Solomon Kane review
Mar. 7th, 2010 12:10 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
alobearLet's get the shallow statement out of the way first, shall we?
James Purefoy + long hair + leather trousers = YUM!!
The film was an interesting, if rather scattershot combination.
The pre-credits sequence was very funny (though not intentionally so) but did little to effectively introduce the character, which made the drama of the post-credits monastery sequence somewhat hollow. I wasn't invested in him enough to care about the monks kicking him out - though that may have had something to do with the fact that he hadn't shaved his beard off yet...
Anyway, it did get going once he was on the road and travelling with Pete Postlethwaite and company, leading up to the single greatest moment of the whole film:
Having renounced violence in attempt to redeem his soul from damnation, Solomon finds himself in a situation where he has to kill again in order to save innocent lives. He watches a young boy being slaughtered in front of him, then spreads his arms, raises his eyes to the heavens and says, "Is this all I am to you?" Fantastic moment, which encapsulated in one shot the central conflict of the character and suddenly made me really care about him.
Then, the rest of the film was basically rain, rain, fighting, rain, fighting, rain and more rain.
The violence didn't bother me, the wanton killing of good guys was so inevitable as to not be too distressing, and James Purefoy cut an exceedingly dashing figure, whether striding through rain or fire. So, all in all, not a bad night's entertainment - though, as Dave said afterwards, not likely to be remotely memorable.
James Purefoy + long hair + leather trousers = YUM!!
The film was an interesting, if rather scattershot combination.
The pre-credits sequence was very funny (though not intentionally so) but did little to effectively introduce the character, which made the drama of the post-credits monastery sequence somewhat hollow. I wasn't invested in him enough to care about the monks kicking him out - though that may have had something to do with the fact that he hadn't shaved his beard off yet...
Anyway, it did get going once he was on the road and travelling with Pete Postlethwaite and company, leading up to the single greatest moment of the whole film:
Having renounced violence in attempt to redeem his soul from damnation, Solomon finds himself in a situation where he has to kill again in order to save innocent lives. He watches a young boy being slaughtered in front of him, then spreads his arms, raises his eyes to the heavens and says, "Is this all I am to you?" Fantastic moment, which encapsulated in one shot the central conflict of the character and suddenly made me really care about him.
Then, the rest of the film was basically rain, rain, fighting, rain, fighting, rain and more rain.
The violence didn't bother me, the wanton killing of good guys was so inevitable as to not be too distressing, and James Purefoy cut an exceedingly dashing figure, whether striding through rain or fire. So, all in all, not a bad night's entertainment - though, as Dave said afterwards, not likely to be remotely memorable.
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Date: 2010-03-07 07:17 pm (UTC)no subject
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