Highlander - Die Quelle der Unsterblichkeit

"Highlander: The Source" is to "Highlander: Endgame" what "Highlander II" is to "Highlander".

I really liked "Endgame", I thought it was a good way to continue the story set by the TV Series and Adrian Paul proved a more than worthy successor to Christopher Lambert. However, "The Source", which has been in the vaults of Lionsgate since late 2006 is a bitter disappointment.

The first cut of the film has been released on DVD in Russia. I ordered a copy from XploitedCinema.com (a great website, BTW) and watched it last night.

Initial fears were realised when it was revealed that the film was set "In The Near Future", which stirred up bad memories of "Highlander II". The premise of the movie and the motivation of the characters is poorly explained and the execution is rushed, which is very disorientating for the viewer. However, I will try to sum up the plot as succinctly as I can.

A group of Immortals, led by Methos (Peter Wingfield) are trying to locate and verify the existence of The Source, which is believed to be the origins of the Immortals. Methos is reluctant to involve his former good friend, Duncan MacLeod (Adrian Paul), but is forced to when Duncan encounters The Guardian, the Immortal Anti-Christ, while searching for his ex-wife, Anna, who is somehow drawn to The Source.

The Source, good. The Guardian, bad. Got it? Speaking of The Guardian being bad, it's really hard to fear a villain when they talk in a funny voice and act like a complete tool.

The Director, Brett Leonard, overuses trendy editing techniques that modern filmmakers are so eager to apply, giving it a "music video" style, essentially making the direction seem trite and cheap.

The sad thing is that this film has/had potential. While I'm glad to hear that it is currently being re-edited before a general release, I fear that without some re-filming, which I believe is not happening, certain flaws can never be rectified.

Overall, "Highlander: The Source" is a great disappointment, especially to a fan of the Movies and the TV Series.

Highlander fans - there simply are very few ways to enjoy this. Aside from totally ignoring the mythology of both the films and the series, the fight scenes were either poorly choreographed, poorly shot, or both. There are no flashbacks in a film that desperately needed some sort of underlying sub-plot and/or simple explanation of the main plot. The dialogue is cheesy, not one of the characters approaches anything like three-dimensionality (other than the recurring trio from the series - and that's only by virtue of fans' past experience with them), and there is no real motivation given for any of them aside from lame "having visions" plot.

Like the last Highlander film that attempted a futuristic setting, this one misses everything that made the first film and the series great. And unlike Highlander 2, the vision of the future here is never really explained and doesn't make a great deal of sense.

They should have stuck with the monkey and the airplane. (See the trivia section.) I can't even really say that if you aren't a Highlander fan it might be enjoyable - because even then it didn't make a lot of sense. I saw it, so I can't un-see it, but if you haven't spare yourself the train wreck.

OK, I've watched & loved, Highlander the series.... I enjoyed it more than the movies themselves. Adrian Paul is a really talented actor & though I feel their acting was dead on... the script for this movie was HORRIBLE.

It was as awful as Highlander II... it just left me feeling like someone... wanted to revive the movie to make a few dollars. It was as if they threw this script together on a weekend & convinced some great actors this was a good idea.

Highlander creators... we'll act like this didn't happen if you promise not to produce another movie to finance a new house.

2 thumbs, way down.

Such a cool series, such a bad movie.

What went right with the Highlander TV series starring Adrian Paul? First it was the main protagonist that really got into the role of the highlander, second it was the fact it it had very good swordplay and martial arts action and third it was those well done flashbacks into history, that showed many different time-lines and presented conflicts that lasted for centuries...

So, what is wrong with this movie? All the things stated above are missing...Yes we have Duncan , Mythos and Dawson but the script is really poor, the main villain is ridiculous , there are no flashbacks no swordplay whatsoever. All we get is a clown jumping around talking gibberish (the so-called guardian) and a crappy story about the "legendary" source.

The direction tries to seem cool but it ends up rather boring, and the acting is poor. Of course I wasn't expecting any great acting or imaginative direction but at least I was expecting some believable special effects...I didn't get those either the SFX are bad and uninventive. Obviously the movie hasn't got a big budget but it would have been adequate if it was used properly and with a story that didn't involve guardians with superpowers and other cosmic forces.

In the end it just feels sad that the Highlander franchise probably ends with such a bad movie. It's even worse than "Endgame" and that is really an achievement. Adrian Paul isn't much of an actor but give him a Katana and let him do his martial stuff and he'll work some magic. Unfortunately in this movie he does nothing of the above so in the and we get nothing , not even a good action scene...

The bewigged, face lifted, slimmer and worked out, but, still so very handsome, Adrian Paul is back as the Highlander. This junk is horrible. Please, Adrian, the Highlander was great and superlative as a television series, but the Highlander movies (Endgame) and The Source fail, and fail miserably. Let them die. Do no more. I think he got the idea now from the reviews of The Source. This concoction was hard to watch. A murky, dark movie, and dark meaning everything looked as if it were shot in the middle of the night. Acting was awful---some weird plot to find the source--the origin--of the immortals. Adrian walks his way throughout the movie. He knew it was crap. He looks great with his new wig and face lift and slimmer than ever, but this is way beneath his talents. A ridiculous movie with so much screaming and yelling and fighting, it makes no sense. Takes place in some future world with trite sets and some maniac wearing a half helmet acting as a guardian, but to what, I have no clue. The movie has no purpose, no direction. It was awful.