So, I finally watched Highlander 3, which, until recently, was the only legitimate Highlander film that I hadn't seen. (Compare with "The Source", which I saw, and then immediately wished to forget.) I was both pleasantly surprised and kind of disappointed.
On the one hand, it felt much closer to the original film than Highlander 2, or even The Series. Along with the return of Christopher Lambert as Connor (The REAL Highlander) McLeod, the tone and direction of the film follow the darker tone of the movie, with more stuff happening at night and in New York. On the other hand, it actually felt a little more R-rated than the first movie, featuring not one, not two, but THREE sex scenes, and more F-bombs than I remember being in the first one.
Also interesting to note is the villain, Kane (played by Mario Van Peebles). Clancy Brown as the Kurgan from "Highlander" was one of my favorite movie villains. He just seemed to enjoy being evil so much. Kane, especially at first, can tend to come off as a stand-in for Kurgan, with the same raspy voice and psycho mannerisms, but slightly less interesting. The differences are mainly that Kane has magic powers (WooooOOOOoooo) and somehow manages to seem less honorable than Kurgan. Also, if you don't think he's a Kurgan stand in, just watch the scene where he kidnaps Connor's adopted son. It's almost a total replay of Kurgan's kidnapping in the first film.
All the negatives aside, this movie DID feel like a reasonable sequel to the first movie, even if it didn't evoke the cultish awesomeness that the original had. It mainly re-hashes the plot of the first movie. (Bad guy kills Connor's mentor in the past and returns to hunt him down in present day. Connor meets history buff/girl who discovers he is immortal, they do it, Connor fights bad guy, with several flashes back to Connor's history in-between.) I think this is both the film's best and worst point.
They do re-use the formula, but bear in mind that "Highlander" was a good movie, so more of it isn't necessarily a bad thing. This does, however, relegate it to a secondary status, falling just a bit short of that which it intends to emulate.
In the end, Highlander 3 wasn't bad, and most fans of the series will find something to like here (assuming you have the tolerance for/ability to ignore the sex & stuff). If you are less into the Highlander franchise as a whole, though, you could just watch the original. It's similar, but it has Clancy Brown and Queen, making it a generally better movie.
Saturday, January 14, 2012
Tuesday, August 2, 2011
Setting The Standard
As you may or may not know, I recently got my PC for college. While I am loath to use a Microsoft machine, there was one upshot to this scenario: I could finally access that backlog of PC games that wouldn't work on my Mac.For the past few weeks, I have been playing Half-Life, Deus Ex, Tomb Raider, etc. whatever would run.
Just today, I got a PC copy of Halo.
I hadn't played Halo in a while (what with the broken Xbox and all), but coming back to it after a run of pre-1999 games, it was shocking how different Halo seemed. I was reminded of the first time I played it: The setting drew me in, the story seemed fresh, but most of all, the gameplay was totally different, which brings me to my point.
The way games are today, you forget what a game changer Halo was. The AI squads, the regenerating health, the two-at-a-time weapons: we expect most of these features in games today, but back then it was crazy stuff. Players had become accustomed to carrying upwards of 10 weapons at a time. What kind of person would think a limit of 2 was a good idea? Health packs were an idea that had been accepted for years. Nobody even bothered to think of removing them. As it turned out, these touches not only worked, but were copied by nearly every new game since.
Now, mostly, I just wanted to mention how cool the first Halo was. The series has become a standard , and many (like myself) had become tired with it. It's easy to forget, though, what a huge leap Halo was back in the day. If I were to drop some obligatory moral to this tale, though, I would just emphasize how important it is not to get constrained by what is "current" or "standard". When Bungie released Halo, they changed nearly every accepted aspect of shooter games, something I'd like to see more of in an age where games are classified based on how similar they are to COD or even Halo itself. If somebody hadn't bothered to switch things up, who knows what kind of games we'd be playing right now. I'm glad someone decided to reinvent the wheel.
Just today, I got a PC copy of Halo.
I hadn't played Halo in a while (what with the broken Xbox and all), but coming back to it after a run of pre-1999 games, it was shocking how different Halo seemed. I was reminded of the first time I played it: The setting drew me in, the story seemed fresh, but most of all, the gameplay was totally different, which brings me to my point.
The way games are today, you forget what a game changer Halo was. The AI squads, the regenerating health, the two-at-a-time weapons: we expect most of these features in games today, but back then it was crazy stuff. Players had become accustomed to carrying upwards of 10 weapons at a time. What kind of person would think a limit of 2 was a good idea? Health packs were an idea that had been accepted for years. Nobody even bothered to think of removing them. As it turned out, these touches not only worked, but were copied by nearly every new game since.
Now, mostly, I just wanted to mention how cool the first Halo was. The series has become a standard , and many (like myself) had become tired with it. It's easy to forget, though, what a huge leap Halo was back in the day. If I were to drop some obligatory moral to this tale, though, I would just emphasize how important it is not to get constrained by what is "current" or "standard". When Bungie released Halo, they changed nearly every accepted aspect of shooter games, something I'd like to see more of in an age where games are classified based on how similar they are to COD or even Halo itself. If somebody hadn't bothered to switch things up, who knows what kind of games we'd be playing right now. I'm glad someone decided to reinvent the wheel.
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