I went to the drive-in last night to catch the double feature of Conan the Barbarian and Rise of the Planet of the Apes. Apes was good but far from great and did a decent job of reducing the suspension of disbelief required for near term science fiction.
But Conan left me shaking my head. At first I was worried from the promotional posters that the guy playing Conan was not going to get the job done but he wasn't bad al things considered and given a chance probably could have made for a good Conan the Cimmerian. Production vales even weren't terrible, certainly no worse than something like "The Scorpion King". Not that a comparison to "The Scorpion King" should be interpreted as a ringing endorsement.
Here's what's killing me: Conan the Barbarian, the character developed by Robert E. Howard is a greta character, hence his enduring popularity since his creation in the 1930's. Many of the original REH Conan stories would make Awesome films in the age of CGI as exhibited in the Apes movie. Awesome. So why, oh why, return to that pathetic storyline of revenge for dear old dead village that made the first attempt at a Conan the Barbarian movie so insipid?
I disgusts me that whomever owns the rights to the Conan the Barbarian copyrights lets them be so abused by the B-movie industry. The lust for money can truly be an evil thing. This movie would have been much better had they used the Deathstalker name instead of besmirching Conan.
In closing, don't go see it. Invest the money in one of the recent reprints of the original REH stories. The vivid imagery of the greatest sword and sorcery writer, maybe just plain writer, of all time is far superior to the movie visuals. And the stories and characters are beyond compare. Note: The Lin Carter, L. Sprauge de Camp or Robert Jordan stuff is not in the same league as REH so don't be fooled.
1 comment:
Did you get mixed-up with Cinematic Curmudgeon? He's usually the one hating on the re-makes.
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