First off I love the original Barbarian and despite a lacklustre sequel (destroyer) and a poor spin off (red Sonja) I've still remained a fan of the IP the short lived TV series also had a few moments. So I was eager to see this remake but there is one of the reasons it did not do well, this is not a remake, it's an entirely new story and should be referred to as a reboot.
There is still a strong revenge fuelled Conan, there is still witchcraft and scorcery which all tick the box in what I'd expect from a Conan film,, plus the gore is pretty good so it's on par with the original rather than the Aimee at kids follow ons.
My problem with this is sadly Jason Mamoa, he is no Arnold Schwartzenegger and the vision of Conan has been for 30 years that or arnie. Mamoa had big shoes to fill and it cannot be done through no fault of his own it's just arnie is arnie and the originals got it right. This film has so much right but for me, loose the title , loose the character name , call it Rise of the Barbarian give him a name like Thorg and you've got a very decent sword and scorcery movie.
It fails as it was hoping to lure the fans of the original rather than stand alone. Like nearly all remakes / reboots / reimagined what evers .
I think my greatest sadness over this film is that because it failed at the box office, we didn't get the Rose McGowan Red Sonja film, which from the teaser posters would have been epic.
To sum up, this film is great if you class it as a non Conan film .
But it is no epic, then neither were the originals.
Give it a second watch and like I say ignore the Conan branding .
There is still a strong revenge fuelled Conan, there is still witchcraft and scorcery which all tick the box in what I'd expect from a Conan film,, plus the gore is pretty good so it's on par with the original rather than the Aimee at kids follow ons.
My problem with this is sadly Jason Mamoa, he is no Arnold Schwartzenegger and the vision of Conan has been for 30 years that or arnie. Mamoa had big shoes to fill and it cannot be done through no fault of his own it's just arnie is arnie and the originals got it right. This film has so much right but for me, loose the title , loose the character name , call it Rise of the Barbarian give him a name like Thorg and you've got a very decent sword and scorcery movie.
It fails as it was hoping to lure the fans of the original rather than stand alone. Like nearly all remakes / reboots / reimagined what evers .
I think my greatest sadness over this film is that because it failed at the box office, we didn't get the Rose McGowan Red Sonja film, which from the teaser posters would have been epic.
To sum up, this film is great if you class it as a non Conan film .
But it is no epic, then neither were the originals.
Give it a second watch and like I say ignore the Conan branding .