That’s likely an unpopular opinion.
Don’t get me wrong, it’s got an established cult presence and the underlying concept is very cool. <spoiler> A bunch of immortals battling for mortality? </spoiler> That’s a pretty seriously twisty reveal, even if it had to be explained with a voiceover at the end because the movie hadn’t made it very clear.
The writing is generally bad with weak dialogue, a weaker plot, and non-existent characterization. And I’m not sure how much direction was involved in the film.
The things it does well, it does very well. Transitions, historical settings, effects. All solid or excellent. And Clancy Brown did the menacing Kurgan so well that he stole every scene he was involved in, carrying things beyond the poor script. But I’ve said before that a film lives or dies for me based on the quality of its writing. All the effects and eye candy in the world can’t make a bad movie into a good one. And objectively, this is a bad movie.
Somehow, though, it is still watchable. And maybe that’s just the nostalgia talking, but I do still love the movie. I just recognize that I don’t love it because it’s good, but rather because it was an important film in my teen years, a movie for geeks that reached beyond us to find a wider audience. And that was something we really needed at the time.
The underlying concept is really just the mystery of why the immortals have to fight until only one of them is left. It’s spoiled by needing a voiceover in the last scene to explain things, but the mystery pulls the tattered shreds of plot along, and the sword fights and villain carry things through to reach the end.
And in the end, there can be only one.
So why did they make two more? (And a TV show?)
Be well, everyone.
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