It's not great and definitely not as good as the first one, but I'd say it's worth a watch if you like 80s fantasy movies. It does have some fun characters and sequences and a great score.
First looks at Jason Momoa as Conan...
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The original was poorly acted overall but it had a truly epic score and fabulous choreography that raised it way above a lot of other movies with better actors and better special effects. If you watch the fight scenes, the music carries you through beautifully. I do think that American accents don't help with the suspension of disbelief. The ethnic diversity in the original helped it in my view.
The orgy scene and final battle at the end remain two of my favourite movie fight scenes (I think maybe Hit Girl's debut in Kick Ass and Trinity's first appearance in the Matrix rank above them but not many others do). I also love Valeria - she wasn't glossy, she wasn't overly made up, and she had a rough-and-ready class of beauty. Smear her in grease paint and give her that scimitar and she was hot hot hot! Awesome heroine.
Conan the Destroyer was a passable adventure movie but it was a bit more formulaic. I wouldn't have minded a third movie though. Mako's wizard was always good and Grace Jones' Zula was certainly a fun character but I missed Subatai.
The orgy scene and final battle at the end remain two of my favourite movie fight scenes (I think maybe Hit Girl's debut in Kick Ass and Trinity's first appearance in the Matrix rank above them but not many others do). I also love Valeria - she wasn't glossy, she wasn't overly made up, and she had a rough-and-ready class of beauty. Smear her in grease paint and give her that scimitar and she was hot hot hot! Awesome heroine.
Conan the Destroyer was a passable adventure movie but it was a bit more formulaic. I wouldn't have minded a third movie though. Mako's wizard was always good and Grace Jones' Zula was certainly a fun character but I missed Subatai.
I was going to ask the $68,000 question - how does this movie compare with the Ah-nold incarnations - but I think you answered it:
Conan now has a personality, good.
If the movie also gives a better sense of epic scope and grandeur of being transported to an amazing, magical world where it's an everyday occurrence for people to worship giant spider gods with ichor dripping from their foot-long fangs, or thieves to break into cavernous treasure-troves stocked with mountains of jewels and gold beyond the dreams of avarice, then that would be good to know as well.
I think you may be disappointed in that respect. There's not really any background given about the gods or the history of the culture, and there aren't any mountains of jewels.
Those were simply examples. Actual spiders and jewels are not mandatory (giant scorpions made of solid gold would be acceptable substitutes), but those are the sorts of things that contribute to creating a sense that there's a whole Hyborian Age out there to be explored...
Ditto. I thought the Conan movies seemed too "small" and cheap-looking to really do justice to the character. I want something that makes me want to see the sequel RIGHT AWAY.
Done correctly, Conan should have the epic scope of LOTR but of course, more sex and scorpions.
Oook, well maybe this is a Netflixer for me. But I do like that Momoa sounds right for the role. That was a real wild card for me, since I only ever saw him on SG:A, where he was more slacker than barbarian.
^ I haven't seen SG and when I first saw pics of Momoa when cast, I thought 'Model, Actor, Whatever.' But once I saw him in action and, in particular, when I saw him in Game of Thrones, I became convinced he'd be a great Conan.
^^^
I'm leaving work now,then going to the gym.
If no one does a Grade/Review thread in the next few hours I'll put one up later tonight.
I'm leaving work now,then going to the gym.
If no one does a Grade/Review thread in the next few hours I'll put one up later tonight.
Perhaps adapting one of the longer Conan stories. Red Nails, say, or The People of the Black Circle, or even Beyond the Black River. They're good pulp reads, lots of action and incident. Have the bare bones of possible film ideas, anyway.
It seems Cmndr J Crichton has already started one, but he didn't add a poll.
It seemed that in his haste to beat Craig to the punch, Crichton forgot to put on his pants.
I saw that.
I for sure would've added a poll. Can a mod allow an edit to be done? Cause a grading thread needs a poll. I think we all enjoy the easy visual atop the page tracking the grading of any given film.
I'm gonna disagree with that sentiment. I think it WAS a work of art. John Milius gave us stunning cinematography and brilliant direction. Polidourus' score is one of my favorite movie scores ever. The opening attack on Conan's village alone should be required viewing at every film school. HOWEVER - the actors and the script really weren't very good. The artistry of the film, however, was outstanding.
Destroyer was a more "mainstream" popcorn flick than the first film. IIRC it was written by one of the Marvel Comic Conan writers. It was a lot of fun, just a little sword and sorcery action film. Plus, young Olivia D'Abo looked delicious, and Sarah Douglas was at her most gorgeous. But again, expect no great acting when your star is a bodybuilder and two of his sidekicks are a pop singer and a basketball player.
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