SOLOMON KANE is a gritty fantasy
action picture. It is the story of how Captain Solomon Kane went from being a
murderous bad man to a puritanical avenger. It reminds me of the medieval
adventure films and 1980s films like CONAN THE BARBARIAN and CONAN THE DESTROYER.
Writer/ Director Michael J. Bassett weaves a dark tale during the 16th century that could take place in
the real world as Solomon Kane is trying to find peace for his damned soul which the devil wants. This origin tale is based on the puritanical avenger character created by Robert E. Howard (the creator
of Conan). I like how dark and gritty it is while mixing it in with a tale about
redemption and salvation. Solomon Kane wants hope, but sometimes he feels without
hope. He travels with a Puritan family (bound for the New World) as he tries to live a life without
doing violence. Events caused by the evil forces of the sorcerer Malachi forces
Solomon to take up weapons again as he tries to save the soul of a young Puritan woman based on a promise he swore to a dying
father.
The production design is great in this
movie and James Purefoy does wonders with what material there is for his character, but every character is underdeveloped
to one degree or another. Then the main villain Malachi shows up for one
scene at the end and you don’t get much sense on his minions other than they do evil things like burn towns, kill people,
and take slaves. I enjoyed the action, but I wish this movie had a more developed
story with some character development like developing the men seeking Solomon Kane’s help instead of them being just
one dimensional ciphers to help move the story along. You don’t really
care for many of the characters except for Kane and his quest to rescue Meredith.
I am glad I did finally see this movie that has been long delayed from release in the USA
and yet it doesn’t live up to the legend that grew around it not being released here since 2009.
SPECIAL FEATURES:
Feature Audio Commentary with Writer/ Director
Michael J. Bassett and star James Purefoy
THE MAKING OF SOLOMON KANE is an eleven
minute promotional featurette.
The deleted scene is a cave fight that
the director tried to keep in, but he cut it because he couldn’t have it with fit with the story he was telling in any
edit of SOLOMON KANE.
SPECIAL FX: THE CREATION OF THE FIRE DEMON
shows all of the elements that went into creating a CG Fire Demon.
The best extras are the interviews with
Writer/ Director Michael J. Bassett and star James Purefoy. Michael talks about
how he wanted to do a serious action picture and how this first SOLOM KANE movie is an origin story and he is excited to hopefully
make a couple of more fantasy adventure tales. James talks about the difficulty
of filming two of the scenes due to the cold Prague winter that the rain effects didn’t help (but he said added to the
weariness of the character) and what he did to get into the head of Solomon Kane (he read all of Robert E. Howard’s
books and poems in addition to reading about the Puritans).
Also included is the one minute gallery
of concept art and previews for other releases before the main menu.
FINAL ANALYSIS: SOLOMON KANE is a gritty fantasy adventure tale which manages to get over the hurdle that most origins
tales have, but I do wish they had more character development for the other characters besides just Solomon Kane. The movie doesn’t live up to the legend that built up since the release in other countries back in
2009.
This DVD review is (c)7-20-2013 David Blackwell and cannot be reprinted without permission. Send all comments to feedback@enterline-media.com
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