FortuneChip wrote: » I'm actually all for this. Feel the franchise deserves a proper expansion.First one is a charming mess, and if we just ignore the rest maybe we'll see what should have been. As much as I like Geralt, hoping for a bit more obvious levity from Cavill here. Lambert had a bit of silliness to him
Hande hoche! wrote: » Lambert had such a peculiar acting style
Slydice wrote: » I didn't have a clue from what I'd remembered! They did that well!
BrookieD wrote: » If i recall it tanked at the cinema but established a return on VHS and that pushed the dog awful sequel years later. Lets not mention Connery cast as a Egyptian/Spaniard Jesus wept :D
Tony EH wrote: » 'Highlander' was absolute junk. But very enjoyable junk nonetheless. The thing is you can't just reboot something like that. 'Highlander' managed to come together in spite of itself. It really should never have worked, and is dangerously close to so bad it's good territory, but through god knows what, it kinda does. But that kind of thing you just cannot replicate.
JP Liz V1 wrote: » I think Mark Wahlberg has got there first
Homelander wrote: » I watched Highlander last night on Netflix. God, it's an absolutely atrocious film, it's really more "so bad it's good" than being any sort of decent movie from any perspective imaginable. Horrible acting, cheesy, wafer thin story with no emotional depth, incoherent/nonsensical scenes aplenty. I enjoyed it to a degree watching it with beers and friends but I absolutely would've turned it off if I was watching alone. I can't even begin to fathom how bad Highlander II and Highlander III must be, given the general consensus that the first only is "the only good one" by a wide margin.
Agent Coulson wrote: » Highlander was better suited as the series and the series was great fun in much the same way as Stargate was able to grow, Highlander was able to put down some sort of proper mythos involving Immortals & Watchers. Duncan, Joe, Amanda, Charlie, Methos, Horton, Fitzcairn some great characters human and Immortal.
Rumours that Cavill has dropped out of the remake/reboot...
he's doing the Warhammer/games workshop stuff isn't he?
That could end up as a big commitment if it succeeds (doubtful) and he is playing one of the characters that have multiple novels
Henry Cavill seems to be having himself a whirlwind of opportunities, but also cancelations that are combating those new opportunities. Through our trusted and proven sources, we can report that Henry Cavill has now been dropped from starring in the Highlander remake, and Chris Hemsworth is now being targeted for the role. Cavill has now been let go from three separate franchises in the last few months.
that website seems to want us to believe that it was him being dropped... i would think it was the opposite..
Hey. It's a kind of magic.
I love the original Highlander and hate pretty much everything that followed including the series. I don't think any of them captured what made the original work, half of which was Freddie Mercury crooning about not wanting to live forever. Also just how down right weird present day Lambert is in that film. The premise of immortals having sword fights etc is really nothing on its own.
Highlander is a good example of something that's perhaps not actually good on any technical or structural level, but kinda magnetic in a purely trashy, pulpy sorta way. It entertains, despite the very overt flaws.
Minus the Queen soundtrack it's a bit shít, but still has that charisma of an interesting idea executed with just about the right amount of brio to compensate for (as an example) its lead's total lack of talent.
Honestly, the best effort I can think of at giving the franchise some life was probably the animated series (and I say this as someone who generally enjoyed the series when it originally aired).
The live-action stuff is phenomenally 80s/early 90s in its styling, relying hugely on moody blokes in trenchcoats having swordfights in the street and the kind of cod-historical drama that's somewhere around Braveheart levels of sophistication. The Queen soundtrack on the first film is a large part of why it came together at all, so in the absence of both that music and that setting, you've just got a fairly dull premise.
The animated series felt very much like one of those "we'll greenlight your idea but you're grafting these names and ideas into the end result so we can reuse this IP/branding" - but it was at least something different (set in a far future where the immortals were still somehow tramping round the place). Its biggest issue in terms of "lore" (>spits on ground in disgust<) is probably that the Immortals have found a non-death-based quickening method that can be used by the protagonist to accumulate skills and knowledge to defeat the big bad... At least, IIRC.
I loved it when it came out and I was 11 or whatever, but I saw it a couple of years ago on TV and it's dreadful, and I say that having watched and enjoyed a lot of old 80s/90s action classics with my kids recently. Highlander by comparison doesn't stand up at all, the story is dumb, the acting terrible, and the effects laughable. (I recall seeing Highlander II in the cinema and thinking even then that it was terrible, IIRC it features a lot of talking and guff about aliens and the environment).
