Directed by: Michael J. Bassett
Written by: Michael J. Bassett, Robert E. Howard
Starring: James Purefoy
Darkness is everywhere in the world, filled with tales of the devil and his evil followers: dark wizards, witches, the reaper, and demons. Only the saved or the good can survive. Those with pure souls, those with full intent of keeping promises and being true to their causes. This can be seen in “Solomon Kane,” a movie that was just a big dissapointment!
THE MOVIE
Beginning in time of war in the 19th century, Solomon Kane (James Purefoy) is a man with a soul full of greed and darkness. Killing is his nature, and power is his game. The story opens with his overtaking of a kingdom as he seeks a treasure. Sacrificing the lives of his crew, Kane makes it to his treasure, which is just a trap by the devil to have the reaper come collect Kane’s soul, and we then find that his soul is owned to the devil. Kane escaped and sought refuge in a monastery community for a year vowing to live a life of non violence and purity so that he can reclaim his soul. These first five minutes were sadly the most exciting part of the movie.
After a year’s time, Kane is evicted from the monastery and forced to live on his own. Keeping to his vows Kane is jumped by a band of misfits and is saved by a family who finds him beaten. He swears his loyalty to this family and joins them on their travels to make it to the New World.
Whilst the family is traveling, darkness is running across the land. A dark wizard is destroying villages and collecting followers, which is such a cliche for a movie like this. Anyways the family is attacked, and the daughter is taken while everyone else is slain. On her father’s request before death, Kane is sworn to retrieve the girl, and then his soul will truly be cleansed and the devil will not take him. That is basically the film, redemption through the fight against evil.
(5/10)
THE VIDEO
The video itself is shown in a widescreen presentation 2.35:1 on the Blu-Ray disc. Everything is in color and I can not even begin to express, this was the best part of the film. If it was not for the clarity of the film, I probably would of turned it off. Not to mention the angles at which many of the scenes were shot in were interesting and provided for a great visual look especially in action scenes. Special Effects were pretty good, better than the Scorpion King but not as good as Lord of the Rings.
(7/10)
THE AUDIO
The Audio had Master sound at 5.1, but for some reason this was such a difficult film to take seriously. The audio noise over some dialogue was distracting. It felt like there was no consistency in volume levels, especially within the first 30 minutes of the movie. I was very disappointed with the sound, it really hurt my opinion more than the actual story.
(4/10)
THE PACKAGING AND EXTRA FEATURES
This Movie comes in the standard Blu-Ray case wrapped in shiny plastic. The cover picture actually made me want to watch the film and is very interesting. Purefloy ( Solomon Kane), looks a lot like Hugh Jackman on the cover and the graphics are just outstanding. As far as the Extra Features, you are given director and actor commentaries as well as interviews, One deleted scene, which would have added nothing to the movie, and original art concepts. From the original art, a comic probably would have been better then the movie.
(6/10)
Overall(not an average)
I usually enjoy movies like this. The fantasy of it all, mixed with the action, has the potential to be so entertaining. The story itself was just lacking, or maybe the audio was just so bad that it ruined the story for me. Solomon Kane felt like a movie that was relying on special effects and action to make it good and it needed to be so much more. This film was just OK… I do not think high enough about it to suggest to my friends nor do I think I would watch it again.
(5/10)