Soloman Kane

I had such high hopes for this movie – the pedigree was fairly promising (if like myself you are a fan of dark sword and sorcery style fun!)

The original books written by Conan creator Robert E Howard were good fun in a dark – demon hunting sort of way, and trivia buffs – Kane’s big hat is not copying Van Helsing as he’s been wearing it since the creation of the character in the 1920’s so it’s the other way around! The comics from the 1970’s seem to be more of a blueprint for director Michael L Bassett with actor James Purefoy well cast as the brooding bad man turned good Solomon, and he lends a weighty presence to the film which it doesn’t perhaps deserve.

The action set-pieces are well done but the pace of the film seems slightly off and it stalls when it should be racing along. Purefoy does his best (perhaps trying to show he CAN carry an action film after being sacked from V for Vendetta?) but it isn’t enough to make this a classic. This is a film without a soul, which is ironic considering that is exactly what Kane fights to save throughout the entire plot. I was also surprised to see such legendary thesps as Max Von Sydow and Pete Postlethwaite backing up Purefoy as his father and the Puritan traveller whose daughter Kane has to save. It is worth a watch – there are some good sequences throughout but perhaps with Directors like Chris Nolan and Zack Snyder doing such amazing jobs adapting comic masterpieces such as Batman : Year One written by Frank Millar (filmed as Batman Begins) and The Killing Joke written by Alan Moore (used partly in The Dark Knight) and Watchmen again by Moore and adapted for the screen by Snyder. Solomon Kane is at best an ‘ok’ comic movie but there are much better out there.

Words by Mark Duncan