My first encounter with Solomon was in the Dark Horse comics' story "Castle Of The Devil". I loved the story, and some side characters, but I hated Kane. Don't get me wrong, I tought he had a lot of potential, but he was extremely shallow, one-dimensional and generally unlikeable. He was portrayed as nothing more then a puritan fanatic, hell-bent on revenge. Revenge to whom, and for what exactly? That was never explained. It all seems rushed, and frankly, he wasn't really a believeable character. Nor relatable.
At least that was Kane in the comics. I'm not sure about Kane from Howard's stories. I'm still reading them, so we'll see 
And now the movie review...
But I have to admit, James Purefoy brought a lot of personality, charm and badassery into the film version of Kane. I loved him as Mark Antony in "Rome", and I loved him as Kane. For the first time, he has some back story, an origin, and a plausible motivation for doing what he's doing in the movie. It's not original, it's not Pulitzer material, but it's not bad either. A bad guy gets scared of going to hell, so he turns good, but turns bad again in order to rescue a distressed damsel in a distressful distress, bla bla bla...
But hey, it's a swashbucklin' action movie, so I'm not exactly expecting Shakespeare.
Still better then the comics, tough...So, there I was, putting a Solomon Kane DVD I just rented into my faithful DVD player, opened a can of beer, and prayed to God it's not another PG-13 live-action cartoon. And there goes Kane, hacking some nameless soldiers, and... Guess what, it clearly is just a PG-13 live-action cartoon!
Say what you want about Dark Horse's Kane, but there was a lot of blood and guts in those comics, and the stories were mostly pure tales of horror. "Movie for kids to watch on Sunday morning while drinking hot chocolate in their pajamas" is not really what comes to mind...I have to admit, tough, the atmosphere is great! It's grim, it's rainy, but pleasant to watch. One good thing besides Purefoy! Action sequences were properly over-the-top and mostly fun to watch, but for every cool scene there was another completely ridiculous. Like the (in)famous crucifixion, of course. Look, I'm not expecting 100% realism here, but that Jesus symbolism was completely unneccesary. It's as subtle as a blunt force trauma, and creates more plot holes then I can count in one review. I mean, if the main hero is just another human, and not some human/demon hybrid or Superman, then I expect to see at least SOME realism when it comes to his abilities. Scoring a perfect shot while in full gallop on horseback is unlikely, but at least plausible. Because in real life such a shot would be possible, albeit with a huge dose of luck. No amount of luck can save you from crucifixion.
Some monsters and set pieces were great, but the main villain and his s****y CGI demon was the final nail to Kane's coffin. Honestly, I wasn't sure if I was watching a movie or somebody's World Of Warcraft low-level boss fight... not to mention the fact that no amount of CGI and make-up can make Jason Flemyng look intimidating, or tough. Or even cool.
If THAT is the best they can do for a movie climax, then it's no wonder that the movie flopped, despite some best efforts of certain people involved in it's making.But to be honest, there was one scene I particularly liked. You guessed it, the one in the ruined church filled with ghouls.
And that's what this movie is really all about. Crappy scenes mixed with some cool ones. Good enough to watch, but too bad to recommend to anyone.
I'd say 6/10
Edited by TiriusBanner, 19 September 2012 - 10:56 AM.
