Opening everywhere Friday,
September 1
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FF
For Centuries
Immortals have lived silently among us. No
one knew they were here except the Watchers
who observe and record and are bound by oath
never to interfere.
The Immortal's
struggle is one fought through the ages where
the stroke of a sword can end life forever
with the fall of a head, releasing the power
of the Quickening.
In an irresistable
pull to participate in this life and death
Game, the Rules of engagement are instinctive.
No immortal can fight on Holy Ground. No
immortal can interfere once battle has begun.
The fight is one on one.
And for every
immortal, the final goal, to win an enigmatic
Prize, if only they can survive to the last....
In the end there
can be only one!
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MOVIE SPOILERS BELOW
ENDGAME REVIEWS
Highlander Endgame
Not a Simple Tale
by Gemma Mac
Seldom are life's twists and
turns ever neatly tied together with all the t's
crossed and the i's dotted. Some fairytales may end
happily ever after but some of them are bittersweet
and then there is always a lesson or moral to convey.
Highlander Endgame is not a fluffy, feel good movie
but one of those bittersweet tales. It's as tragic
and brooding as the history of the land that brought
the legend to life. The movie reflects the myth's
dark themes with haunting Scottish landscapes and an
even more haunting and beautiful celtic melody
running through it. As in life not everything fits
neatly into our own concept of what *should* be. Not
everything that should be is, nor is it always fair.
This is part of the legacy of Highlander. There is
tragedy, conflict, revenge, suffering and often a
search for things like truth, justice, redemption and
forgiveness.
As a fan, I went to see the movie with friends and an
enormous amount of expectation. For any devoted
Highlander fan seeing this movie for the first time,
there are obvious great high hopes for a story that
has everything you've loved about the movies and the
series. Endgame has this and more. The story and
characters are rich, deep and not simplistic. However,
they deserved much more attention and development
than this movie took the time to give them. Even so,
no movie is ever perfect and there is a lot to like
about Highlander Endgame.
The main focus of this story is the relationship
between Connor and Duncan. Two Highlanders, kinsman
by choice, not blood, and friends and allies to the
end. Their relationship is unique in an immortal game
where it's usually every man for himself. Also, in
four and five hundred years, as you can imagine,
there would be at least one or two skeletons in these
heroes' closets and sooner or later there would be a
reckoning. In this story, the two Highlander's past
misdeeds become fatefully intertwined.
The villain of this piece is Jacob Kell (Bruce Payne),
an immortal himself, who holds a 500 year old grudge
against Connor for killing the old priest who raised
him like a son. Kell, also a priest, is left to go on
without the guidance of his priest father, and is
left in a vacuum filled with hate, revenge and a
faith that obviously becomes corrupted over the
centuries into a cult-like belief. In the present, he
has gathered a group of immortals loyal only to him.
There are also the Watchers, mortals who watch and
observe Immortals, and a place called The Sanctuary
where renagade watchers hope to safeguard the Prize.
Great stuff and a great villain. This is where I wish
the editors would have given just a little bit more
attention to detail instead of cutting. Kell and his
followers were so wonderfully intriguing and we
needed to know why they were so devoted to him and
put their lives so totally in his hands.
Action? You want action, you say? Well, Endgame has
no shortage of some very good action. There are
beautifully choreographed sword fights and a scene
where Duncan fights against Kell's band of assasins
that is really spectacular. Donnie Yen's all to brief
appearance as Jin Ke, one of Kell's followers, is
memorable and you can't help but think that this won't
be the last film this talented martial artist and
actor will be making this side of Hong Kong. One of
the standout scenes in this movie is the one in which
Duncan is surrounded by Kell's posse and fights them
off, ending in hand to hand combat with Yen's
character. Adrian Paul's martial arts skills were
apparent and beautifully executed throughout this
scene and the rest of the movie.
According to Duncan's Watcher friends, Joe Dawson and
the enigmatic Methos (also immortal), Kell has
garnered 661 kills in his immortal life (more than
Duncan and Connor combined) and all those Quickenings
have made him a very powerful adversary. Kell's evil
as a villain in this case doesn't only come from his
being a very powerful immortal but also from what
seems to be a god complex and his intense hatred over
the years of Connor MacLeod. Revenge is Kell's motive
for wanting everyone around Connor dead so that he is
left utterly alone just as Kell was those 500 years
ago when Connor killed his father. In the end and in
Kell's dreams, Connor alone, tormented and already
defeated by life, would be his great prize.
Duncan's past mistakes come back to haunt him in the
person of Kate, someone he married centuries earlier.
Somehow, she is now Faith and a follower of Kell.
There is a good story going on here and a bittersweet
resolution in the present day. Adrian Paul and Lisa
Barbuscia are well worth watching on the big screen.
I have to give credit to the writers and director for
one of the most sensitive, dignified and beautiful
love scenes I've seen on screen in a long time. It
was not a torrid, gratuitous scene. It was tender and
passionate. The progression of the scene was so
natural that any nudity was second to the story at
hand. We see in flashback how Duncan wrongs Kate. For
Duncan and Kate/Faith this was a joining of past and
present, a wedding night and a re-union and a
reckoning.
Kate and Duncan's lovemaking on their wedding night
was a true and loving sacrament that ends tragically
and in the present is an effort at forgiveness and
redemption. That last look at Faith's face in the
elevator, is one of hope and forgiveness. Hope for
Duncan that there is tomorrow for both of them and
forgiveness of his past actions. As with all things
Highlander, moments of joy can be shortlived when
immortality comes into play. Tragedy can often
surface in hard fashion and it does here as well.
The most perfectly written, acted and directed parts
of the movie are those dealing with Duncan and Connor's
relationship. We see Christopher Lambert as Connor as
well as Adrian Paul as Duncan at their absolute best.
In one instance he is Duncan's brother/kinsman and
his father leading him and guiding him into something
that had to be because he saw no other way out. The
rooftop scene was so intense and powerful and true to
the Highlander story in every way. There was nothing
about it that was trite, trivial or lacking. It was
drama at it's best.
Duncan tries so hard to get out of this and at one
point he panics and he's begging Connor, "NO
Connor, not like this." Connor has him trapped
in a sword hold and with the authority of a father he
yells "Duncan!" and Duncan ceases to
struggle and calms down a little to listen to his
mentor, brother and father. There is such a tender,
beautiful moment then between the two of them. It
couldn't have been done any better and Christopher
Lambert and Adrian Paul gave outstanding performances
here and throughout this film. Connor's passing was
so heroic that I have very little else in movie
history with which to compare it.
Kata? You said you want a kata? Beautifully filmed,
Adrian Paul's sword kata is simple understated
elegance and pure poetry to watch onscreen as is
every other scene he is in. Duncan prepares for the
final battle with Kell and what an encounter it is.
Intense action follows with a villain so sure of
himself and his superiority that you almost believe
Duncan won't make it out of this alive.
If this movie is about passing the torch from
Christopher Lambert to Adrian Paul then I don't think
they could have chosen a more worthy person for the
job. The camera loves Adrian Paul and he is the next
leading man Hollywood is looking for.
Endgame is a great story but at times it's as if
someone tried to stuff a size 12 foot into a size 10
shoe. Trying to force a movie like Highlander Endgame
to fit into 85 minutes is a real tragedy. Endgame is
a story that has complicated twists and turns and
substories and plots. Nothing that is to complicated
for anyone to understand but you have to take the
time to connect the dots for a smooth flow through
the story. That's the art and passion of Highlander
and the obsession for it's fans. I wish someone at
Dimension would have understood that and given it a
little more thought. I can only imagine what a few
minutes more here and there would have done for this
movie. That's all it would have taken.
Some critics reviewing Endgame have never gotten
Highlander in the past and won't try now but when a
movie series has developed a fan following for 15
years there must be something to this fascination
with the Highlander story. For instance, I've read
some critics say that the movie jumps back and forth
in time and is confusing, making it hard to follow.
This plot device using flashbacks is one of the
things Highlander is known for. Knowing this is a
story about immortals, it doesn't take a lot of
thought to figure out that a pause on a face or an
object like a sword in the present and then a
flashback to a different time and place with the same
person or object, means that there is some history or
relationship there. The Immortals sometimes bring
their emotional baggage with them hundreds of years
into the present which makes for interesting stories
and a look back into history but whether or not it
all fits depends a lot on editing.
Then we have some furious fan reviews out there on
the internet which are grossly unfair since it seems
that people are getting caught up in an atmosphere of
competition, trying to out-do each other to see who
can give the most loathsome witty commentary on this
movie. There is no objectivity or fairness to this
and the movie truly doesn't deserve it. Also,
preconcieved ideas and intense expectations come into
play here as well. What movie could live up to every
single expectation from the fans.
The movie could have been a little longer and
more smoothly put together. It is flawed but what is
there is not just good, it's great. The development
of the relationship between Connor and Duncan alone
is worth the price of a ticket a dozen times over. So
is watching Adrian Paul on the big screen. He lights
up every scene he is in throughout this movie. The
action is worth seeing as well. The film score
reinforces the story with it's beautiful celtic music
both traditional and contemporary and the
cinematography is breathtaking. The overall look of
the movie, settings and sets were well put together and they worked. There is a
lot to like about this movie but don't take my word
for it, go and see it for yourself.
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