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Conan: The Current Movie in Progress.....


RexMundi

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Re: Conan: The Current Movie in Progress.....

 

It was a good Swords and Sorcery film, written by people who clearly had read the stories.

 

Its actual Conan-ness was fairly limited, of course.

 

I seem to recall Conan being white and having blue eyes, but Jason Momoa ticked every other box, including the ones that Ahnold didn't.

 

I think it was better than the 80s films. Not difficult, really.

 

I hate swords with multiple blades.

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Re: Conan: The Current Movie in Progress.....

 

They did the contacts thing in the movies, as for the Look, one of the reasons they wanted Momoa was his closer resemblance to the Frazetta art and some of REH's and the SSoC BWS descriptive elements of tanned and weathered. Heh, at least with Momoa, you don't have to hit the guy with the spray on Tan. :D

 

~Rex......Still thinks there is a way to go until we get our Real Conan flick but it's moving in the right direction.....Also hates Multiple Blade Swords, unless of course, it's in Sword and the Sorcerer. :D

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Re: Conan: The Current Movie in Progress.....

 

ZuSHA!

 

I'll stab you with my dagger, ay?

 

That's a small threat. A very small threat.

 

A friend of mine who whose about fighting with swords (and has a sizeable collection of functional ones) says that you don't need a big blade on a knife - all the targets you need to hit are only 4 to 6 inches inside the body.

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Re: Conan: The Current Movie in Progress.....

 

A friend of mine who whose about fighting with swords (and has a sizeable collection of functional ones) says that you don't need a big blade on a knife - all the targets you need to hit are only 4 to 6 inches inside the body.

 

It wasn't a knife he was talking about. ;)

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Re: Conan: The Current Movie in Progress.....

 

Momoa delivered a decent Conan but it would have been better with blue eye lens and 20 more pounds of muscle. Not really a fatal flaw (I mean who can reallly play characters like Conan or Bruce Wayne) but althought entertaining, I though the flow of the story and the transitions from scene to scene were very poor. It made the scenario feel forced.

 

On the plus side I quite liked the costumes and some of the shots were stunning. I got a bit annoyed when Conan drops Tamara in front of his city and there is no one around even if it is full daylight! For such a big city, I would expect people flocking to it. It just felt dead.

 

All in all, I am glad I saw it but I probably won't buy the Blu-Ray or watch it again.

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Re: Conan: The Current Movie in Progress.....

 

My posted review (on a review site):

 

I really wanted to like this movie more than I did, and perhaps I was not being fair as I watched, comparing it to the original it is supposed to top (otherwise why bother), but the only place in which this movie succeeded was in art direction, and even that was marred by some really bad choices for camera work and editing.

 

The camera is being shot in 'documentary' style handheld (even though technically it may not have been handheld, the screen is still bobbing all over the place) Ultra fast action cutting (a style of action shooting/editing developed because it permits shooting with incompetent fighters and their incompetence is not obvious because no one can get a clear clear look at what is happening), when that is combined with a 3D screen, the end result is that I had absolutely no idea what was happening on screen whenever there was action, and that was most of the time. Action most of the time because, as much as the original was panned for lack of story, the plot of this story I could write into a single paragraph.

 

And as much as the critics panned Arnie for his acting in the original, he was a far more convincing actor there than his wannabe here. The original's soundtrack was a masterpiece, this one's was utterly forgettable. I could go on, but this movie is not worth more of my time. This will probably be my biggest disappointment of the year.

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Re: Conan: The Current Movie in Progress.....

 

OK, finally got to go see this today.

It generally met my expectations.

Jason Momoa pretty much nailed the Conan I've been rereading these last few months, with the possible exception being the whole thing was a bit light on the "Crom!"s. I suspect that was due to Arnie's swearing the same being a major component of the more unintentionally funny scenes from the earlier films.

I'd say the fight choreography caught the REH feel well. I thought they did a good job conveying the whole Cimmeran "The man is the weapon, his strength, his cunning and his will: the sword is just a tool." philosophy without wasting a lot of dialog on it (The fact that the bad guys advocated such in the original movie is what I consider to be one of it's most non-REH aspects). Both Momoa and the kid they got to play his younger self did a great job with it. It was like Violence Parkour, exactly what I'd expect from Conan. Supreme opportunistic fighting. Kind of reminded me of the woods fight from Last of the Mohicians.

 

Speaking of Young Conan, I really dug that kid. He had great emotional intensity. Hope this opens some doors for him.

 

Howard-esque touches I liked

-The occasional name dropping was inevitable, but I enjoyed it nevertheless

-The supernatural bits were Lovecraftian in feel

-The costuming (and occasional lack thereof. The slaves and dancing girls were pure Howard).

-The sets & setting

-Devolved sub-human warriors who haven't managed to re-evolve speech

-The carnage

 

It tracks as a remake of the Conan movie rather than gestalt of Howard stories, but I kinda figured that was inevitable, to ease movie fans into the stylistic transition from the more Marvel Conan approach of the 80s movies to the Howard paradigm.

 

That said... I thought the writing lacked oomph, the sound editing was pretty poor... a lot of lines were hard to hear or unclear, and that's not the actors fault anymore unless you're watching live.

The Original Movie soundtrack/score is both iconic and stirringly appropriate, and I wish they'd used it as a leitmotif.

Arnie got a lot more quotable lines, but they were written that way specifically for him, the format they used in Terminator to minimize the impact of his accent, and whose success led to Arnie's particular "catchphrase" acting style. Even so, the writing in the first movie had a bit more dramatic impact. No single line in the new movie stuck with the kind of impact as, say "Contemplate your sins upon the tree of woe."

I think Rose McGowan's costume and character design actually hindered her performance in the role. It was a bit too impractical for my tastes... I saw a couple of points where her fetish boots almost caused a tumble, and I'm kinda glad that the obvious weakness in her fighting style was her downfall, as it sorta hangs a lampshade on the whole thing.

 

I'll be buying a copy, and hoping for an unrated extended edition and a lot of behind the scenes extras

I was glad to see, when looking up showing times, that it has a Yahoo Movies rating of B. I'd really like to see what they'd do with the remaining two movies they have planned.

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Re: Conan: The Current Movie in Progress.....

 

I think it's a case of overload. Yes' date=' Conan fought demons, giant apes, big snakes, giant spiders, and so on... but not all at once. [/quote']

 

A fair observation. The REH stories pretty much follow the "monster of the week" paradigm.

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Re: Conan: The Current Movie in Progress.....

 

Momoa delivered a decent Conan but it would have been better with blue eye lens and 20 more pounds of muscle. Not really a fatal flaw (I mean who can reallly play characters like Conan or Bruce Wayne)...

 

On this, I disagree. Not with the fact that virtually no one can play comic-book balloon muscle men. This is very true. But with the fact that Conan is supposed to be a comic book balloon muscle man. In the REH stories, at least, he's described a being packed with lean, pantherish muscle. He's not really supposed to be a so-much-muscle-it-will-slow-you-down steroid quaffing Mr. Universe champion. Mamoa's build was fine, IMO.

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Re: Conan: The Current Movie in Progress.....

 

REH even tells you exactly How Tall and how much Conan Weighed. Momoa was actually an Inch Taller and 5 pounds heavier.

 

~Rex....still enjoyed the movie, has sent off the "here is what you should have done" emails of course and is waiting for the DvD.

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Re: Conan: The Current Movie in Progress.....

 

Ah' date=' well, there's your problem -- your comic has contacted Liefeld.[/quote']

That can't possibly be a Liefield drawing. The feet are the same size, the eyes are on the same level and the angle of the upper chest is more vertical than horizontal.

 

edit: Well, then there's the demon-possessed hair...

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Re: Conan: The Current Movie in Progress.....

 

But we digress.

 

Personally, I liked the movie, and will get it on DvD soon-ish. Also looking forward to further installments. Wasn't quite as "Conan" as I'd have liked, but still solid S&S fare. Will be picking up the score as well.

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