Highlander: Endgame

Unfortunately the "Highlander" concept has been heavily tainted by multiple visions from a variety of people and a constant push from the money men to milk it for all it's worth. Each individual addition thus far, while reasonable in isolation managed to damage the overall reputation of this franchise and directly damage the quality of the original classic movie when the whole thing is considered together.

Now what they have done with this fourth movie is created something that can't even stand in isolation and when put together with everything else tears it all to pieces, spits on it and throws it in the bin, just for the sake of giving this particular piece some feeling of importance.

One of my biggest pet peeves with movie sequels is when the writers of the latest piece decide to essentially re-write the whole thing and ignore where others have taken us up until this point. For better or worse, we have been taken to a point and it is just arrogance to assume you can re-write it all better then those that have gone before, while it shows limited skill to not be able to work inside that framework. There are many ways they could have made a tie in between the TV series and all the movies work, but they chose to make this a partial reboot instead.

The Critical mistake they made was to belittle the original film. No franchise should dismiss the reason that it is a franchise. Although it would still annoy me, they could have gotten away with the partial reboot, if they had just ignored the 2nd and 3rd movie. They even would have gotten away with not fully following on from the series. But they couldn't resist messing with the original to the point that they almost totally dismissed the events of film as meaningless and so it's no surprise that this has scored the low rating it has here on the IMDb.

I watched the whole of the series as well as all the films and this movie fails to adequately fit in with any of it. One day I hope movie makers will learn that you either need to do a full reboot or get people capable of working with what they already have. Don't just let the new guys mess up everyone that went before them.

Overall, this was not a bad flick. It's not quite as good as the first one, but is much better than the second. I'd have given it a higher rating than I did if they'd just left out the high speed kung fu stuff - it's too much like all the cheap Bruce Li rip off movies. Anyway, the story in this one is good and it tidies up everything rather nicely at the end. They do leave one thread hanging but I don't think that was to provide the backdrop for another film. I think this one's the last Highlander film - at least I hope so. I believe that the Highlander "thing" has gone about as far as it can. It would be difficult to come up with anything original for another film. Again, this film isn't bad at all and nearly makes up for the poor middle of this series. The tie-in between the film McLeod and the TV McLeod was handled very well, I thought. I really liked the first film and I like this one pretty well also.

After the "Alien Experience" and the "Remake Sequel", "Highlander" producers decided to add two and two and get someone to write a marvellous script. They went on with the mathematics, and got together Christopher Lambert and Adrian Paul. The result is the long-expected good sequel to the first "Highlander", set after "The Series" ended.

Tired of the endless fights, Connor MacLeod enters the Sanctuary, a place where immortals can rest forever under the guard of the Watchers. However, an old foe of Connor releases him after killing all the other immortals in that place. Not pleased with this, this foe and his posse pays a visit to Duncan MacLeod, who gets away and looks for his clansman. Both MacLeods have sins to purge, and the time has come to do that.

Christopher Lambert, though intended to have a supportive role like Sean Connery in the original film, robs the movie. Though his Connor is hardly the same bad ass of the other films, it's by far the best performance in the film. Adrian Paul manages to lead the film well, like in the TV series. Bruce Payne, playing the embittered Jacob Kell, provides a fine interpretation that is however in the line of the other "Highlander" villains. Lisa Barbuscia as Kate MacLeod is somewhat fine, but I'm inclined to believe the only reason "Fishlips" got cast is her willingness to show her breasts.

The character of the film is indeed Jin Ke, played by Donnie Yen. However brief his presence on screen may be, he manages to give a very good impression, as well as some action. Another two characters worth mentioning are Rachel (the late Sheila Gish) and Heather (Beatie Edney), who appear again in a "Highlander" film. Briefly, but it's something.

Why don't I give it a 10? First, the first film (which indeed deserves a 10) is superior to this one. Secondly, the editing of the film is weak. It's not the one of "Highlander II: The Quickening" but this one has some big flaws. In any case, "Highlander Endgame" is a great film, with more action and entertainment than the other sequels, and it's a great choice even for non fans.

Seven!

I have seen all the movies, and every episode of the acclaimed series. I saw it at the theater and have it on DVD. They were able to blend both the series and the movies together pretty well. The ending on the DVD is better than the theater ending. Though I felt they could have went into a bit more detail. A few important scenes were cut, buy or rent the DVD and you'll see what I'm talking about. The plot and story line are well put together, it made me think and question life in general.

Adrian Pual really shines and gets to show his skill. He is a great martial artist and does help with setting up the fight scenes. Donnie Yen is awesome and is a good match for Adrian. Chris Lambert does a good job, he is the original Highlander. You can see his age showing through, like the rest of us he is only mortal, it happens.

If you are a fan of the series you may be a little saddened with the small parts Methos and Joe(Peter Wingfield and Jim Byrnes) got. I would have liked to see Methos come to life, maybe even a fight scene with one of Kells' followers. Joe has some screen time, but more would have added that much more to the story.

All in all, I love this movie. Even with its faults, hey were only mortals!

This is my favorite Highlander film since the original. Face it. Christopher Lambert is getting to old to play an immortal. And Duncan. Well I like the series. But I like the movies as well. The fighting in this movie was better choreographed than the previous films. I give the movie a 7/10. I think Highlander films have reached there end. If not. I hope the producers pull something out of a hat and have Sean Connery and Christopher Lambert come back. Maybe after Duncan wins the prize?