Highlander of the Rings

Solomon Kane – Michael J. Bassett

A release that wasn’t paraded with much attention when it came out in the cinemas, i didn’t read any articles about it, watch any trailers, see any behind the scenes action. This DVD release of Solomon Kane was only recommended to me by a friend who believed it to be better than it deserved to be called. I’m going to give it a chance and watch it, and if it is a surprise hit, then great, I’ll spread the word and make sure others watch it, but if it proves that the tags and labels it was given are well deserved then sadly this film will fall into the depths of hell. Well not literally, but it will fall into the £3 HMV sale that seems to sell films that have been watched by an average of 6 people. Half of them by accident.

So moving onto the plot, Solomon Kane follows Solomon Kane, a former warrior for the Queen’s guard in olden times England. He kills, he slaughters, and he practically is a one man army until he fights death himself. The reaper has come for Solomon but Solomon escapes and leads a peaceful life, ending the conflict and violence in his life. He goes into hiding. After being expelled from the monastery he lives in, he returns back home to his former kingdom which he left as a teenage boy after accidently killing his brother. On his way back, he finds a family, who help him after being beaten up. Several towns on their travels have been demolished; lay a waste with dead bodies and rubble. The family are then attacked, leading Solomon to become the man he used to be and kill the people who are involved. This is the basic plot, a few plot twists and several massive fights, which include three different enemies at the end. You’ll be surprised how he managed to kill them all and save the day.

Its okay, not great. It does have the setting look of Lord of The Rings, but the money isn’t there and the adventure seems to dip in excitement, from parts that are fast moving and at a great pace, then cut to slow, boring, religious sub-texts within scenes that seem to drag on a lot longer than they need to. The acting is okay, the lead James Purefoy plays it well, it’s a shame he has no one to bounce off of in terms of villain or friend of Solomon, like in Lord of the Rings, Aragorn has a band of people to work with instead of being by him throughout most of the film. I wouldn’t recommend it, very dull.

4/10

Simon Childs