Post by Redmage on Aug 22, 2011 13:42:56 GMT -5
In defense of my man Conan and the new movie, I’m going to go over my thoughts of the movie from a comic book and novel view.
When I first saw the trailers, I didn’t get excited but I was hoping for the best. I did not want to like this new version as I have read the books, comics and saw the movies and figured it was as good as it gets. This Conan stands on his own and this movie is more accurate and truer to the original Robert E. Howard book and comics. I watched it at midnight, with much eagerness.
Morgan Freeman does the intro narration which was nice. Jason Momoa, who admittedly read Conan but did not watch Conan, wanted to bring the character to life NOT be a Arnold Schwarzenegger knockoff, he did a good job.
I was very excited when they introduced things that had a history within the past story, such as the Dweller of the Deep, the Picts, the Elephants Heart, the locations and mention of some ancient history.
This film is a new version of Conan and not in any way related to the past films. The past films were of an older more skilled Conan, while this one was as a younger more untrained Conan.
One thing that I must point out is that Conan does not do groups. He is a loner. He may travel for a while with a party, but he will separate and meet back up with them after he has accomplished his task. He did that and I appreciate that because in the previous movies they gave him a group which was not his style.
As an avid reader of the comics and books, I feel that this new movie version was made from that view, not the view of the past movies. Don’t get me wrong, I like Arnold as an actor playing Conan for the movie role, but he was not Conan. There are so many inconsistencies in the past movies that make it a movie version alone.
Conan in the old movies with Arnold was much older than Conan in the new movie with Jason Momoa. Arnold’s Conan had already had training as a fighter, gladiator, warrior, samurai, etc. So he was well skilled with all weapons and well skilled at fighting anything and everyone. For example, Young Conan refused to use a bow and arrow, saying it was a woman’s weapon, however the older Conan could shoot an antenna of a fly. This Conan wasn’t even a good thief yet, unlike the other Conan who was a great thief and would not need a lock picker.
Conan is a brute, not just a barbarian, he is dirty, grimy and he is not one to fawn over women. He has a one track mind and saving damsels and getting treasure is his thing. He will give up gold to try to save a damsel if he thinks he will get lucky. However, he knows that women come a dime a dozen. He can go to any tavern and get a flagon of ale and a wench to warm his bed for the night for the right coin. Until a woman can prove to him that she is able to handle herself he will treat her in kind.
The fact that Tamara was a descendent of the bloodline of Acheron meant nothing to him. He helped her because she was a means to an end, she was nothing more than bait. Khalar Zym was looking for the Acheronian necromancers last descendant and she was it, Conan was going to use that to his advantage AND he was going to get some. Yes their romance was lame, but I think the mistake is that people call it romance, it was a one night stand. Conan was not planning on going steady.
What must be remembered is that all of Conan’s tales are a slice of his life. Some of them take place over a few hours, some over a few days, some over several months, but they are all things that lead him into a situation that he probably shouldn’t have been in anyways. He does not think things through to the end. He will jump into a situation and make plans to get out as he goes.
In explaining why this villain had to die the way he did; Conan was young and although he was good as a fighter, he was not yet a great fighter. Khalar Zym would have killed Conan in a straight one on one fight, which he proved at the Shaipur Outpost. Did you see the way he handled the double-bladed parallel scimitar? Yea, she poisoned him, but Conan would have still had a better fight from the beginning. He had his butt handed to him.
The final fight, Conan used the same tactic that his own father used to stop him from attacking when he was a boy, hot-tempered and stubborn. His father broke the ice sending him into the freezing water just as Conan broke the bridge sending Zym to the fiery hell. I absolutely love James Earl Jones as Thulsa Doom, but he can never hold his own in a sword fight with Conan. Conan could barely beat Khalar Zym in a simple fight, image how powerful Zym is with the mask…
Magic in Conan’s time is subtle, it’s more about summoning demons and devils to aid sorcerers and grant them power. They perform sacrifices and rituals to gain magic from foul creatures who they try to control to do their bidding. There are no actual fireballs and magic spells like in Harry Potter. Conan hated magic users as did many citizens in the Hyborian Age. Sorcerers are not the most popular citizens and many had to keep their distance from large cities and build their towers in lost and hard to find place.
All that said, Conan is about typical good vs evil stories. He wins in the end and sometimes his companions live and sometimes they die. Tamara just happened to live.
When I first saw the trailers, I didn’t get excited but I was hoping for the best. I did not want to like this new version as I have read the books, comics and saw the movies and figured it was as good as it gets. This Conan stands on his own and this movie is more accurate and truer to the original Robert E. Howard book and comics. I watched it at midnight, with much eagerness.
Morgan Freeman does the intro narration which was nice. Jason Momoa, who admittedly read Conan but did not watch Conan, wanted to bring the character to life NOT be a Arnold Schwarzenegger knockoff, he did a good job.
I was very excited when they introduced things that had a history within the past story, such as the Dweller of the Deep, the Picts, the Elephants Heart, the locations and mention of some ancient history.
This film is a new version of Conan and not in any way related to the past films. The past films were of an older more skilled Conan, while this one was as a younger more untrained Conan.
One thing that I must point out is that Conan does not do groups. He is a loner. He may travel for a while with a party, but he will separate and meet back up with them after he has accomplished his task. He did that and I appreciate that because in the previous movies they gave him a group which was not his style.
As an avid reader of the comics and books, I feel that this new movie version was made from that view, not the view of the past movies. Don’t get me wrong, I like Arnold as an actor playing Conan for the movie role, but he was not Conan. There are so many inconsistencies in the past movies that make it a movie version alone.
Conan in the old movies with Arnold was much older than Conan in the new movie with Jason Momoa. Arnold’s Conan had already had training as a fighter, gladiator, warrior, samurai, etc. So he was well skilled with all weapons and well skilled at fighting anything and everyone. For example, Young Conan refused to use a bow and arrow, saying it was a woman’s weapon, however the older Conan could shoot an antenna of a fly. This Conan wasn’t even a good thief yet, unlike the other Conan who was a great thief and would not need a lock picker.
Conan is a brute, not just a barbarian, he is dirty, grimy and he is not one to fawn over women. He has a one track mind and saving damsels and getting treasure is his thing. He will give up gold to try to save a damsel if he thinks he will get lucky. However, he knows that women come a dime a dozen. He can go to any tavern and get a flagon of ale and a wench to warm his bed for the night for the right coin. Until a woman can prove to him that she is able to handle herself he will treat her in kind.
The fact that Tamara was a descendent of the bloodline of Acheron meant nothing to him. He helped her because she was a means to an end, she was nothing more than bait. Khalar Zym was looking for the Acheronian necromancers last descendant and she was it, Conan was going to use that to his advantage AND he was going to get some. Yes their romance was lame, but I think the mistake is that people call it romance, it was a one night stand. Conan was not planning on going steady.
What must be remembered is that all of Conan’s tales are a slice of his life. Some of them take place over a few hours, some over a few days, some over several months, but they are all things that lead him into a situation that he probably shouldn’t have been in anyways. He does not think things through to the end. He will jump into a situation and make plans to get out as he goes.
In explaining why this villain had to die the way he did; Conan was young and although he was good as a fighter, he was not yet a great fighter. Khalar Zym would have killed Conan in a straight one on one fight, which he proved at the Shaipur Outpost. Did you see the way he handled the double-bladed parallel scimitar? Yea, she poisoned him, but Conan would have still had a better fight from the beginning. He had his butt handed to him.
The final fight, Conan used the same tactic that his own father used to stop him from attacking when he was a boy, hot-tempered and stubborn. His father broke the ice sending him into the freezing water just as Conan broke the bridge sending Zym to the fiery hell. I absolutely love James Earl Jones as Thulsa Doom, but he can never hold his own in a sword fight with Conan. Conan could barely beat Khalar Zym in a simple fight, image how powerful Zym is with the mask…
Magic in Conan’s time is subtle, it’s more about summoning demons and devils to aid sorcerers and grant them power. They perform sacrifices and rituals to gain magic from foul creatures who they try to control to do their bidding. There are no actual fireballs and magic spells like in Harry Potter. Conan hated magic users as did many citizens in the Hyborian Age. Sorcerers are not the most popular citizens and many had to keep their distance from large cities and build their towers in lost and hard to find place.
All that said, Conan is about typical good vs evil stories. He wins in the end and sometimes his companions live and sometimes they die. Tamara just happened to live.
