman, and an unlikely and at first unwilling guardian appears to save the baby against all odds. As producer George Lucas put it, “it's about a number of well known mythological situations for a young audience.” Simple.

Characters

The LOTR charters aren't bad but come on, Madmartigan. And with the best name the best swordsman of the land can have. Willow, played by Warwick Davis, who also played an Ewok in Jedi, is the perfect underdog. Just look at his height! He was thrown into a world of giants, trolls, monsters and sorceresses far from his simple farm. He at first wanted to feed his family, live a simple life, try to be a sorcerer some day, unlike Bilbo Baggins who is just a lazy do-nothing who doesn't want to help anybody.

Bavmorda, the evil queen, who actually acts evil, who has a legitimate motivation though an evil one. We the audience aren't simply told she is evil, we are shown.

Sorsha, another great name, is the daughter of Bavmorda, who has an unlikely love story with Madmartigen.

Billy Bardy plays the head magical honcho in town, who says when the birds go the wrong way.

Fin Raziel is the aging sorceress who Willow must find to protect the baby with magic, who first appears as a possum... then an ostrich, then a crow, then a goat then a tiger and finally her human form.

General Kael with the most bad-ass helmet and mask, is the general of Bavmorda's forces, played by Pat Roach who you may have seen in things like Raiders of the Lost Ark and red Sonja.

Tony Cox, from Bad Santa, is one of the protectors of the Nelwyn village, who accompanies Willow on his first trek.

Only Willow's friend Megosh stays with him, played by the late David Steinberg. The rest of the Nelwyn cast is great as well such as the town leader Burglecut and Willow's loving wife Kaya.

A great love story

This is one of my favorite romance story arcs. These two start out hating each other, until at one point, maybe they don't? What's going on, I thought I hated her, wait a minute I thought I hated him? But maybe not? It's a realistic romance story arc, one that doesn't feel shoehorned in like so many movies do. By the end of the moving, their love is believable and sweet, especially after they used to hate each other.

Acting

Bavmorda, the actress kills it in this movie. She is not some comically evil character with no motivations other than being evil. She genuinely wants to have a baby killed because of a prophecy and she sells it! The fact she didn't win Best Supporting Actress for this movie tells me the Academy Awards is a crock.

Btw, the prophecy, in case anyone is paying attention in this movie, comes true! But not how she expected. In her attempts to have the baby killed, she herself is killed, thus the baby did cause her ruination, as prophesied The final boss battle.... epic. The love scenes are genuine. As are the sad scenes, and the happy scenes as well.

Battles

Less is MORE! When I worked at a pizza shop, my barber came in and ordered a green pepper pizza. I thought, I like this guy, I'll throw on extra peppers and he'll love it. Next time I saw him, I said you like a lot of peppers? He said, “regular peppers.” I'll never forget it. Less is more.

When you have a million goblins fighting a million orcs for just about no reason, it puts me to sleep. Contrast that loud and busy battle in Two Towers with one man, one Man, the mad lad Madmartigan defending a castle against a company of enemy soldiers. Can he do it? The odds are stacked against him, giving us the viewer some tension. There were people turned to stone, there are wild trolls nearby, he is the only one to protect the peck and the baby, he has to succeed. But look, he finds an armory with a cache of weapons and gear, and look at the look on Val's face, he is overjoyed to find armor and a good sword, he may prevail. But luck changes, a magic mishap causes a giant two headed beast to add to his trouble. We the audience are back in suspense. You see this one man against troops and a beat against all, is a more thrilling, more realistic battle scene than a million of one army with no strategy whatsoever, charging into a million of another army, again with no strategy no tactics, just a senseless clash.

As I said earlier, the stakes are stronger when it's simpler and more relatable. We all want the baby to survive. Compared to a nebulous idea of evil that we are told is evil, not shown, it just is. A ring has magic, because it just does. It makes people invisible just because. Eagles come and save the day and can take the people all the way to the end goal if they wanted. That's called a deus ex machina, a writer just writing their way out of the corner. Where as when Fin Raziel and Willow stand facing a cavalry charge, we are legitimately worried for them and truly unsure of the next move. Maybe magic eagles can come out of nowhere to save the day if it were LOTR.

The protagonists of both LOTR and Bilbo baggins, and we the audience are TOLD they must join in some quest. Why are we, the audience not shown? Do we the audience realllly feel like they have to go the mountain and Bilbo has to join them. Really, why? In Willow, we know why right away. See how it's the difference between good writing and bad. And yes I'm calling Tolkien's writing bad. I don't believe in sacred cows.

The music

I can't play the music here but seriously, look up on youtube the Danish symphony playing some songs from the Willow score, just amazing. I can't remember any of the music from either the Hobbit or LOTR. The Hobbit in general everything on screen and in my ear was a distractions, endless filler from start to finish both on screen and in audio.

Story length

Willow told it's story in 2 hours. By the end of it, you'll feel like so much has happened, you'll feel like you've gone a grand quest with Willow. LOTR took 11 hours to tell its story, 20 HOURS with the Hobbit included, taking TEN times to tell its story. How many hours of filler is that? What is the elevator pitch of each movie, told in a few sentences? I said Willow's earlier. Less is more. Well, except when talking about Rotten Tomatoes scores [Clip of Life is Short?], though it did eventually do well financially earning $135 million against a budget of only $35. LOTR obviously made billions, but Willow still accomplished more...with less.

And if you disagree with any of this, don't take a page out of LOTR, show me why, don't tell me why.

Full video: https://youtu.be/QjwLelefqgs