Are there any good fantasy films?

Well, I decided the other day to try and find some good, modern fantasy films to watch. I've got Amazon Prime and Netflix to trawl through – so any recommendations are very welcome!

The first I settled upon was one I had seen scroll past a few times. The film, Priest, starred Paul Bettany, who later played the role of Vision in the Marvel movies. It is also, it must be said, a vampire movie in quite possibly the loosest sense. The war has been fought, and both vampires (which are portrayed here as, for the most part, beasts who hunt and kill yet have no society or language I could detect) and humans have lost. Vampires live on in reservations; the humans live in one large walled city and a few towns out in the wastelands. A relative of the 'Priest' (super-powered warriors who beat the vampires) is kidnapped by the vampires, and he mounts a rescue mission.

Obviously, there is a twist which gives the vampires some agency and decision-making powers, and I feel the ending was set up for a sequel with an unanswered question or two left hanging.

The film does contain one of my fantasy pet peeves — a large city with absolutely no farming or means of food production to feed its populace. It appears to have some industry belching out coal smoke, but no coal mines are mentioned, and there is only one train line coming to the city, which seems quite disused and is never foreshadowed.

As an action movie, it is OK. It is short, and the fight sequences are enjoyable. As vampire movie, they just aren't scary. As a fantasy film, the supernatural fighting powers of the priests are a nod to that, as is the dystopian city on the edge of collapsing and the invading army on its doorstep, but it doesn't do much to scratch the fantasy film itch.

If you feel like watching it, do so and enjoy. However, there has to be better.

Next up, I tried Into the Lost Lands with Milla Jovovich and Dave Bautista. This starts with Bautista delivering a portentous monologue to the camera, full of dark foreboding and the promise of magic and action. To be fair to the first twenty minutes, there's a bit of magic and some good fight sequences... but then I lost interest and haven't gone back to it. Has anyone seen it all the way through? Is it worth soldiering on?

So, apart from Lord of the Rings and Hawk the Slayer (1980s), what are the great, worthwhile fantasy movies I should be watching?

On the writing front, I am working on Of Song and Shadow, the next story set in the Six Kingdoms. I'll get that out before the summer, I think.

And I've just distracted myself with the STEAM sale and picked up X4 Foundations and Star Rupture – so that was probably not the best idea when I should be putting pen to paper!