While the 1990s was a great time for movies, there is one genre that maybe didn’t have it quite as good as some others during that decade: fantasy. While the 1980s boasted some ambitious and experimental projects and the 2000s saw some true masterpieces, the 1990s were more of a transitional period that saw Hollywood try their hand at different types of fantasy, stories that didn’t necessarily look like one might expect from the genre but offered captivating stories just the same.
Videos by ComicBook.com
Fantasy movies of the 1990s leaned less into dragons and elves and orcs and more into different types of magic. Sometimes it leaned more into fairy tales, while other times it took more common structures, like religion or beliefs about life and death, and use those as framework for the fantasy tales they told. It’s because of that unique take on the genre that 1990s fantasy deserves far more credit than it gets — and these five films are some of the most underrated of the decade.
5) Dogma
There’s a good chance that you didn’t forget that Dogma is awesome. The film was well-received by critics and did well at the box office when it was released in 1999. What is more likely is that you forgot — or maybe never realized in the first places — is that Dogma is a fantasy film. Written and directed by Kevin Smith (who also appears in the film as Silent Bob; this is a View Askewniverse film, after all), Dogma follows two fallen angels (Ben Affleck’s Bartleby and Matt Damon’s Loki) who have been eternally banned from Heaven to Wisconsin who discover that anyone who enters a specific church being rededicated in New Jersey will be forgiven of their sins. It’s a loophole that would force God to let the duo back into Heaven. The problem with that is that existence is based on the idea of God being infallible and this loophole would prove God wrong and undo creation in the process. So, the angel Metatron sends the last descendant of Jesus Christ and two prophets to stop them.
The movie is wildly inventive, using different aspects of religion to tell what a race against time story is as well as a religious satire. The film also boasts an incredible, star-studded cast that also includes Linda Fiorentino, Salma Hayek, Jason Lee, Chris Rock, and Alan Rickman. By using religion as the basis for the fantasy story, Dogma certainly ruffled some feathers, but it is also extremely entertaining — and there has been talk of a sequel for years.
4) Phenomenon
Released in 1996, Phenomenon stars John Travolta as a small town mechanic, George Malley, who after an encounter with mysterious white lights in the sky, starts developing vast intelligence and superpowers that turn his life upside down as his transformation draws the attention of scientists and the government while all he really wants is to use his abilities for his town and pursue a relationship with the woman he harbors feelings for, Lace (Kyra Sedgwick).
Phenomenon is a movie that is technically fantasy because of some of the abilities that George begins to exhibit, but it really is more of a romance. It’s also a sweet, sad story that has an unexpected twist that changes your perception of things in a heartbreaking way, which is part of what makes it such an underrated gem. It’s a film that is very much a classic, quiet love story with a healthy dash of fantasy that never tries to be anything it’s not. It’s also the film in Travolta’s filmography that might be the most forgotten which is a shame because it’s actually a really wholesome watch.
3) Jumanji
There are two Robin Williams movies on this list and of the two, while people have largely forgotten how great they both are, Jumanji might be the best known. Based on the children’s book by Chris Van Allsburg, Jumanji is centered around a supernatural board game that unleashes jungle-based hazards on the players of said game on every turn. In the film, Williams plays Alan Parrish, a player who played the game as a middle schooler in 1969 and became trapped in the game for 26 years.
To be perfectly honest, Jumanji is a weird movie. The story telling isn’t the strongest, but the visual effects are fantastic. Williams turns in a performance that ids somehow both very reigned in and also extremely over the top but that weird imbalance is part of what makes it awesome. It very much encapsulates 1990s fantasy films. It’s chaotic and creative and doesn’t necessarily lend itself to the more “pure” idea we have of fantasy today that it has to have things like dragons and orcs to count. Given that there have been two sequels in the past decade, the original is definitely worth revisiting and appreciating.
2) Dragonheart
It isn’t a fantasy list without at least one dragon on it, and this one really didn’t get enough appreciation when it was released in 1996. Starring Dennis Quaid, David Thewlis, Pete Postlethwaite, Dina Meyer, and Sean Conner as the voice of Draco the Dragon, Dragonheart is the story of a dragon in medieval England who gave half of his heart to the future king under the condition that he would become a better man and a better king, one who was kind and benevolent. Unfortunately, that king goes on to become a tyrant which prompts Draco the dragon and his human companion, Sir Bown (Quaid) to work to overthrow him.
What’s fun about Dragonheart is that it sort of subverts most fantasy stories in that, this time, the dragon is the hero trying to do good as opposed to being a threat that humans must protect themselves from. And of course, it has former James Bond Sean Connery as the voice of a dragon. It honestly doesn’t get much more entertaining than that and while the film isn’t necessarily high art, it is delightful — and the film’s visual effects are actually fantastic for the time (and were even nominated for an Academy Award.)
1) What Dreams May Come
The second Robin Williams film on this list, 1998’s What Dreams May Come might just be the actor’s most underrated film. In the film, Williams plays a man named Chris who loses his two children in a car crash and, four years later, is also killed in a car crash. However, he doesn’t realize he’s dead and lingers on Earth, watching his grieving wife and trying to communicate with her. While he eventually moves on to heaven, his wife ends her own life and Chris then embarks on a journey to save his wife from hell.
There are some things about What Dreams May Come that are perhaps a little outdated and controversial, particularly ideas about heaven and hell and different beliefs around them. But the core of the film — the idea of loving someone so much that you would want to do anything to save them from suffering, even in the afterlife — is universal and beautiful. Williams is at his finest in this film and it’s one not to be missed.
What do you think? Leave a comment below and join the conversation now in the ComicBook Forum!
Most Viewed
-
Image courtesy of Tor Books/Macmillan -
Official art by Bastien Lecouffe-Deharme
