|
|
I grew up in the 80's and the first genre as well as my second favorite is fantasy. This was a perfect decade for it because the fantasy genre back then was a new trend and rapidly on the rise from games, toys, TV shows, and movies. This under the radar cult gem was one of the ones that popped out, and one of the first fantasy films I was into as a kid, I was a fan of the "He-Man" cartoon series in the 80's on a side note so you can see what a joy it was seeing this.
Yeah, this film is not on the same level as the "Lord of the Rings", "Bezerk" or even "Game of Thrones" but it's not trying to be, it sets itself to be what it wants to be plain fun. The story isn't deep, but that's a good thing it's not trying to be complicated just a typical fantasy revenge story that we've seen many times.
It had a low budget but they used it well, it really looks like great effort was put into creating the fantasy world. From the castle, caverns, and anything else it looks very good and real because everything is practical. Where most of our current movies make the mistake of overusing CGI technology and everything looks phony.
Characters are good if not deep. Talon I though was a good protagonist, has a little charisma a bit sympathetic since he lost his family and kingdom when he was a kid but has grown up to be a tough as nails mercenary that doesn't take crap from no one. I also like how in some points he has to use his brain a bit to win. Like one scene where there were multiple evil solders and he touches all of them because logically he's never be able to cut all of them down on time.
Cromwell is a good villain, he mensing and he's a power mongering butt head you love to dislike. Though the one villain I like the most is the Sourcerer himself played by Richard Moll (voice of Two Face from "Batman the Animated Series") despite not in the film that long. Like the make up work on him, he's a humanoid reptilian kinda like the super villain The Lizard on the "Spider Man" comic book series. Really can make you nervous from his ability to rip hearts out with his magic but mainly that voice and how he delivers his lines.
The action is very good and well choreographed, from swords shooting out at evil solders, to a big battle and final fight. I even like the blood effects, there isn't a great amount of blood but enough to satisfy me, let alone this is one of the only fantasy film that have this and personally I which more fantasy films in the future will think of touching upon this. The score is also very good it's memorable, it has an epic adventurous swashbuckling tone.
And of course the main highlight of the film is the triple bladed sword, which to me is one of my favorite fictional weapons. I really like the design of it, it's the sword that's practically a weapon within a weapon. You can swing with it and it's blades can break multiple opponent's swords, probably even kill multiple people. Shoot blades out if opponents are a distance though one thing I always wondered is how does he reload it and if he has extra blades at hand, and if his middle sword blade breaks he can take the blade out and have a knife. However this is my only fault with the film, he doesn't use that weapon enough, I wish there were more scenes where we saw him use it but oh well. Another problem I have was this film didn't become a franchise it was setting itself out to be and I'm not exactly sure why, it would of been cool seeing Talon fight against demons, dragons, and other creatures with that sword, but it didn't happen which is a lost opportunity and shame.
Overall, "The Sword and the Sourcerer" is a fun fantasy film, so give this film a swing.
Rating: 3 stars
score 8/10
hellraiser7 19 February 2012
Reprint: https://www.imdb.com/review/rw2568799/ |
|
25-8-2020 02:53:09