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Highlander - Endgame

Highlander - Endgame

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Rating: 1 stars
Summary: Unfortunately, It Does Not Live Up to the Series
Review: Highlander the End Game Disappoints. The original Highlander movie and the Highlander series are terific. The Series especially so (I wish they would bring it back). I went to this movie with an extremely open mind toward liking it becuase I enjoyed the series so much. In other words, I went in giving it every benefit of the doubt. I came out of the movie disappointed. Both the director and writer failed miserably. The story has sigificant logical flaws. The fight scenes are unconvincing; not even 50% as good as the ones in the tv series. Adrian Paul and Christopher Lambert, confined in the poor story, show no range! THE MOVIE WOULD HAVE BEEN BETTER HAD THEY SIMPLY REPORDUCED A TWO-EPISODE STORY FROM THE SERIES!

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: FROM THE DAWN OF TIME WE COME...
Review: THE MUCH AWAITED INSTALLMENT NO. 4 IS HERE AND I MUST SAY, IT WAS WORTH THE WAIT! AS A LONG TIME MARTIAL ARTS INSTRUCTOR,I CAN TELL YOU THAT THE FIGHT SCENES ARE SOME OF THE BEST SINCE "ENTER THE DRAGON". IF THE PLOT IS A BIT SIMPLISTIC, THAT CAN BE EXCUSED IN AN ACTION STORY OF THIS KIND. IF YOU WANT GREAT ACTORS, GO WATCH CHARLTON HESTON OR JAMES STEWART IN THEIR PRIME. THIS MOVIE IS PURE, ABSOLUTE, FUN, AND WE DON'T SEE THAT MANY OF THOSE THESE DAYS. MY ONLY OBJECTION WAS THAT IT WAS TOO SHORT TO COVER ALL THE CHARACTERS AND MATERIAL PROPERLY. HOPEFULLY, THAT WILL BE REMEDIED IN THE DIRECTOR'S CUT RELEASE.

Rating: 2 stars
Summary: For Series fans only
Review: I watched the last couple of years of the Series, and became somewhat of a fan of the Methos character. Fans of the original movie and Christopher Lambert won't enjoy the film as much as fans of the Series, especially for those people who are loyal to the character of Conner (Connor?) over Duncan. You really don't need to be up to date on your viewing of the other Highlander movies at all, as there is enough exposition to get you caught up, and little mention of earlier movie storylines. This movie STILL leaves the "there can be only one" question remaining, as there is more than one Immortal still alive at the end. (I won't tell you which ones!) Amanda (Elizabeth Gracen) does NOT make an appearance at all and is not mentioned, nor is Ritchie (Stan Kirsch) even in flashbacks. (Yes, I know Ritchie is dead.) I considered this film simply... a long Highlander Series episode. It has some great action sequences that will appeal to "Matrix" fans, but the action isn't reason enough to see the film... The story and characters simply aren't interesting or solid enough to make this a great stand-alone film. Basically, I would only recommend this as a purchase to devoted fans of the Highlander Series. Everyone else? Rent it.

Note to Christopher Lambert fans and film snobs... Christopher Lambert is aging and looking very UN-Immortal which probably won't bother most people, but I kept wondering what the makeup people were doing on the days he was filming! (Could they have at least given him a little powder or could the Director of Photography maybe not done QUITE so many closeups?) Lambert ended up looking even older than he is in reality, instead of like a young Conner. I actually was distracted by it whenever he was on screen! My suggestion: take your glasses off whenever he has a scene.

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: Highlander franchise redeemed?
Review: Here's the story of the Highlander franchise: Highlander, Highlander: The Quickening, Highlander: The Series (ignores the end of Highlander in which Connor MacLeod actually won the Prize and ignores Highlander: The Quickening completely), Highlander: The Final Dimension (ignores Highlander: The Quickening completely and Highlander: The Series) and finally Highlander: Endgame (ignores the end of Highlander in which Connor MacLeod actually won the Prize, ignores Highlander: The Quickening completely and ignores Highlander: The Final Dimension completely).

Pretty confusing stuff! The original Highlander is one of my favorite movie. It's a cult classic with strong performance by Christopher Lambert and Sean Connery and a very cool over-the-top performance by Clancy Brown. The second (The Quickening) is one of the worst movie ever made and completly destroy the magic and the mystery of the original Highlander. The series was not very good neither very bad. Actually, the quality of the series has grown with the passing years as well as the performance of Adrian Paul. It has introduce new interesting concept such as The Watchers. The third (The Final Dimension) expand the story of Connor MacLeod and is entertaining without destroying the magic and the mystery of the first one.

The last chapter of the Saga (Endgame) is the best "sequel" of Highlander. The performance of Christopher Lambert is again very good and Adrian Paul is more mature and give a fair performance. Bruce Payne is the second best vilain in the franchise. The first part of the movie is very good and is "fluid" with the original Highlander story. The characters of Rachel and Heather are seen briefly but helps to bring a sense of continuity with the original. The story of Connor and Duncan and the introduction of Kell are well "inserted" in the original Highlander story with flashbacks. Concepts of the series, like The Watchers, are also added to the story. The last part of the movie is less interesting but entertaining. There is a very cool fight between Duncan and Jin and a great fight between Connor and Duncan that is very touching. The last fight is sadly not the best as for Bruce Payne is not as agile as Adrian Paul. The movie lose some interest as the film goes on but manage to be a very good movie.

If your not familiar with the series, Endgame can be very confusing because the movie takes many elements of the series such as the fact that Connor did not won the Prize, The Watchers, the character of Joe and Methos, etc. If you want to see the movie and your not a fan of the series, just remember the fact that Connor did not won the Prize and let yourself be part of the magic of Highlander... By the way, did you see that all "supernatural" parts of the trailer are not seen in the movie. I hope they will add those deleted scenes in the DVD.

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: short and slick.
Review: I watched Highlander The Series for about three years before I lost intrest. But I've always been a fan of the movies. Connor Macleod's character is just plain better. Duncan is good for TV though, he cant hbe tragic like Connor and be on TV every week.

Now, the movie does NOT give Lambert enough screen time. Which is a real mistake, because he steals the show when hes on. Connor's depressive rage is out here and we see his character change through flashbacks, plus out prior movie knowledge. Lambert's voice is real big here too, Connor isnt the saddened man he was when he thought he was the only one left.

The chemistry between Paul and Lambert is very good. Both actors bring this in strong, the reason is for of course the climax that most fans know about. Very good movie, not quite the origional, but the best sequel. Even if they make more though, this is the last one for me, for obvious reasons.

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: Highlander Redeems Itself!
Review: Finally, a Highlander sequel that delivers! After two pathetically embarassing sequels, Endgame restores the essence of the original film while successfully integrating the characters and lore of the television series. I have only seen the first episode of the t.v. series, but had no trouble being introduced to the recurring characters that populated the show. Endgame also faithfully retells Connor MacLeod's past through its trademarked flashback narrative with appearances by original cast members. The surprising thing about Endgame is that, unlike most sequels, every character that appears serves a specific purpose to move the story forward, unlike Sean Connery's dreadful appearance in the second film where it was obvious that his character was thrown into the story for the sake of making a trite encore. Although continuity between the films and the series has never been consistent, it manages to overlook the continuity of the last two sequels but never quite explains the inconsistency of Connor's reception of "The Prize" from the first film, and leads one to simply conclude that he never really received it during the Quickening of his duel with The Kurgan. It does provide a round-about explanation that a group of immortals were hiding in "The Sanctuary," a sort of vampire-like slumber for immortals provided by The Watchers to elude having to violently fight each other in the game during The Gathering and that he simply was not the last remaining immortal. This element is one of the most intriguing introduced by Endgame, which focuses on plot and story. The villain, Jacob Krell is the weakest aspect of Endgame, but my expectations were lowered since I could not imagine a villain that could top Clancy Brown's The Kurgan from the original. The chemistry between Christopher Lambert and Adrian Paul is definitely there, building up to an inevitable climax... "There can be only one." This is THE sequel to the original Highlander. Ignore parts 2 and 3 which were the Batman and Robin and Phantom Menace of the franchise. Now, there can be only two!

Rating: 2 stars
Summary: Stupid, stupid men.
Review: Why is it, that in the days of really good sequels such as Mission Impossible 2, we cannot seem to generate a decent movie sequel that already has a very well established base? I am not really referring to the prior movies, I was never really a fan of them.

But the series was fantastic.

So if the series was fantastic, you would think that a movie would be even better. No, this movie suffers from what I like to call "Passingthetorch-itis." It's a very bad disease that Star Trek: The Next Generation caught briefly when it moved to the big screen. Fortunately, it rebounded with the excellent First Contact. But I digress.

This film HAD potential. I would imagine that the original script was quite the interesting read. I have to wonder though, why I paid seven bucks for a movie that was 88 minutes long. I like to see about 100 in an action movie. And I think that 12 minutes of additional footage could have helped a LOT. Such as more scenes regarding Duncan and Kate. More scenes with Kell's goons. More scenes in general. This film felt very, very abbreviated. There was also WAAAAAYYY too much reliance on the flashback. Used correctly in a highlander film, a flashback can be a useful plot establishing tool. But it should be a warning sign to the producers when a flashback goes into another flashback.

Jim Byrnes and Peter Wingfield... why oh why did you even bother? You had what... 3 minutes of total screentime in this film? You deserved much more.

Finally, my last problem is with the fight scenes. Not the scenes themselves, the fight choreography is fantastic, and these are quite possibly the best action scenes I have seen in the highlander mythos. The problem is that they were shot like this is still a TV show. The benefit of movie sets and budgets are the ability to pan out a bit to show what is going on. These particular scenes are shot so close you can hardly tell who is doing what.

The film DID have some good moments in it. I loved the re-casting of actors from the original movie, even if their involvement was low. The music was also very well done. I thought (although a lot of people disagree with me) that Bruce Paynes performance as Kell was actually pretty darned good. And as I hinted at before, I liked the scenes between Duncan and Kate. Also, even though it's pretty trivial and sounds dumb, I liked the intro credit sequence. It was very nice looking.

Conclusion: I love the series. I sincerely hope that the series can take it's excellent roots and cast off the highlander movie curse that seems to have been laid upon it because of the atrocity that was highlander 2.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Highlander End of Games
Review: Highlander: Endgame really blows you away. It was great to see Adrian Paul in the role that he was meant to play, Duncan McLeod. The movie was solidly written, and takes you back to the character development and continuity that made the first film and the series so great. Donnie Yen did a great job with the fight scenes. Duncan's fight scenes have never looked so good. The sad part is that Yen really overshadows Bruce Payne. Christopher Lambert also does a great job. I feel that this is exactly what the Highlander franchise needed to get back on top. Hopefully this is only the first of many "true" Highlander sequels.

Rating: 1 stars
Summary: There SHOULD have been only one!
Review: If you are not a fan of Highlander DON'T WASTE YOUR TIME SEEING THIS MOVIE! You will be completely lost! If you are a fan, read on...As a loyal fan of Highlander since the very beginning, I must say I was absolutely disgusted at the way the characters of Connor and Duncan Macleod were presented. The first Highlander movie was storytelling at its best - plot, acting, action, music by Queen, you name it. In a distasteful attempt to make more money from the Highlander franchise, the original movie was followed not only by two ridiculous, incoherent sequels, but now by a third - Highlander:Endgame - which I think is the worst movie ever made. Endgame is by far the worst of these sequels. I am glad the writers chose to ignore Highlanders 2 and 3. However, this movie totally disregards anything that happened in the original movie(except for one character.) Kell who couldn't begin to hold a candle to Kurgan (the original Highlander villain) is a lousy villain made laughable by a LOT of overacting. The character of Faith is totally useless except for making Adrian Paul's character look like a jerk. And, did Christopher Lambert forget how to act over the years? The only good thing about this movie is the flashbacks showing the "strong" bond between the two Macleods, which is later turned into a farce. Even the one-time director (who should never direct again)had to agree to cut out several scenes including several of those shown in the movie's trailers, because Endgame just wasn't working the way he had hoped. Sequels to the original weren't the way to go. If they felt they wanted to make more money off of Highlander they should have looked at PREQUELS. Duhhh! It's working for George Lucas! "There can be only one". Well, there should have been. And as far as I'm concerned the original Highlander movie is it.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: If you like the tv show, then watch this movie!
Review: I thought that this movie was going to be total crap mainly because the last two Highlander movies were so godawful. I almost did not even go see it. I even had my gun ready when I went into the theater so that I could go shoot the writers after it was over. But it actually turned out to be a pretty good movie. It's not perfect. It should have been longer and had more detail to some of the stuff that happened in the movie, but overall it is really cool. The acting is great. Adrian Paul and Christopher Lambert are absolutely great together. I mean they are so great in this movie that it totally blows me away. The action scenes totally rule. The writers did a good job of bringing the movie and the tv series together. And the story is very moving and emotional. I even cried during this movie and I never cry at movies. I make fun of people who cry at movies. This movie isn't for anyone not already familiar with Highlander:The Series. There's things in the movie that you probably won't understand if you've never watched the series. And if you only liked the first movie and hated the series you probably won't like it either, but if you love the tv show as I do then Endgame is definitely worth watching. Oh and did I mention how totally cool Connor is in this movie. I mean I didn't used to be that big of a Connor fan, but I am now. Connor just totally rules in this movie. I know I sound like an idiot rambling on like this but I promise I'm not. I'm just rambling because I'm still in complete shock that the producers of Highlander finally made a good movie. So if you like the tv show, then WATCH THIS MOVIE!


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