Highlander: Endgame

    In the beginning, there could be only one.
    Secondly, there could be only a burrito-induced hallucination.
    Thirdly, there could be only a tepid-retelling of the first film.
    And finally... finally... there should be two.
    What am I talking about? Finally, there's a movie worth being called a Highlander film.
    Let's get the ratings out of the way, duuuuude.

    Gore: 6
    Schmaltz: 7
    Character Development: 8
    Sturgeon Principle: Upper 90th percentile

    I was deathly afraid that this was going to make the same mistake as Highlander: The Final Illus--er--The Sorcerer: forgetting that, despite the Gathering and the Prize and the Quickening and the blood-rain and the woo woo... (apologies to Dr Frink)... highlander was always a story about humans. It was a human drama and it concerned itself with asking the question 'what would ordinary people do if they woke up one day and discovered that they were infinitely prolonged and a part of some Game that they didn't understand'. We got to witness the progression from Connor as a frightened young man who is persecuted by those who do not understand him to the bitter, cynical man who lives within a society that has grown with him and become nearly as blase and laissez-faire as he (there's an entire cinematography essay to be had in the examination of parallel development of Connor and society. Ten points if you can work Queen into it at least twice). Highlander III forgot this, focusing far too much on superpowers and mystic going-ons and not near enough time on Connor, an adversary and those mortals caught between them (oh those things were there, they just did't get near enough screen-time for me to accept this as a Good Highlander film). The bar was set by the first movie, and until Endgame the bar had never been met.
    The TV series has never forgotten the human lesson, and I was quite a fan of said show until it became unavailable in my area (and thus I've seen precisely one episode of Raven). This film was meant to be a fusion of the movie and the series, which was not so daunting a task as one may think: the series had already done the hard work in retconning the ending of Highlander years earlier, giving all of us a chance to just accept this fact. When I saw the trailers to Endgame, it looked as though someone was trying to remake Sorcerer . There were images of the big bad guy being split in two... there were special effects... Adrian Paul said no lines whatsoever... it looked like the film makers hadn't learned a damned thing. So here's what I think happened...
    I believe that there is somewhere, in some vault, a contract sitting around that states that a small cabal (possibly funded by the Illuminatus... perhaps by the Masons... perhaps even by the Knights Templar...) is required by agreement binding to be allowed to make some part of each Highlander sequels suck hard vacuum. So the Powers That Be allowed this cabal to write the trailers and then sealed these people into small Prince Albert Tobacco cans and tossed them into the sea. Then they brought in the series writers and let them write the actual movie. And believe you me, this film rocks.
    A word of warning to purists and pundits; this film is more a Highlander: The Series movie than a pure Connor vehicle with Duncan guest-starring. Oh both Lambert and Paul get plenty of screen time, but in the end, it's the Series' trappings that really dress up this film. The Watchers are in here... so is Methos... Joe... heck, they brought all the toys out of the box for this movie! Fortunately, Richie is still dead. But the film is gorgeous. This film shows just how beautiful our Earth can be if the film makers are able to leave the virtual realm of CGI and just go shoot wherever on location they damned well please. There are plenty of flashbacks to the past and all of these (believe me, there are a lot of flashbacks. And they're densely packed, too. I did at one point find myself saying 'woo, beautiful, but um about that plot that you were... advancing... oh never mind') are beautiful and wonderfully period. Casting has been very well done and there's only one character who plays his character over the top -- I was waiting for him to start gnawing on the scenery, really -- and he only appears in just one scene. Restraint has been used here... look at the casting/directing for H2 and tell me that this doesn't work better?
    There's so much to say about this film, but most of it is a spoiler. And a film like this does not deserve to be spoilered. There are a few editing mistakes ('I told you I'm going to cut you'? Hunh?), but so few other flaws. The fight scenes are gorgeous. They're well-choreographed 'Now *THAT* is a lightsaber duel, Lucas' sword battles. And in a move that hasn't been made in years, one of the minor characters who struck me as being very interesting actually got some development time. I nearly fainted from the shock of this. The story held my interest....and I will say this, the film is not an Armageddon plot. It's not the end of the Immortals. The writers made the right choice in not retelling the ticking down of the clock of the original film -- the simply pitted two men against one another (and a man and a woman, sorta) and let the sparks fly from that. It's personal. It's graspable (more graspable than 'oh no, the world's ending!'). It's Highlander.
    And the ending made me damned well cry. The sheer beauty of the final scene and how it uses landscape to provide emotion is sheer, total, utter brilliance.

    I'd give it five swords, but there can be only one.

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