You should know, this is based on a character by Robert E. Howard. Yeah, that Conan guy, from before Conan, like literally (ha! Because it’s written, it is literally literal so not a cop-out use of the term) from 100 years ago. This takes his historical-kinda fantasy storytellings in a slightly less Mongolian Barbarian direction. In fact, this one is downright Puritan, one could say. It is also a bit more Faustian in nature. But still pretty bloody and evil, with some dark forces at work here.
1600. North Africa. A little late for the crusades, these boat guys going pretty hardcore against some extremely middle-east-lookin towers and fighters on the coast. Pirates? or Waterial Entrepreneurs as they were known back then. And ‘Privateer’ Solomon Kane knows how to find the loot, with anybody in the way getting the swords and pistols with reckless abandon. Turns out though, he may want to scale it back a bit. Eternal Damnation rears its ugly head. He gets the point, becomes a pacifist monk. It doesn’t quite suit him though. Plus the other monks are worried he’ll bang all the visiting nuns so they expel him. Maybe some other reasons too regarding a heavy shadow of evil befalling them but hey, those monk ouija boards back then were a little less developed. Demons may come into play too because that’s what the story is here.
Not gonna say it’s the most deepest of plots, but it is done well for an action movie, with some surprisingly good production values. Overall, this is a solid fantasy tale in good vs evil trappings. James Purefoy in the title role does a great job with being the Character, he’s been in a few recognizable things but kinda surprised I haven’t seen him around more considering what he did with this role. Looks like more TV? Hey man, whatever, he’s solid here. A Nice dark action period piece, sorry it took so long for me to finally watch it.
