RIP Michael Clarke Duncan

Thursday, September 27, 2012

Solomon Kane review



Solomon Kane is a movie that I had heard about - what feels like - ages ago. It looked interesting, perhaps good? I don't know what the hold-up was. Usually when a movie is shelved and unreleased it's because either the studio doesn't know what to do with it and/or they lack faith in it. Cabin in the Woods is a movie that was famously held-up mostly because the studio had no idea what to do with it. Well, that was stupid because regardless of how well the movie did, it was brilliant and deserved to be shown to the general public. Regardless, Solomon Kane is now finally seeing a limited release, even though I saw it a week or so ago via on-demand.

It's a known property, Kane being the creation of Robert E. Howard, the man behind Conan the Barbarian. They're very similar in the sense that they both tell tales of flawed, sword-wielding men who must battle all types of supernatural and occult-based foes. However, I feel like Kane is the more interesting property which is funny since he's not very well known.

The movie starts out with Solomon Kane being one of the worst Captain's you'd ever want to follow while exploring the world and treasure hunting. He's cruel, evil and violently vicious, but he seems happy about it so it's all gravy. Until he faces off with a grim reaper of sorts and he's informed that his soul is destined for Hell. Kane escapes the reaper and finds sanctuary in a monastery in England for a while until he's ordered to leave and travel home as part of his atonement. Along the way, Kane meets a family bound for the New World and journey's with them. The inevitable conflict comes when a supernatural force happens across the band and innocent blood is spilled. Kane must choose to do nothing and keep his soul safe or attack and risk an odyssey into Hell. What would you do? Well of course Kane goes on an ass-kicking spree and eventually encounters the Big Bad's of the movie in the face of an almost Hamlet-like recreation that has much to do with his own past and how he became the man he was and is.




For the most part, Solomon Kane is a helluva flick. It's a good amount of fun while staying true to the intensity and seriousness of the subject matter, what with religion, history, faith, and the will to do violence all being key elements in the plot and the character's motivations. It's filmed fairly well and sprinkled with surprisingly good actors and performances.

There are some giant leaps of logic within the story and some of the set-pieces are rushed and/or don't make sense. The visual style is decent but feels copied like a better filmmaker could have done something more interesting with the same script - it's not bad, just uninspired. Yet overall, it's a good time at the movies. 

In many ways, this is exactly what Van Helsing should have been like and even looked like! They definitely could have made a corny, campy trip into Kane's world with this movie, but I'm happy to report they didn't stray. Sure, there are moments of ridiculousness (like all movies) but it's not drenched in stupidity.


7 / 10

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