Film Review by: Julia Seel
Set in the forest surrounding Mt St Helens, Big Legend is an hour and a half of gorgeous mossy-tree visuals. With a violent cryptid.
Tyler Laird (played by Kevin Makely) makes it through a more-or-less standard psych evaluation after he and fiancée Natalie (Summer Spiro) experience some woodsy trauma.
Once Tyler finishes the evaluation, the real meat of the movie begins. A friendly duct-tape weirdo named Eli (Todd Robinson) tells Tyler what he’s up against – spoiler: it’s Bigfoot – and helps Tyler tromp around on his mission to recover Natalie. Eli keeps morale up and dispenses wisdom on a multi-day loop, and Eli’s campsite serves as home base for most of the movie so the enormous American flag near his tent serves a purpose besides visual comedy.
The plot and characters of Big Legend are largely based on tropes. The mysterious Jackson Wells (Lance Henrikson) looms from the darkened corner and tells Tyler about the work to be done. Natalie appreciates and praises Tyler’s every decision before turning into a damsel in distress. The other three women shown on screen appear in nurturing roles, to support the protagonist and his quest.
I personally found it somewhat predictable when the movie ended with a tag to stay tuned for further adventures, because Big Legend would make a splendid first-of-a-series comic book. I hope Justin Lee will explore the briefly-shown “No Trespassing” signs, and maybe give some character development to Natalie via Tyler’s flashbacks. Big Legend is a joy to watch on monster movie night with your film buff buddies!
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