Back in 1982, those who aren’t big fans of reading were introduced to author Robert E. Howard’s world when Conan the Barbarian was released. Sadly, the films that followed it, Conan the Destroyer and Kull the Conqueror, pretty much killed any interest the populace had in Howard’s work. After years of dormancy, and thanks to a revival in the comic book world, Hollywood has again expressed interest in revisiting Howard’s world through a Conan remake. To cash in on the “From the guy who brought you Conan” marketing campaign, another studio has gone on and made a movie based on one of Howard’s other characters; Solomon Kane.

In the film, Solomon Kane (James Purefoy of HBO’s Rome), a British mercenary who does and takes whatever he damn well pleases, encounters a demon known as The Devil’s Reaper. The Reaper informs Kane that because of his sins, Kane’s soul in damned and destined for Hell and he is there to collect. Kane isn’t pleased by this and proceeds to do battle with The Reaper. After narrowly escaping The Reaper, Kane vows to redeem his soul by renouncing violence and doing nothing but good for the rest of his life. One day, Kane runs into a group of thugs. As he has vowed to maintain a life of peace, Kane doesn’t fight back and is knocked unconscious. Luckily, a family of puritans finds him, take care of him and accept him as one of their own… that is until they are attacked by group of people who follow an evil sorcerer named Malachi (Jason Flemyng) and his right hand man, the Masked Rider. At first, Kane refuses to break his vow, but, eventually, comes to his senses and starts to kick the shit out of the minions. While the fight with Kane continues, other minions kill a majority of the family (sans the mother) and kidnap the daughter (Rachel Hurd-Wood from Perfume: The Story of a Murderer). After the minions runaway, Kane goes up to the patriarch of the family (Pete Postlethwaite) and, in his dying breath, is told that Kane can redeem his soul if he were to save his daughter. So, as you could guess, Kane sets off to save the daughter, Meredith, and do battle with Malachi and his mysterious Masked Rider.

The movie, which is the first in a planned trilogy, is executed decently… it isn’t anything that you’ll be rushing to see again and again, but you won’t be too angered by it if you do see it either. Surprisingly, it has its moments. The acting is actually pretty solid… it isn’t the greatest thing known to man, but still pretty good. Purefoy, who many already know has the acting chops to pull off any role given to him, gets to stretch his acting abilities with an interesting role that also incorporates bad-assery into the mix. Unlike many movies, the fight sequences aren’t poorly choreographed and appear to flow seamlessly. The CGI, for the most part, is pretty good as well… which is pretty surprising since the movie had an estimated $40 million budget. The only time it gets silly is at the end of the movie during the final battle. Other than that, it is only used when it’s absolutely necessary. The movie even has some solid direction by Michael J. Bassett. Bassett’s film is dark and, even though it is an origin story, nicely paced… which is something you don’t usually see with origin stories.

However, the film does have its flaws… namely its similarities to Conan the Barbarian. To put it quite simply, the movie plays out like a darker, rainier version of the Conan the Barbarian film. I would say around 60% of this movie is Conan… we have the scene where a father (played by Max von Sydow in Conan… who actually plays Solomon’s father in this film too) basically begs our hero to go save his daughter from the villain, to the crucifixion scene, to the scene where an old Asian person is writing all over the body of our injured hero. They even manage to fit in a mirror monster (like Conan the Destroyer had)… hell, the only thing missing from this film is a God Monsters with a jewel encrusted dildo for a horn (maybe they are going to wait for the sequel for that one). The only differences between this film and Conan the Barbarian are the redemption storyline and the fact that Solomon Kane wears a hat and a cape and occasionally uses a gun… that’s about it. The unoriginality of it is just sad because one, the redemption story is actually tolerable and two, the writer, Michael J. Bassett (yes, the director also served as the writer of the movie as well), showed that he has some form of potential with his skills as a director, but also shows us that he’s an unoriginal writer that has to mooch off the ideas of other people… it’s just a shame. The man even goes as far as to spoon feed us a “twist” that any monkey could figure out.

To add to the problems, we get one of the lamest villains ever to grace the screen. When Malachi is first seen, you think to yourself, “Hey, this may be a cool fight”. Is it? Of course not… he flees and has the Masked Rider and a giant monster fight Solomon. And here’s the best part (stop reading now if you don’t want the ending spoiled); Kane doesn’t even lay a finger on the guy. All he has to do to kill Malachi is to shoot him… once. That’s it. This all powerful sorcerer that has been able to amass a following of soldiers willing to die for him and has the power to call forth giant monsters gets taken out like a bitch.

Solomon Kane had the potential to be a great jumpstart for a franchise, but with its flaws, the film only ends up being a decent effort. Hopefully, if they were to continue with this planned trilogy, they are able to fix these issues and come up with an original story that will save the franchise.

Final Synopsis: This movie was great the first time you saw it; when it was called Conan the Barbarian. You don’t really need to rush out to see it any time soon, but you won’t hate yourself for seeing it if you do.

Points Lost: -1 for the predictable “twist”, -1 for Michael J. Bassett’s writing, -1 for the lame bad guy, -1 for being unoriginal and stealing scenes from Conan.

Lesson Learned: Always remember to look stylish when you are on a journey to kick the ass of evil doers.

Burning Question: If you’re all powerful, how come you aren’t impervious to bullets?

Solomon Kane
6/10

Tags: 2010, action, adventure, Alice Krige, Anthony Wilks, Ben Steel, Ian Whyte, James Purefoy, Jason Flemyng, latest movie reviews, Mackenzie Crook, max von sydow, michael j. bassett, pete postlethwaite, Rachel Hurd-Wood, Robert E. Howard, Samuel Roukin, Solomon Kane movie review, Solomon Kane review, sword and sorcery