By Keith Walther | Rose Law Group Reporter
Typically, family films achieve a modicum of entertainment value for small children at the very least, but this one defies the odds and actually alienates younger audiences. “The Legend of Ochi” is a fantasy adventure that relies on an eerily similar concept to “How to Train Your Dragon,” but is executed so poorly it had people walk out of the theater not even thirty minutes into it. The film fails at nearly every turn, from bad editing to shoddy visuals to atrocious sound mixing that not even veteran actors can rescue this travesty.
On the remote island of Carpathia, there is a small village of people attempting to farm and raise livestock. However, they must endure an invasive species of creatures who cohabit this island. Maxim (Willem Dafoe) is the militant leader of this village, training a group of young boys like Petro (Finn Wolfhard) to track and kill these furry beasts.
When a night raid results in a baby ochi being separated from its mother and consequently lands in a trap that wounds it, Yuri (Helena Zengel) finds the little ochi and, setting aside the prejudices she has been taught all her life, resolves to bring the creature back to its home. Sound familiar? As they wander through the forest, they slowly learn to trust each other. They’ll have to stick together to stay one step ahead of the pursuing boy army and their closed-minded general.
Writer/director Isaiah Saxon has never made a feature length film before, and it shows. To start with, the visual representation of the ochi creatures is horrible. He opts for puppetry and animatronics for the most part to depict them, and their painfully slow, robotic, and repetitive movements fail to convey any kind of realism, let alone threat to the villagers. Basically, they make the puppets from “Sesame Street” look like acrobatic ninjas. The film editing only adds to the slowness of the scenes with camera shots lingering too long throughout, especially when there’s no action to be captured. This makes the entire film feel like it’s moving through quicksand, losing viewers’ attention and interest.
Then there’s the sound mixing, which made it nearly impossible to understand what is being said in certain scenes, especially scenes involving the young lead actress. So, on top of the boredom Saxon inflicts on his audience, he heaps on a layer of frustration. Not to mention, regurgitating the same old tale of the more open-minded teenager encountering a misunderstood fantastical being does not help. Without a unique storyline or presentation coupled with really poor execution, there is very little appeal to audiences, young or old.
Having a poorly written script does not help the actors overcome the director’s shortcomings, regardless of talent level. Helena Zengel, who provided a solid performance in 2020’s “News of the World,” is crippled by the horrible sound mixing and editing. Her German accent and muffled line delivery make half of the things she speaks impossible to understand, and without subtitles, it completely undermines her performance. She’s not to be judged too harshly, since these are things that should have been caught and corrected in post by the director.
Casting accomplished actors like Willem Dafoe and Emily Watson in pivotal roles should have helped mitigate the issues of this film. These are multi-Oscar nominees, but unfortunately, their characters are poorly written and developed, making them more outlandish caricatures than anything else. Willem’s portrayal of a crazed obsessive, who hunts the seemingly benign creatures while adorned in ridiculous looking armor with his weird boy army comes across as pure silliness. Emily Watson, a gifted actor in her own right, loses all credibility when her character whips out a flute at a climactic moment, resulting in unintentional laughter. Finn Wolfhard, still licking the wounds from his failed slasher flick last month, “Hell of a Summer,” fails to rebound, providing a lackluster, inconsequential performance that any actor could have offered.
“The Legend of Ochi” fails on multiple levels and is not the family filmgoing experience you may be hoping it to be. The fantasy adventure seems to have no target audience, unable to entertain anyone at any age. Even if you like the story concept, wait until the live action remake of “How to Train Your Dragon” later this summer. At least that’s a proven entertaining story.
This movie earns:
