Highlander: The Source aka Highlander 5

Because the 1st movie made a lot of money.

Did you really think there was another reason?

 

Sense would have been a good reason. OK, OK, just kidding...

 

That threw me as well. Why the 2min flashback montage of the movie we just saw?? That made no sense at all.

I do think if you take Highlander and Endgame and watch them back to back it makes for a good duology.

 

I'm pretty sure Methos wasn't killed in the movie. He goes off to buy time for Duncan with the cannibals, but it never says if he was killed or lived. Considering he's Immortal, I doubt he was killed (unless beheaded, but, again, I don't believe that was seen).

 

Good point. Was it really post-apocalyptic or did it just look that was because Duncan was, you know, actually living in Lithuania?

I prefer Endgame as well. There's just no substitute for seeing Connor & Duncan on screen at the same time. The Faith/Kate subplot works pretty well too.

However, I can't stand The Final Dimension. It's just a scene-for-scene remake of the 1st film, about on par with Escape from L.A.

Granted, they never explicitly establish whether Methos lived or died. However, I don't think his immortality was much of a protection anymore. As the old guy with the booming voice says, "As you get closer to the source, you will grow weaker and lose your immortality."

 

The Source? Never heard of it. There hasn't been a Highlander movie since the decent, though admittedly mostly mediocre, Endgame.

 

With Highlander 2, everybody knew that the movie they were making was total crap, but by then they were all contractually obligated to finish and didn't want to pay the penalties for quitting.

Somehow, I imagine something similar happened with The Source, which is why it is a good idea to see the script before signing on.

 

And at least Lambert and Connery looked like they were enjoying themselves. They had pretty good chemistry in both movies.

 

The only thing I really didn't like was how it turned Connor into an emo/depressive, and the somewhat shoddy special effects. I also would have preferred that Connor had not died at all, but I understand that Christopher Lambert was getting a bit old. Oh well. Connor lives on in the original movie timeline!

That's kinda what I liked about it. No matter what other gripes you may have, you have to admit the sword reforging scene with Bonny Potmore playing over it was completely and utterly awesome.

 

I thought Endgame was the next best film after I and II, better in the sequel sense than the second one in that it didn't try to justify itself really badly, but not a good film in it's own right at all. Bruce Payne was absolutely awful in it, and his character was just Kurgan Light.

Plus, his gang of ultra cliched henchmen were just terrible and really 80s. Like something out of a Miami Vice episode.

Connor and Duncan were good though, i'll give it that.

 

I was really disappointed that Donnie Yen's character went out like such a punk. He is a talented martial artist (from the little I've seen of his work) and I'm sure could have handled much more than grabbing a sword and then going bye bye.

 

You know, Lambert looks like he's always having a good time in all his movies. I loved his 1990s post-apocalyptic version of Beowulf. And his small role in Southland Tales is just about the only thing about that movie that I did like.

I don't know if this helps matters, but in either the deleted scenes or the rough edit of the movie included on the bonus features, Yen's character commits suicide by sticking the sword into the wall and decaptating himself.

 

Question: how did, if in The Source, we are supposed to be way way in the future, The Watcher survive?

 

^ I think The Source took place in a "near-future" where Joe could still be alive.

 

I dug up the current IMDb ratings for the various Highlander films/series.

Highlander: The Series - 7.6
Highlander (1986) - 7.2
Highlander: The Search for Vengeance - 7.1
Highlander: The Animated Series - 6.1

Highlander: The Raven - 4.9
Highlander: Endgame - 4.3
Highlander III - 3.8
Highlander II - 3.5
Highlander: The Source - 3.4


Of those, I've watched Highlander (1986), Highlander II, Highlander: Endgame, about 90% of Highlander: The Series, as well as all of Highlander: The Raven.... I certainly regret having watched Highlander II and The Raven.

 

The Raven was almost good near the end. The problem was that they tried to make it a standard mid-90s adventure series with Immortals, essentially throwing out everything that made Highlander:The Series good in the process. They eventually figured this out and started moving the plots into more traditional Highlander territory, but by then it was far too late the save.

 

Yeah, back then I was permanently asking myself: "This is Highlander... so why the frak do they pretend that immortals/immortality do not exist?"

 

I actually liked The Raven (or at least what I remember from it). Since Amanda was a very different kind of character than Duncan, the show reflected that, which was probably a good thing to go in a different direction than The Series. Only thing I really remember not liking was Amanda's blond, short haircut.

That at the fact that they made Nick an Immortal in the last episode, which really kinda contradicted many other plot points from earlier that season.

 

Well you made up my mind. I ain't touchin' The Source. I loved, LOVE the original Highlander. I enjoyed The Quickening as a standalone. I... tolerated Final Dimension enough to see it twice in theaters. I really dug Endgame and I loved the television series as well. I think I've seen enough Highlander to last me a lifetime. I'll live if I miss HL5.

 

Something I never understood myself: The TV series was fairly good, but when they started to make movies based on the series those films sucked just as badly as the other Connor MacLeod sequels. There was a time when I thought that a movie featuring Duncan MacLeod, Methos, and Joe Dawson couldn't actually go wrong. But somehow they manage to screw up every movie they make (with the exception of the first one).