Unfortunately, post credits the film takes a severe downturn. To
avoid his infernal fate, Kane has renounced violence and found God. He’s also become one of the most tedious characters ever committed to celluloid.
For the next ninety minutes Kane mopes around a fictionalised England, where towns are adorned with hanged corpses, and witch-burnings are a fun spectator sport. This basic idea could actually have worked, even taking into account the fact that the baddies are essentially cast-offs from Lord of the Rings, but writer/director, Michael J Bassett, has stripped the film of any real passion.
Instead the picture is monotonous, and just as it seems to find its feet, and feel like the fun action romp it should have been, it stumbles and becomes dreary and dull.
Much of this is a product of the film being yet another origin story. By insisting on explaining every trait the character has, it gets bogged down in its own mythology, and loses much of its narrative thrust.
At 104 minutes the film has ample time to tie up loose ends, or at the very least, make sense. It fails to do so. There’s no real explanation why Kane is condemned to hell, and there are several story threads that need a justification, and fail to find one. Instead, Bassett fills the movie with countless ‘cool’ action shots that serve absolutely no purpose, and in many cases disrupt the story telling. If he were making a standard, dumb action movie, this wouldn’t be a problem, but in trying to be more, Solomon Kane draws attention to these failings.
In addition to this, Purefoy is criminally misused. He is by far one of the most charismatic actors working today, and ordinarily he’s an absolute joy to watch. As Marc Anthony, he was the best thing in Rome, and in the BBC mini-series Beau Brummell: This Charming Man and Blackbeard: Terror at Sea he showed quite clearly that he’s a top-notch leading man. The film could have been vastly improved by allowing him to use his natural charm, but instead he’s hemmed in at every turn.
With a more commercially-minded director Solomon Kane could have been an enjoyable action movie, in the vein of Willow. As it stands, it’s an absolute dirge. That said, as bad as this film is, it picks up a little towards the end, as Kane finds himself, and Purefoy is finally allowed to make the character his own. It’s a real shame that the filmmakers didn’t have the confidence to start at this point, as it would certainly have allowed them to tell a more exciting story.
The literary nature of the character is serious, so no matter the leeway Bassett took from REH's writing, the tone and seriousness of the movie is close by the book and how it SHOULD be. This should not and never be a “fun action romp”.
If you approach the critic from the angle, that the origin tale spun is questionable and hard to explain, then I agree, but this was never supposed to be a fun action movie and I would absolutely dread the fact if a commercial director made the next Scorpion King or Van Helsing out of it.
I gladly take a somewhat problematic origins tale to bring the character where he is supposed to be any day, over a mutilated fun action story made out of REH's Solomon Kane.
The producers btw. tried to make this NOT an origins story, but the “powers that be” would not bring it to life, because the someone defined, that “the market” demands origin stories for new characters. If you like what Solomon Kane becomes in the end, then you will be glad to hear, that this actually is quite close to what Solomon Kane was in the stories by Robert E. Howard and that the next movie will be showing more of that goodness… but still… I hope in all seriousness.
Despite the negative tone of the review, I really do hope for a sequel. By the end the character was very much the sort that could easily carry an action film.
The worry I have is that this film will be badly received and make a follow-up impossible.
With regards to it being an origin story, in both the press notes, and the roundtable interview with Purefoy that is now live on the site, there are statements that this was the decision of the producers. If this information is incorrect I will happily edit my review.
I haven't seen the film as yet, but this is by far the most critical and negative review of it yet. However, most reviews I have read appear much more forgiving and suggest despite some faults, its a decent film. I am much more concerned over the developments involving another REH's creation, Conan. I think the director might make it look the part-(see Pathfinder) but his grasp of the narrative will let the project down (again, see Pathfinder!)
The list of producers and the money they had to collect to bring the independent production to live is long. They could not get the money needed without going for an origin story. The people that invested their money wanted to know more about the character and where he is coming from, to make it a safer bet on the market, since in Howards original writing, Solomon Kane just “appears” in good old Clint Eastwood style.
So it's a bit more “complex”, but you are still right, no pun intended 🙂
Let's all hope that people receive it well and we all will see more of this very interesting and layered character and the seriousness of the storytelling. I would love to see more serious stories, more serious fantasy, that does not “wink” at the audience constantly, because it cannot take itself seriously. Fantasy to me is just a background to tell more exciting and layered stories, not necessarily “funnier” ones.
you like Willow?
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this looks amazing
It seems people either love this movie or hate it. I loved it! Sure it’s melodramatic, but that’s the genre. It’s fast paced, epic fantasy horror, and it’s much more fun that way than if it had suddenly apologized for itself and thrown in a few good-natured ironies. And James Purefoy is amazing. He managed to pull off all the melodrama needed without any cheese.