Jade Dynasty (2019)
Wu Xia Film
Ching Siu-Tung, director of classic Wu Xia films like A Chinese Ghost Story, returns to wow us all again after an eight years absence with another film of breathtakingly dreamy visuals
Magical Artefacts
Magical Artefacts are objects of power that can produce or are empowered by Magic. Magical Artefacts can be rings, swords, orbs, scrolls, staffs, lenses, crystals, scrolls, keys, lamps, books, knives, boxes, doorways, mirrors, flying carpets, coins, items of clothing (often ones that may have been worn by a Magician) or jewellery, and assorted others.
These can variously wield magic and power, open Portals, conduct transformations, offer wishes, extend one’s life, conjure entities, control minds, divine the future and many other purposes. Use of such objects can sometimes require arcane knowledge or solving puzzles. In some cases, the usage will affect a price on the user. Artefacts that have malevolent purpose are discussed under Cursed Objects.
Rarely is it ever depicted how such an artefact comes into being, they are usually items that are just discovered. Frequently they are hidden where Adventure Films often concern quests to discover their whereabouts, or else they can be unassuming items found in the everyday.
The most famous Magical Artefacts on screen might be King Arthur’s sword Excalibur, Aladdin’s lamp, Dorothy’s Red Slippers in The Wizard of Oz (1939), the One Ring in The Lord of the Rings and Thor’s hammer.
Jumanji: The Next Level (2019)
Trapped Inside a Videogame
Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle, the reboot of the 90s Jumanji, was a box-office success. That mandated a sequel. The central problem is where exactly does a film about characters sucked inside a videogame go with its premise?
Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle (2017)
Trapped Inside a Jungle-Themed Videogame
A revival of Jumanji. The original’s boardgame is now a videogame that sucks the players inside. The adventure elements are routine but the film’s has comedic fun with its bodyswapped characters
Jungle Run (2021)
The Asylum Mockbuster/Adventure Film
This was The Asylum’s mockbuster copy of Disney’s Jungle Cruise and is a similar kind of adventure film. However, this proves far more entertaining than what you expect
Just Another Pandora’s Box (2010)
Gonzo Comedy/Film Parody
A demented Jeffrey Lau comedy that seems to have no limits on how silly it is willing to be, while parodying just about every other film made around the same time
The Kid Who Would Be King (2019)
Modern-Day Arthurian Legends
Joe Cornish gained much buzz with Attack the Block. His follow-up film concerns a kid who inherits Excalibur. Cornish has fun translating elements of the Arthurian legends to the present-day
King Arthur and the Knights of the Round Table (2017)
Modernised Arthurian Legends/The Asylum Mockbuster
NOT the Guy Ritchie film but an Asylum mockbuster released at the same time. The most WTF take on the Arthurian legends ever with the Knights as gun-wielding US Marines
King Arthur: Excalibur Rising (2017)
Arthurian Legends Adventure
A passable B-budget film that came out in anticipation of Guy Ritchie’s King Arthur: Legend of the Sword. This is actually an Arthurian sequel, featuring Arthur’s son inheriting the sword.
King Arthur: Legend of the Sword (2017)
Arthurian Legends
Guy Ritchie’s take on the Arthurian legends is an awkward beast that comes out as half wannabe Michael Bay film giddy with CGI delirium and half one of Ritchie’s typical Man’s Man caper films
Kingsglaive: Final Fantasy XV (2016)
Anime/Computer Game Adaptation
Anime film released to accompany the computer game. Dazzling, epic-sized animation, mocapped in photorealistic detail that wows the eye on a scale that Western animators never come near
A Knight’s War (2025)
Knight in the Realm of Demons
An unusual, visually fascinating fantasy film where a knight enters into the realm of demons to save a girl, while being granted a talisman that allows him to continually be killed and resurrected
Kubo and the Two Strings (2016)
Stop-Motion Animation/Boy's Epic Journey
Beautiful stop-motion animated feature from Laika. This takes a big bite and tells an epic adventure. The only flaw is that the stop-motion is so flawless that audiences cannot tell the difference between regular animation
Kull the Conqueror (1997)
Sword and Sorcery
Disappointing adaptation of Robert E. Howard’s other barbarian hero. Cast with Kevin Sorbo, it comes out as Kull: The Legendary Journeys and the material is killed by the filmmakers taking an unserious approach
Labyrinth (2012)
Cross-Historical Search for the Holy Grail
Christopher Smith is an underrated genre director but his first venture into tv is disappointing cross-historical quest for the Holy Grail story that reads like warmed over Da Vinci Code
Lara Croft, Tomb Raider (2001)
Videogame Adaptation
The first film adaptation of the popular videogame is a film largely premised around the personality of Angelina Jolie. Outside of that, the film is a half-baked series of plot ends and action scenes taken from better films
Lara Croft, Tomb Raider: The Cradle of Life (2003)
Videogame Adaptation
The first Tomb Raider film was empty-headed but a hit but the series was then killed off by this sequel. Angelina Jolie’s performance is detached from human emotion and the action sequences ludicrous
Last Action Hero (1993)
Adventures Inside the Movie Screen/Action Movie Parody
A big flop but highly underrated Arnold Schwarzenegger film, a sophisticated meta-fiction that views the cinema screen as another dimension and wittily deflates action cliches
League of Gods (2016)
Epic Chinese Fantasy
A Chinese fantasy film that leaves anything Western fantastic cinema has made recently for dead, including epical battle scenes and a lavish sumptuousness of costuming that leaves your jaw on the floor
Legends of Oz: Dorothy’s Return (2014)
Animation/The Wizard of Oz Sequel
Animated sequel to The Wizard of Oz that proved a charmless flop that misses the magic of the original by a mile. The familiar characters are run over with a gratingly modern sense of humour
The Lego Movie (2014)
Animation/Adventures in the Lego Universe
How much fun can a film based around Lego characters be? A film that overflows with cleverness, wit and energy. The most fun is in the film’s creating a madcap mix-up of characters from different franchises
The Librarian: Quest for the Spear (2004)
Adventure Film/Quest for Mythic Artifacts
The first of several tv movies and later tv series about a team that collect mythic artifacts. An unapologetic copy of the Indiana Jones films and surprisingly more fun than you expect
The Librarian: Return to King Solomon’s Mines (2006)
Adventure Film
The second of The Librarian tv movies featuring Noah Wyle as an Indiana Jones-modelled adventurer in search of mythical artifacts – here a map to King Solomon’s Mines
Like Mike (2002)
Kid Finds Magic Basketball Sneakers
Utterly insipid family film about an orphan kid who is given a magical set of sneakers that turn him into a basketball star who is “like Mike [Jordan].” Little more than a glorified commercial for the NBA
The Little Mermaid (2023)
Disney Live-Action Remake
Disney’s original The Little Mermaid was an enormously fresh film. This is the live-action remake that came out amid much controversy and is inevitably a lesser shadow of the original.
Little Nemo: Adventures in Slumberland (1989)
Anime/Boy's Adventures in Dreams
Anime film based on Winsor McCay’s celebrated comic strip about a boy’s adventures in dreams. Despite a script from Ray Bradbury, the film waters the comic-strip down to the formula of the modern children’s film
The Little Vampire (2000)
Children's Vampire Film
The film version of a popular series of German children’s books about a buy who befriends a young vampire kid. The proves lightweight and likeable enough
The Lord of the Rings (1978)
Epic Fantasy/Animation
Way back before Peter Jackson, Ralph Bakshi made this not uninteresting animated adaptation of J.R.R. Tolkien. The film was not a success and Bakshi failed to return to complete the second part of the story
The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring (2001)
Epic Fantasy Adventure
Peter Jackson wowed the world with this first part of his adaptation of J.R.R. Tolkien’s trilogy. This is epic filmmaking and one that shows Jackson in full command of his craft
The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King (2003)
Epic Fantasy Adventure
The weakest of Peter Jackson’s Lord of the Rings films. This is the most variant from the source material and the one where Jackson allows his tendency to visual effects bloat to take over
The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers (2002)
Epic Fantasy Adventure
Peter Jackson’s Lord of the Rings saga truly gains its feet here, expanding out onto an epic scale where he has fused special effects and story into a singular vision
Lost City Raiders (2008)
Tomb Raiding Adventures in a Drowned Future
A conceptually peculiar mix of Indiana Jones and Waterworld about tomb raiding adventures in a drowned future and the quest for Moses’s staff to turn back the rising waters
The Lost Empire (1983)
Girl Action Team vs Super-Villain
The first film from low-budget hack Jim Wynorski. How can you resist the absurd B-budget mix of a trio of very well-endowed women kicking ass, martial arts action, women’s prison scenes and mad scientist super-villains
The Lost Room (2006)
Everyday Objects with Mysterious Powers
One of the most conceptually ingenious tv mini-series ever created concerning a quest for objects from a mysterious hotel room that have been imbued with amazing powers.
The Luck of the Irish (2001)
Teenage Leprechaun
A Disney Channel film where Ryan Merriman discovers that he is the child of leprechaun parents. A mad pastiche of Irish culture, related to the earlier film in name only
The Magic Carpet (1985)
Children's Arabian Nights Fantasy
Amiable Danish-made Arabian Nights fantasy for children that has the benefit from being shot on location in Turkey
Mary and the Witch’s Flower (2017)
Anime/Young Witch
The third film from former Studio Ghibli employee Hiromasa Yonebayashi. Yonebayashi is seen as the carrier of Hayao Miyazaki’s mantle, so much do his films look like lost Miyazaki works. This is sweet and amiable, even if it never hits the emotional heights Miyazaki does
The Mask (1994)
Zany Comic-Book Superhero
Comic-book adaptation featuring a ballistically OTT Jim Carrey who becomes a zany figure of chaos whenever he puts on a mask. The film has been designed to emulate cartoon physics but its lack of any grounding reality proves annoying
Masters of the Universe (2026)
Intergalactic Sword-and-Sorcery
A reboot of Masters of the Universe, this fully embraces the mythology of the animated series and gives them great life. But is also a work that is constantly deflating any chance you are taking it seriously
The Medallion (2003)
Martial Arts Comedy/Superpowers
Flop Jackie Chan film that tries to recapture some of his Hong Kong heyday with Jackie in a quest for a boy and medallion with magical powers
Mega Time Squad (2018)
Guy and Various Temporal Copies of Himself Comedy
There have been some very sophisticated time paradox films in recent years. At complete contrast, this is a comedy that has a great deal of fun with the premise of a guy and assorted temporal copies of himself running about
Merlin and the Book of Beasts (2008)
Arthurian Legends Adventure
A work of Arthurian sequelia made for the Syfy Channeal featuring Arthur’s daughter inheriting the sword. This has the feel more of a series of B-budgeted D&D wilderness encounters churned out without much effort rather than being a fantasy work that soars
Merlin’s Apprentice (2006)
Arthurian Legends Adventure
Sequel to Hallmark’s earlier tv mini-series Merlin featuring a return performance from Sam Neill in the title role, this is otherwise a generic and unmemorable work of Arthurian fantasy
A Minecraft Movie (2025)
Videogame Adaptation
A live-action film based on the popular
Minions: The Rise of Gru (2022)
Animation/Super-Villain and Cute Mischievous Creatures
The cutely nonsensical Minions have become a pop culture phenomenon. Here we get more of them, although this is more as a Gru origin story
The Monkey King (2014)
Epic Chinese Legend
Enjoyably colourful and silly retelling of the classic Chinese legend. This is one Wu Xia film that leaps aboard the CGI and 3D bandwagon to create a wildly fantastical airbrushed world that comes out resembling a flying swordsman film by way of Avatar
The Monkey King: Uproar in Heaven (1965)
Chinese Animation/Journey to the West Adaptation
3D restoration of a classic Chinese adaptation of Journey to the West and the best film version of the story to date … an incredible film filled with psychedelically eye-popping animation and amazing action scenes, while gleefully celebrating a defiance of all authority
The Monster Squad (1987)
Kids vs the Famous Monsters
Rather charming effort where the Famous Monsters – Dracula, the Frankenstein Monster, the Wolf Man, The Mummy, The Creature – are revived and pitted against a group of kids. The film has a great deal of affection for the originals and the encounters are delightful
The Mortal Instruments: City of Bones (2013)
Secret World of Magic Amid the Everyday
A Young Adult fantasy adaptation that fells a Harry Potter wannabe repackaged with the brooding teen romanticism of the Twilight series, all under a director whose indifferent handling fails to animate any of the material
Mortal Kombat Legends: Battle of the Realms (2021)
Animation/Interdimensional Combat/Videogame Adaptation
The second of the Mortal Kombat animated films, this continues into another tournament, introducing a bewildering array of characters from the games amid a high degree of violence and bloodshed
Mortal Kombat II (2026)
Interdimensional Combat/Videogame Adaptation
A sequel to the 2021 revival of the film series based on the videogame and a much more satisfying film than its predecessor. The first film was all origin story, but this plunges us into the actual kombat itself
Mortal Kombat Legends: Snow Blind (2022)
Animation/Interdimensional Combat/Videogame Adaptation
The third of the Mortal Kombat animated films. This abandons inter-dimensional kombat and takes place in a post-apocalyptic world, focused around the blind swordsman Kenshi
The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor (2008)
Revived Mummy/Chinese Adventure
The third of the Brendan Fraser Mummy films that feels like it has no point other than to steal $10 from your hand and give you a bucket of content free mental popcorn in return
Mythica: The Darkspore (2015)
Epic Fantasy Adventure
Mythica: A Quest for Heroes was a fan-made epic fantasy film made with a high degree of creativity and professionalism; this sequel is slightly the lesser but still maintains the high degree of quality
Mythica: The Godslayer (2016)
Epic Fantasy Adventure
The fifth of the surprisingly good Mythica fan-produced series that has consistently made a strong, rousing variant on the Epic Fantasy tropes on a low budget
Mythica: The Iron Crown (2016)
Epic Fantasy Adventure
This was the fourth in the surprisingly good Mythica series of low-budget epic fantasy films funded via Kickstarter. This proves to be the best of the series yet
Mythica: The Necromancer (2015)
Epic Fantasy Adventure
The third of the surprisingly good Kickstarter financed Mythica films. This marks a changeover of directors in the series and is slightly the lesser but still does highly imaginative things with a low-budget
Night at the Museum 2 (2009)
Museum Exhibits Come to Life
Sequel to the Ben Stiller hit offers more of the same with a bigger museum and more exhibits come to life but little else
Night at the Museum: Secret of the Tomb (2014)
Museum Exhibits Come to Life
The third entry in a franchise that seems to be stretching to find anything to do with its premise beyond the first film. Everyone involved seems to have only turned up to collect a paycheque and be going through the motions in a show that entirely coasts by solely on your familiarity with the characters
Night at the Museum (2006)
Museum Exhibits Come to Life
Popular family hit with Ben Stiller as a night watchman at New York’s Museum of Natural History who discovers that the exhibits come to life at night. More a cute idea than a full film, there is some fun to the characters and effects
Noah’s Shark (2021)
Gonzo Killer Shark Film
An entry in the gonzo killer shark film fad from Mark Polonia, this has some undeniable amusement to its title mash-up as a team go in search of Noah’s Ark, which somehow has killer sharks involved
The Nutcracker and the Four Realms (2018)
Fairytale Adaptation
Big, no-expense-spared Disney production of the fairytale. The film is stunning to look at it in terms of design and costuming but has a simplicity that leaves little for adults to engage with
Oblivion Island: Haruka and the Magic Mirror (2009)
Anime/Adventures in a Magical Otherworld
Exquisitely lovely anime set in a world of creatures that live on scavenged human junk. If in the end, the heroine’s allegorical quest is on the generic side, the film captivates you with the richness of colour and detail that has gone into imagining its world
October 32nd (1992)
Modern-Day Arthurian Legends
Cheap and tatty variant on the Arthurian legends with people trying to prevent a reincarnated sorcerer obtaining Excalibur
Onward (2020)
Pixar Animation/Alternate Present Inhabited by Magic Creatures
The 22nd animated film from Pixar and also the least successful (being released only a week before theatrical chains closing down due to Coronavirus). This has an appealingly quirky and original concept not unakin to Bright that takes place in an alternate reality where magic creatures live in a world akin to our own
Percy Jackson & The Olympians: The Lightning Thief (2010)
Greek Myth in the Present Day
Chris Columbus seeks to emulate the success of the Harry Potter films with this adaptation of a Young Adult series about the children of Greek gods. The film falls apart due to Columbus’s typical banal cues and effects overkill
The Phantom (1996)
Comic-Book Superhero
Big screen adaptation of the popular comic-strip superhero. This aims for the tone of an old fashioned serial adventure and is nicely mounted but crucially never comes to life.
Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man’s Chest (2006)
Pirate Fantasy Swashbuckler
The second of the Pirates of the Caribbean films. Johnny Depp and all the principals are back and much of the eccentric humour is present but the action has undergone budget bloat
Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Men Tell No Tales (2017)
Pirate Fantasy Swashbuckler
After the two last lacklustre entries, the Pirates of the Caribbean franchise starts to recover where the two new directors pull off some spectacular comedy-action sequences that go a long way towards recapturing what the series used to be
The Portable Door (2023)
Apprentice in a Magical Company
A story about an apprentice at a mysterious company that deals with magic, this could well serve as a fix for those wanting something more of the Harry Potter franchise
Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time (2010)
Videogame Adaptation/Arabian Nights Adventure
Adaptation of the popular videogame that ventures into Arabian Nights adventure, this was a box-office flop. It swashbuckles entertainingly but Jake Gyllenhaal feels badly miscast as a buffed adventure hero
Pufnstuf (1970)
Gonzo Children's Film/Magical Island
Mind-spinning film spinoff of the tv series H.R. Pufnstuf, this plays out like The Wizard of Oz on hallucinogens
The Pumaman (1980)
Superhero Film
Italian film about a superhero that gains animal powers by putting on a belt. A strong contender for the worst superhero film ever made
Puss in Boots (2011)
Animation/Talking Cat Adventurer
Spinoff of the popular Antonio Banderas voiced character from the Shrek sequels, this is lightweight and amiable but can be quickly forgotten
Quest for Camelot (1998)
Animation/Arthurian Fantasy
An Arthurian legends fantasy adventure made as part of the animation renaissance of the 1990s. Anything serious aspirations are wrecked by the insertion of inane popular culture in-jokes
Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981)
Tomb Raiding Adventures
Steven Spielberg and George Lucas’s homage to the adventure films of the 1940s was a huge hit in its day, spawning several sequels and many imitators. The film is pure action and adventure, delivered with enormous charm and wit
Raya and the Last Dragon (2021)
Disney Animation/Fantasy Quest
The 59th animated film from Disney emerges as a modest effort with a cross-Asian cultural focus that eventually builds a strong character arc
Rebirth of Mothra (1996)
Japanese Monster Bash
One of the worst among the usually worthwhile Japanese monster movie revivals of the 1990s. Much of the film is played down at an inanely silly children’s movie level, with there only being the requisite mass destruction effects to enliven the show
Red Sonja (1985)
Warrior Woman/Sword and Sorcery
A disappointing adaptation of Robert E. Howard’s warrior woman character. This is beautifully designed but suffers from a non-acting Brigitte Nielsen in the title role and an insulting need to water the toughness of the character down
The Return of the King (1980)
J.R.R. Tolkien Adaptation/Animation/Epic Fantasy
Way back before Peter Jackson, there was another whole era of Tolkien adaptations, including this animated adaptation of the third book, which is a peculiar oddity if nothing else
Rise of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: The Movie (2022)
Animation/Comic-Book Superheroes
The Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles are resurrected in a new animated film that feels like a watered-down fix designed for Ritalin-deprived youth
Saviour of the Soul (1991)
Hong Kong Martial Arts Fantasy
Another wackily improbable entry in Hong Kong’s Wu Xia cycle featuring all the wildly fantastical and way over-the-top moves that the genre is renowned for
Saviour of the Soul 2 (1992)
Hong Kong Martial Arts Fantasy
Sequel to their earlier Wu Xia film, although having nothing in common with it. All the moves are pushed to a level of cartoonish absurdity that proves amazingly silly
Scoob! (2020)
Ghostbusting Team/Hanna-Barbera Crossover
An animated film revival of Scooby-Doo, Where Are You? This also makes an misguided attempt to build a shared universe among assorted Hanna-Barbera characters
The Scorpion King 4: Quest for Power (2015)
Sword and Sorcery
Fourth entry in the eminently forgettable sword-and-sorcery series, this heads down into bad movie stakes by writing a series of grating quips over everything, while the action scenes exist in the realm of unbelievability that show that nobody is treating anything with the slightest seriousness
Scorpion King: Book of Souls (2018)
Sword and Sorcery
The Scorpion King films are such a low expectation series that it is hard to drum up enthusiasm for a fifth entry. The rehashes stock sword and sorcery cliches and passes its time forgettably
The Scorpion King: Rise of a Warrior (2008)
Sword and Sorcery
Prequel to The Scorpion King. Unfortunately director Russell Mulcahy allows his broad hand with comedy free reign and the plot is overrun by glib character banter and constant flip modern one-liners
The Seeker: The Dark is Rising (2007)
Epic Fantasy Adventure
Adaptation of Susan Cooper’s popular fantasy series handled by people who have no interest in the material and badly rewrite/mangle it in order try to turn it into a Harry Potter/Lord of the Rings knockoff
Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band (1978)
Gonzo Beatles-Adapted Musical/Classic Bad Movie
A real what-were-they-thinking turkey where someone had the idea of turning the Beatles’ album into a disco-era film starring The Bee Gees … In trying to contrive a plot around the songs and their surreally psychedelic lyrics, the film frequently makes no sense
The Seven Magnificent Gladiators (1985)
Italian Muscleman Adventure
Cannon Films produced remake of The Seven Samurai as an Italian gladiator film starring Lou Ferrigno
The 7th Dwarf (2014)
Animation/Adventures of the Seven Dwarves
German animated film about the adventures of Snow White’s Seven Dwarves. Lightweight and trivial, this feels like it has come along ten years too late to the fad for fairytale parodies and mash-ups we had in the mid-2000s with films like Shrek and Hoodwinked!
The 7th Voyage of Sinbad (1958)
Arabian Nights Adventures
One of the classic films from cult stop motion animator Ray Harryhausen, an Arabian Nights fantasy adventure where Harryhausen’s creations prove to be quite wondrous
The Shaggy Dog (1959)
Teenager Transforms Into a Dog/Disney Comedy
The first of Disney’s live-action comedies, a comic variant on the werewolf story with Tommy Kirk turning into a dog. Mildly amusing but later efforts would do this type of comedy better
Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings (2021)
Marvel Comics Martial Arts Superhero
The Marvel onslaught continues with this resurrection of a martial artist superhero character from the 1970s. Amid the mostly ho-hum MCU offerings of the 2020s, this becomes an energised action vehicle
Shazam! Fury of the Gods (2023)
Comic-Book Superhero
Shazam! was one of the more enjoyable DCEU superhero offerings, placing a light-hearted spin on the superheroics. This is the sequel
Sinbad and the War of the Furies (2016)
Modernised Arabian Nights Adventure
The Asylum attempt a modern-day Sinbad film – one where Sinbad uses a cellphone and sets sail to L.A. aboard a regular yacht. This is so cheap that it has even been stripped of all the exotic creatures
Sinbad: Legend of the Seven Seas (2003)
Arabian Nights Adventure/Animation
DreamWorks animated Sinbad adventure by the numbers that seems to go out of its way to tell a Sinbad story divorced of its Islamic cultural background
Sinbad of the Seven Seas (1989)
Arabian Nights Adventure
An incredibly bad Italian-made Sinbad adventure starring Lou Ferrigno that is laughable in its dialogue and acting and incredibly tatty in its budget pinching
Slumberland (2022)
Adventures in Dreams
Live-action adaptation of the one of the great early comic-strips Little Nemo in Slumberland, a work that was ground-breaking for its experimental innovation
Smurfs (2025)
Animation/Cute Blue-Skinned Creatures
An animated revival of The Smurfs. This was greeted with a very negative reception. With a massive celebrity voice line-up packed into almost any corner of the film the casting director can manage
Smurfs and the Magic Flute (1976)
Animation/Cute Blue-Skinned Creatures
Animated film based on the original Belgian Smurfs comics made prior to the hit of the Hanna-Barbera series.