Labyrinth (1986)

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  TheMovieDiorama

  7 / 10

  Labyrinth is a magical, fantastical and damn right bonkers adventure. This is what happens when you let Jim Henson make a film. His imagination runs wild and we are left with possibly the weirdest yet most creative film I've ever seen. An over imaginative teenage girl wishes her baby brother to be taken by the Goblin King from one of the books that she is reading. Bending surrealism and reality together, we join her on a quest through a labyrinth where she must find her brother before the thirteenth hour passes. There are two morals to this story. One: never recite words from a fantasy book. Two: sometimes life just isn't fair. She really should've listened to Run DMC's "and it's like that, and that's the way it is"...would've saved us 100 minutes. Glad she didn't though, because this was incredibly enjoyable. Forget about the thin story where it just consists of one crazy scenario to the other, and put aside the weird musical numbers that just gives Bowie a chance to sing. This film was all about world building, and what a world it built! Highly creative filled with imaginative details in every corner of the maze. There are characters everywhere. Characters walking around, characters in the walls, characters on characters...literally everywhere. It just reminded me of those role playing fantasy books where you have to turn to certain pages to decide the fate of your quest. Henson's famous puppetry and animatronics does not go amiss here, it gave the film life. Plus, his directing style was rather noteworthy, particularly an illusion that is presented by having the camera at a precise angle. The production values were incredible. The labyrinth itself was full of wonder, different architectural types and interesting foliage. David Bowie was menacing as the Goblin King, wanted more screen time though. A young Jennifer Connelly somehow carried the whole narrative by herself. Impressive. The ending was a tad bit cheesy but heck, this was damn enjoyable. Would've liked a more substantiating plot. But I wanted a crazy 80's fantasy adventure, and I just got that.

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