Leprechaun: Origins

I thought long and hard about adding this review... After all, I'd be adding nothing that others had not already said: no mythology, no fun, no seeing the creature, poor script, etc. I mean, it says "A horror icon is reborn", and even the title is misleading, "Leprechaun: Origins". With a name like that, you'd think it was a prequel...but nope, all you really get it a movie that feels like it began as a spec script and was slightly tweaked to try and fit the Leprechaun series...which it doesn't. What baffles me is that this is as far from a Leprechaun movie as you can get. No one really expected these movies to be scary, and a large part of their charm was the goofy nature of the films. That's what we wanted to see: a wisecracking midget that would just as soon kill you, and make fun while he did it.

So why am I writing this? My hope, dim as it may be, is that those in charge would read these reviews and think twice before "tweaking" something that didn't need it. There's obviously a desire from people to see these types of films, and there's nothing wrong with that. By changing the nature of the character from wisecracking villain to grunting animal you kill what made it fun in the first place. I honestly haven't been as confused or let down by a movie in a long time.

So there it is, my plea, sent to the Interwebs to anyone that can help.

VERY disappointing. I'm a very HUGE Leprechaun fan. I love the Warwick movies. I was excited for it to be scary again. It wasn't, in fact the older ones are scarier.

The Leprechaun doesn't speak, just makes animal sounds and growls. You NEVER see a full shot of the Leprechaun. Its not even shown a lot. I don't see why they even needed an actor for the Leprechaun? If you told me it was CGI and a fake puppet.. I would believe it. Hornswoggle had really no acting opportunity here. Who ever was in charge of creating a leprechaun did a LAZY BORING UNCREATIVE job. Its like the Descent meets vampire. I'd rather have a talking, rhyming Leprechaun then one who just growls.

I expected more. It seems like SYFY put this together. Just make Leprechaun 7 with Warwick! This should have been a stand alone killer Leprechaun film by WWE. It should have never been in the remake category.

Only one kill was really fun and shocking, I jumped. I give it a 4 on IMDb - C level grade wise.

Eleven years since the last Leprechaun film, Lionsgate and WWE Studios bring us a useless re-imaging of the cult classic Leprechaun horror villain from the early nineteen nineties. The original franchise lasted for ten years and had six films, one even involving the Leprechaun in Space. This re-imaging has nothing on the original film. The original film was different for its genre at the time, while this film simply tries to be the same as the other genre films. This is my review of Leprechaun: Origins.

Harris Wilkinson wrote this below average(even for the genre) script. Wilkinson is an unknown with no credits before this sad attempt. The horror genre, and especially the slasher genre like the Leprechaun films, aren't known for great scripts but, do generally lay out some interesting ideas. This film brings us nothing but a quick money grab from from Lionsgate and WWE Studios. The classic character we are use to is gone from this film, and instead we are left with a garbage attempt at changing the story around. Changing characters for the better is one thing but, what they did in this film was simply useless and unneeded. There is even a fairly massive plot hole towards the end of the movie. If you can pay attention towards of the beginning of the film, then you should remember it when it pops up towards the end. It really makes you question how someone like Harris Wilkinson even got this job. Overall, Harris Wilkinson wrote a pretty bad story for this film, even by horror genre standards his story was bad. Big fat thumps down.

The film was directed by Zach Lipovsky and he is mostly known for some very small television films and even visual effects supervisor on some smaller films as well. Lipovsky was handed a bad card of the bad script, and he ran with it sadly. Having clearly not changed anything for the better, Lipovsky deserves as much blame for this awful story as Wilkinson. His directing isn't actually that bad. Some of the shots are nice, and I really enjoyed how he didn't go for the CG kills with fake CG blood and whatnot. None of the deaths are over the top with useless amounts of added blood, which I do enjoy. There was even no nudity in this film, which is different for this type of film. So, Lipovsky doesn't get completely canned by me. The acting is about what you would expect, and it even features two alumni of the genre Garry Chalk(Hamish, appeared in Freddy vs Jason) and Brendan Fletcher(David, also appeared in Freddy vs Jason). If you are expecting much in the way of a good acting performance, then you will be disappointed rather easily. For fans of this genre, you will know that this is just another generic acting performance all around. Lipovsky gets some high regard from me in a few areas but, his overlooking of this awful story can not be looked over. He gets a middle of the road grade from me overall.

Jeff Tymoschuk is the composer for this film and in the past he has scored some video games and some smaller films. I actually enjoyed what Tymoschuck does in this film with the score. The horror genre is known for many classic pieces of music over the decades, and while you shouldn't expect that here in this film, expect a nice effort from start to finish that adds some nice depth to an otherwise lacking film.

In closing, this film is simply meant to get the franchise rolling again and make a lot of quick cash. Hardcore fans of the franchise like myself will finish watching this movie and really dislike what Lionsgate and WWE Studios has done, and even consider it the worst of all the films(yes, even worst than Leprechaun in Space). Those on the fence or just new to the franchise well, please do not let this be the first Leprechaun film you watch. The original horror film brought so much more to the table, while this brings mostly nothing worth of value.

3/10

One of the worst movies I've ever watched If you want to waste 90 minutes of your valuable time, just watch this movie, very bad directing, very bad story, no one could ever kill a monster that even a child can kill

I don't want others to suffer like I did, do not watch this movie.

I wonder how it's rated 6 stars !

I also wonder how Lionsgate could produce such an awful movie, it's only one monster and no one could've ever killed, the story is very weak, the directing is weak, the whole movie is weak. If I was in the film scene I would've killed the director, no honestly, just watch it and let me know, only if you want to waste a valuable 90 minutes of your life

Happy watching!

Going in to watch this movie the ratings were indeed alarming, at 3.3 one could hardly expect a masterpiece I knew that.

I did think that possibly the low ratings could be due to die hard fans of the leprechaun series being angry with the lack of Warwick Davis and the movie not staying true the story.

And while that is all true, the movie is just completely different in all aspects of the original franchise

Now, I'm not gonna say that the Leprechaun series is a classic, or even good for that matter, they kinda aren't, but one thing that they always manage to do is entertain... This one does not

And while the Leprechaun series playfully played with the silliness of the plot and at many times would be better viewed as a comedy than a horror, the whole comedy aspect is totally disregarded in this "reboot" it takes itself and it's characters way too seriously and that definitely stands in it's way from making this enjoyable

The leprechaun as a character is also completely changed, while Warwick Davis was a witty green faced leprechaun in the original movies, the new Leprechaun can't even speak and he looks more like an alien than the Leprechaun we know and love

He's also a lot taller than the original, the bio says he's 4.4 but he looks average-sized tbh in the movie

The first 45 minutes is bearable but the last 35 minutes is almost exclusive to the cast running back and forward in the woods

On top of that while it's supposed to take place in Ireland, it's filmed in Canada with American and Canadian actors with bad Irish accents

There's really not much good to say about this movie, if anything, even if you look beyond the fact that it's a reboot and watch it as a standalone movie it's still a crappy movie