We seem to have been hearing about this movie for years now, and seeing clips for almost as long! It certainly built up a bit of anticipation on here what with looking damn awesome. So was it? Nah not really..it was enjoyable though.
Solomon Kane is based on the character created by Robert E. Howard, who also gave us Conan The Barbarian, and first appeared in Weird Tales all the way back in 1929. Later in the late 70's Marvel released a comic featuring the character. He has been a bit of a cult hero to some since then although I have not read any of his adventures and so went to the movie without prior knowledge of how faithful to the source material it may be. The film follows Kane(James Purefoy), a vicious and ruthless bastard when we first meet him, as he swears off his violent ways after almost being claimed by The Devil's Reaper for a life of evil deeds. He escapes, but only by devoting himself to a peaceful existence will he keep the Devil from nipping at his heels. This goes well enough until he is turfed out of the monastery that has been giving him refuge and comes across a family of Puritans led by Pete Posthlewaite and Alice Krige, along with their 3 children. He joins them on the road and forms a close bond with them until the inevitable happens and the daughter(Rachel Hurd-Wood) is taken by a sorcerer called Malachi. Kane is forced to take up his sword again even though it will set him on the road to Hell once more.
British writer-director Michael J. Bassett clearly loves the material, and he does plenty right here. The film looks class..no mean feat with its fairly modest budget. And the action scenes and sword play are all suitably bloody and exiting. Purefoy makes a great Kane too. He makes the transition from cold blooded killer to a man in search of redemption believable, and looks shit cool doing it! He also gets some great one liners. The supporting cast are also very good, although none of them really get much to do. The biggest problem with the film is the script. Purefoy gets a few great lines..and a few naff ones, and everything else that comes from anyone's mouth is pretty boring and pedestrian. I mean i'm not looking for poetry here but try to at least be a bit original. The story suffers the same fate. Again, not looking for a thought provoking twisty turny masterpiece, but there are literally no surprises at all here. There are also a few bizarre scenes that seem to belong in a different movie. Kane has a flashback to an altercation with his brother when they were kids thats so bad a few people(myself included) laughed out loud. And toward the end, like soooo many movies, it kind of falls apart. Jason Flemying pops up for about 3 minutes as the bad guy and stinks up the screen while a huge CG demon chases Kane about the place, before everything is tied up in a nice neat bow, ready for the sequel.
All in all its a decent movie with some cool action a great lead/character and a truly dark core. Sword And Sorcery fans should enjoy it, but don't expect to love it. I was really hoping for more from it myself.
3/5 Stars