Friday, July 24, 2009

Highlander The Search For Vengeance


"The Search for Vengeance" is made of equal parts: present-story and back-story, with sudden, unexpected transitions between the present and the past. The story is about Colin MacLeod, once a Scottish ruler, now a merciless immortal looking for vengeance. During a battle against the Roman Empire, he is left for dead by the emperor, Octavius, the man that killed his wife, but is given the power of immortality. The only bad thing is that although he is immortal, he can still feel the pain, and also, he will lose the immortality once his head is cut off.

Now in a post-apocalyptic New York City, our hero arrives on the scene and joins rebel Dahlia and an underground band of freedom fighters in a desperate battle against Octavius, who is now a dictator and rules the city with his army of robotic sentinels and scientists working on some top-secret project that are meant to wipe out the underground resistance once and for all. In these battles, we also get flashbacks to Colin's past, the battles he's fought with Octavius, and his undying love for his wife, Moya. The one thing I actually liked about this movie was the visual production. I rarely was pulled out of the visuals to question or second guess what was done.
The vocals and soundtrack were good, but not stunning. It was clear, and the emotions came through at the right times. Considering the great visuals, the sound was a crap in comparison.
The plot was decent. It started well. The potential for interesting characters was there at every turn. But they didn't integrate into the Highlander mythology well at all. We have Colin as the Protagonist, and Marcus as the Antagonist, are both just cardboard cutouts. Worse, Marcus is cut from better cardboard than Colin. He at least has a Darth Vader imperial feel that doesn't need much explaining. He is also this typical bad boy sexy dude that will have you falling for him, although he will be cutting kitties while punching babies in the face. Colin is a young goof at the beginning, and has grown into an old, angry, and bitter goof by the time the action of the film picks up. Even his guardian angel that gave him the immortality points this out. I just was not impressed by his story, or the general arc of this film.


Graphics 8.5/10
Sound 8/10
Storyline 7.5/10
Characters 8/10
Overall 8/10

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