So hubby and I finally watched the last episodes of Willow. I like it well enough to come back and finish. But at the same time, it’s forgettable enough that when we paused watching so that we could get in all our holiday specials before January, we forgot that we hadn’t seen the last two episodes.

I’ve been honestly confused why It has so many haters. Because to me, it’s too bland to raise ire over. What it gets right, it really gets right. And I think I finally know why it stirred up so much hate.

But the good stuff first:
Warwick Davis returns to form. He was a young farmer in over his head and very cranky about it in the first movie. Here he’s a wise old wizard, still in over his head and still cranky about it.

The kid they get to play Madmartigan and Sorsha’s son looks like they cloned Val Kilmer’s bee-stung lips and then dressed that test tube baby in Kilmer’s leftover clothes from The Doors. He has good chemistry with the villainess. So it’s actually pretty plausible when he’s tempted to turn to the dark side.

They got Joanne Whalley back as Sorsha, here older and regretting the choices she’s had to make as a ruler. They even get Jean Marsh back to do some voice over dialog for Bavmorda.

Ruby Cruz as Sorsha and Madmartigan’s daughter does a good job echoing Whalley’s turn as Sorsha in the first movie: the brat princess trapped in a life she does not want because of choices her mother made for her.

They even got Whalley and Val Kilmer’s son Jack to do a voice over as Madmartigan.

But I think I see where the hate comes from after thinking about it for a bit. It’s a show that wants to be on the CW. Airing right after Reign.

Which is a major tonal shift from the movie. Willow the show, like Willow the movie, is an epic fantasy quest. Which is like a road trip where three fourths of the series is about getting to know the world. And when the world is about swinging swords and casting magic spells, it’s kind of jarring to see someone say that Willow “lost his mojo.”

There is even a training montage in the next-to-last chapter that feels like a music video. It would not look out of place in a movie. But that movie would probably be A Knight’s Tale, not Lord of the Rings.

I know that Val Kilmer brought that kind of energy to the first Willow. But his performance still integrated with the rest of the movie. This is not so seamless.

If you can get past the modern slang and the classic rock covers, watch it for the nostalgia. There is plenty of fanservice, and you can tell that the people who made it really did love the original.