The problem is that the series and movies were never consistant in telling us just what the Quickening did. "Power" is a very generic term and could refer to knowledge or skills.
The first movie seemed to infer great strength and some type of internal power (as evidenced by swords cutting more than they normally could in the hands of Immies or flashes of energy). HL3 seemed to imply a direct transference. When Kain killed Nakano, he seemed to just gain all his magic without any training or hint of prior magic powers.
What the new movie needs to do is firmly establish what a Quickening does to benefit an Immie when he/she gains it - and then make it part of the fights and existence of the characters, otherwise it just looks like a big light show with no follow through.
There's a lot that was inconsistent in the various iterations so far that it'd be nice to see addressed. The big problem of Highlander has always been that they had a great premise (Immortals battling through the ages), and a successful formula (follow Immies in the contemporary world while flashing back to their pasts), but a completely all over the board mythology.
I haven't read the whole thread so my apologies if some of this has come up before. I would assume the idea with a revamp is to go through all the existing material and pull the good stuff, so they need to think through things like:
How are Immies born? What's with the whole foundling thing? Do you even keep that idea?
What is the relationship of Immortal power to Sacred Ground? Is that a physical limitation or a "cultural" one (meaning something abided by out of custom)? Is said Sacred Ground of any religion (as implied by the series), or purely Christianity (as implied by the original movie - problematically since Ramirez at least came from a period before Jesus)?
One of the most interesting ideas from the series was that an Immortal had killed on holy ground only once - and Mount Vesuvius blew as a result.
Why can't Immies have kids? Just to provide angst with their lovers?
And then there is the whole Quickening thing. In the original movie it was merely a perception of other Immortals until the winning of the Prize. The "it gives you your opponent's power" was a late addition to things.
What about the Watchers? They're a great idea so I would hope they would be kept - and there's a lot that could still be done with them.
Did I miss anything?
Durek said:
The series was good. It's what hooked me to Highlander.
I watched a lot of the series too, but I wouldn't say it was good - fun, yes, but in a fairly cheesy, formulaic way. It had the interesting things about Highlander - I mean the premise is just completely fascinating - and some charismatic actors, but most of the stories were fairly lame, in my humble opinion. I only remember about 8 or 9 of them that had any real punch.
