TheMovieVampire’s review published on Letterboxd:
Jabberwocky was Terry Gilliam’s first non-Monty Python branded film (though it does have Michael Palin in it) and I remember it being kind of hard to find back when I was first exploring Gilliam’s filmography. Looking at it now you can certainly see it as a bit of a transitionary film in which he was coming to find his later style but it wasn’t quite there yet. The film is named after a Lewis Carroll poem about a monster, and that monster is part of the movie but doesn’t really show up until the very end and the movie ultimately doesn’t have much to do with Carroll’s work… or does it. Much of the film feels kind of aimless sand doesn’t really connect with its protagonist in the same way most movies do, which is to say that there’s a stream of conscious quality to it that one could argue is in line with Carroll’s writing style. I guess you could call the film a comedy, it certainly has a sort of manic energy, but it’s also kind of a one joke movie around the theme of how life in the medieval was kind of shitty, which is sort of the same comic premise as Monty Python and the Holy Grail but less funny. The film does go out on a bit of a bang though as things do get pretty fun when the titular monster finally shows up at the end, that’s some good Gilliam there. Despite that ending though I’m not sure Gilliam was quite “there” yet when he made this and I’m not sure the movie really works as a whole despite some highlights.