| Winston Smith | 22 Apr 2018 6:44 a.m. PST |
I caught it on Netflix last night on a whim.
I just said "Solomon Kane" into my Xfinity voice remote and there it was. Voila!
I will admit right off the bat that I've not read all that many of the stories, but I did enjoy the ones I read.
It was an interesting origin story. Kane starts out as an evil pirate. He has the Hell scared out of him. Literally.
We next see him in a monastery, having given up violence. Right. Wouldn't be much of a movie if that was real, would it?
The abbot is sadly forced to send him on his way , but with blessings.
As he makes his way through the world, he encounters a really nice Puritan family lead by Sgt Hakeswill. They're so gosh darned nice you know they're doomed.
En route to rescuing the maiden daughter, he encounters from his past good guys, bad guys, family members and of course demons and sorcerers.
At the end of the movie, he becomes the Solomon Kane of the stories. I like James Purefoy in the role. He was great as Marc Antony in Rome. This was obviously meant as the start of a movie franchise, but sequels never developed. Sadly. It's certainly as deserving a superhero series as the third iteration of a Spider Man origin, and Batman bores me to tears. As an aside, I was musing on how the story seemed to be following the redemption arc of The Hound in Game of Thrones. I even wondered if Martin was working on the name similarity of "Solomon Kane = Sandor Clegane". Suddenly I spot Rory McCann as one of Kane's Merry Men. |
| Vigilant | 22 Apr 2018 6:56 a.m. PST |
Bought this on Blu-Ray when it came out because like Winston I liked James Purefoy in Rome. Still a favourite. Purefoy was clearly interested in taking the franchise further based on his involvement in the commentary, sadly the box office take didn't support this. It got me into the original stories though, which would make great games. |
| Wackmole9 | 22 Apr 2018 7:29 a.m. PST |
One of Robert E. Howard wonderful action heroes. I got hook on it in the old Marvel Savage Sword of Conan magazine in the 1970's. I thought the Movie was well done and interesting. |
YogiBearMinis  | 22 Apr 2018 8:14 a.m. PST |
Love the stories, and the movie was not bad although not great. |
| mwindsorfw | 22 Apr 2018 8:54 a.m. PST |
I didn't think that the movie was bad. I wondered if the setting, particularly the time period turned people off. Fantasy movies in that setting (while many of them are not especially good) don't seem do well at the box office. |
| USAFpilot | 22 Apr 2018 8:59 a.m. PST |
Not Robert E. Howard's Solomon Kane; which imho are some of Howard's best stories. The movie fails on many levels. I liked Purefoy as Anthony in Rome also, but he does not make a good Solomon. The movie is just another uninspired cookie cutter action flick with an over the top hero. What makes Howard's Kane unique in the book is that he is not another "bad boy" angst filled hero who is really just a good guy at heart; but he really is a good guy committed to fighting evil. He's a Puritan after all. A Puritan with absolute confidence in himself and his cause. A charismatic man of faith who is not opposed to using physical violence. He also does not suffer from cynicism like some many other over the top modern day heros. Skip the movie; read the stories. (All the Kane stories are short stories and can be found in one volume.) |
 miniMo | 22 Apr 2018 9:25 a.m. PST |
Fun movie, the DVD gets popped in from time to time! |
| Oberlindes Sol LIC | 22 Apr 2018 10:36 a.m. PST |
I just noticed that there is role-playing game based on Howard's Solomon Kane. It probably includes some miniatures combat rules. |
| JimSelzer | 22 Apr 2018 10:50 a.m. PST |
I actually attempted to adapt a Solomon Kane story into a play for my High School English class 40 years ago. Got a b- if I remember right but for the life of me don't remember which story and no longer have the sources to determine it |
| M C MonkeyDew | 22 Apr 2018 5:28 p.m. PST |
Corrosponded with the director a while back. Nice chap loves to talk to the public about his work. He had intended to make a faithful, single story, SK film. The executives basically said: We need an origin story! We need a love interest! We need a trilogy. Director now needs to make up an origin story that has to please the suits so he can then make the movie he wanted to make. Suits decide the first movile didn't make enough lolly so no second or third installment… |
 Wolfshanza | 22 Apr 2018 10:53 p.m. PST |
One of my favorite characters. Saw part of the movie and wasn't particularly thrilled :/ |
| Paint it Pink | 26 Apr 2018 5:22 a.m. PST |
I liked the movie and it get rewatched on a regular basis, just to hear the line, "I am an evil man." Gets me everytime he says it. |
