I agree David, though I certainly did enjoy the series. Adrian Paul = yummy. :D
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Okay, so after watching Highlander I-IIi and Highlander: The Source, I just have to say that the producers should have taken "There can be only one" as advice.
The Source doesn't exist ;-) I heard a story that Adrian Paul and the actress that played Amanda actually did a sketch at a convention where the whole thing was just a big dream.
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Okay, so after watching Highlander I-IIi and Highlander: The Source, I just have to say that the producers should have taken "There can be only one" as advice.The Source doesn't exist ;-) I heard a story that Adrian Paul and the actress that played Amanda actually did a sketch at a convention where the whole thing was just a big dream.
That would've fixed everything.
RPG Superstar 2009 Top 32
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I was freakin' awesome... full of some holes you could drive a truck through, but brilliant none the less.
II was absolute utter s h i t e in every sense of the word... Battlefield Earth Level S h i t e. My mother gave me a copy of it for free (it seems she bought two???) and I still think I paid to much for it.
III was just passable as a movie, but very average as a Highlander.
Haven't seen The Source and only watched a few episodes of the TV series here and there. Missed alot of the beginning so couldn't really get into it, but I understand it wasn't too bad.
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I read that The Source was supposed to be the first part of a trilogy. I thought the series was good. After reading the writeup on Endgame, I'm glad I didn't waste money on it. And yes, III was passible, but felt like a retread of the original story. I also heard that there is a remake of I in the works now. I stand by my original statement, in the end there can be, and should be, only one.
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RPG Superstar 2011 Top 32
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Huge Highlander fan.
I've seen every movie and every episode from the Tv series at least twice.
I thought all of the movies, after the first, were crap.
The Tv series, oddly enough, felt like it got it right and was closer to the original material (i.e. the first movie) than anything else. (Up until the last season with the whole demon Ahriman arc. It was a great series until that point. That was the official shark-jumping moment for me.)
I agree with what Eyebite said. Highlander 1 was great, the TV series I really liked as well.
I forgot the order, so here it is:
Highlander 1
Highlander 2: The Quickening (the one that nearly ruined the franchise)
Highlander 3: The Final Dimension / The Sorceror (1995)
Highlander 4: Endgame / The Immortals(2000)? (with Jacob Kell)
Highlander 5: The Source (2007) (no clue it existed until now)
Adrian Paul = yummy. :D
You got that right.
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RPG Superstar 2011 Top 32
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Come on now! We can't forget about the spin off series: The Raven!!!
That series was heartbreakingly sucky. Somewhat cool concept to focus on another immortal aside from a Macleod, but shite execution.
Amanda was a cool sidekick/love interest, but she just could not carry her own show. (Or maybe she could, and the writing was just so bad it boxed her in.)
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Amanda was a cool sidekick/love interest, but she just could not carry her own show. (Or maybe she could, and the writing was just so bad it boxed her in.)
I think that a show Centered around Methos would have made a great show (but he was not "Miss America" while Elizabeth Gracen was, go figure)...
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RPG Superstar 2011 Top 32
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Amanda was a cool sidekick/love interest, but she just could not carry her own show. (Or maybe she could, and the writing was just so bad it boxed her in.)I think that a show Centered around Methos would have made a great show (but he was not "Miss America" while Elizabeth Gracen was, go figure)...
Totally, a Methos series would have been awesome.
Or even something following Richie, up until . . .
For anyone who enjoyed Highlander: the Series, check out Reunion, which is a short film about Amanda, Joe, and Methos. It's mostly just the three actors playing off one another, but it shows how strong the franchise can still be when it's about the characters and not goofy sci-fi elements.
I liked Movie I, of course.
Movie II was a fun parody of movie I; taken that way, it can be enjoyable as hell (kind of like no one expects "Meet the Spartans" to be an actual sequel to "300").
Movie III licked cow dung. Your BBEG should never be the Ayatollah of Rock-and-Roll-a!
Movie IV is a long TV show episode, as I learned much to my dismay when I didn't understand anything that was going on in the entire movie, until I went back and rented the show.
And then, sorry, everyone... I have to say I hated the show. Keep adding more Immortals to kill every week, until it seems as if they must outnumber the "normal" people! And here's this dude who looks like a male model (but who's a cheap ripoff of the movie character) who must have beheaded at least 368 people by the end of the first season, and he never goes to prison? At least in the 1st movie the cops are all over Connor MacLeod all the time.
Me and my buddy during high school went to the $1 movie theater to see Highlander 2. I picked it saying, "Dude the first movie rocked. This has to be ok."
After the movie we walked out and turned to him and said, "Dude, I am sorry. I didn't know. I didn't know."
True story.
I remember going to see Highlander II with a good friend from High School. We were waiting in line at night, and Frank says something to the effect of, “I just hope they didn’t totally ruin it the way they did with The Exorcist!” We finally get our tickets, go in, and find some seats. Soon the theater darkens, and the movie begins. I saw the words “Planet Zeist” on the screen, turned to Frank, and in a quiet, resigned voice, said, “they ruined it.”
I remember the movie (1st) had a big influence on our group of gamers.
After that, many of our characters were wandering around with katanas, whatever the game they were in, D&D, Call of Cthulhu, Mega, even Star Wars :D
What about the post-apocalyptic animated highlander movie. I actually enjoyed it more than any of the movies except the first one.
Not only was Highlander: Vengeance the first good Highlander movie since the original, but the director managed to take everything that the sequels had tried to do, such as a post-apocalyptic future, magic, and a world-threatening plot, and made it all fit together well. It's an excellent film. The only thing missing from it is Queen on the soundtrack.
So let me get this straight. We currently have Duncan, Conner, Colin, and Quenton McLeod, who are all Immortal. the McLeod clan sure knows how to pick 'em don't they?
It's all genetic. The Kurgan is Sean Connery's love child. Castigir is Connor's half-brother by the milkman.
Not to derail, but what they did to Highlander in the later movies was like adding mitichlorons(sp?) to Star Wars. Yeesh!
Highlander Movie 1 - good, early series - good. Rest sucks!
So let me get this straight. We currently have Duncan, Conner, Colin, and Quenton McLeod, who are all Immortal. the McLeod clan sure knows how to pick 'em don't they?
Both Quentin and Colin are from different timelines than the rest. Additionally, Colin lived for several centuries before being made a member of the MacLeod clan. The only ones who are actual clansmen from their infancy are Duncan and Connor.
There Can only be 1.
The primary problem with the Highlander franchise is that no one understood the concept of prequels in the late 80s/early 90s. In an ideal world, the first Highlander wouldn't have had such finality to its ending, or the sequels would have been prequels instead. But since the first movie ended with only one immortal left, we got stuck with tacked on sci-fi elements or alternate timelines.
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No offense Charlie, but I don't think Highlander II would have been better accepted if it was a prequal. I mean the people who were angry with the whole Planet Zeist thing were angry because it represented a fundamental change of Diection from the first movie, not because it was set after thefirst movie. You are most likely correct that III would have been better recieved as a prequal, but IV could not have been a prequal since we see Connor die in that movie. It wopuldbe better if they did a director's cut that removes the mentions of Connor having won The Prize, and instead make it about Connor's eternal queat for vengence against the Kurgan.
No offense Charlie, but I don't think Highlander II would have been better accepted if it was a prequal. I mean the people who were angry with the whole Planet Zeist thing were angry because it represented a fundamental change of Diection from the first movie, not because it was set after thefirst movie. You are most likely correct that III would have been better recieved as a prequal, but IV could not have been a prequal since we see Connor die in that movie. It wopuldbe better if they did a director's cut that removes the mentions of Connor having won The Prize, and instead make it about Connor's eternal queat for vengence against the Kurgan.
The thing is, having prequels would have changed the direction of the franchise dramatically. Even better would have been not making Connor the last immortal in the first movie.
The reason Highlander II had to go to the time travel/alien planet story is because they needed a reason for immortals to be around again. Without Connor being the last immortal, or with the assumption that future movies would be set before the first one, Highlander II could have further explored what it means to be immortal rather than pinning on the extraneous sci-fi elements.
The TV series managed to dodge the issue by using an alternate version of the Highlander universe. Basically, only the first movie happened, but the Kurgan was just a big bad guy, not one of the last two immortals. Later seasons of the series dropped mention of the Gathering entirely, because they realized that having a defined ending point was a bad idea.
Of course, that didn't stop Endgame and the Source from sucking hard, but that's because of a variety of other reasons. Endgame made a terrible decision on what to do with the two MacLeods and also decided to make the number of total quickenings the primary indicator of immortal power, which is on the same level as the midi-whatsits from the Star Wars prequels.
As for the Source, I'm convinced that the creators were sick of hearing people bash Highlander II and decided to show just how bad things really could get.
What Highlander needs more than anything is a change of creative direction and some focus to the franchise. The anime provided that well. Hopefully, the reboot will too.
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As for the Source, I'm convinced that the creators were sick of hearing people bash Highlander II and decided to show just how bad things really could get.
Yeah, that's what I hear the producers of Evangelion did when the made Death and Rebirth. They said, "you think the last two episodes of the series were bad, let us show you how bad it can really get."
What should have happenned is:
1) Connor becomes the last immortal, gets the prize.
2) The prize is centuries of information and knowledge thanks to the quickening.
3) Connor uses the prize and this information to save humanity from "the apocalyse". The same apocolypse that "world of darkness" describes in their lore.
4) Perhaps Connor dies trying to save the world. Or perhaps he goes into hiding and becomes legend, kind of like Caine is to vampires.
5) New people are born. Eventually, immortals will also be born. And so it starts again... fresh slate.
What should have happened is:
1) Connor gets the prize.
2) Series ends at the end of the first movie, and stays a cult classic instead of becoming an endless glut of spin-off cash cows.
Fixed your post for you!
I think Star Wars started the sequel hype for real. There were sequels before, like The Three Musketeers (the 70ies version with Michael York as D´Artagnan and Christopher Lee as Rochefort, the main fighting villain, and a lot of other stars), but as the first two were filmed simultaneously and the book also had sequels, it is not quite the same. Indeed, they better had taken "There can only be one movie" as solid advice from all I´heard - I´ve never seen one of the sequels. The series was enjoyable, if you forgot about the original movie. The series had a WoD feel to me.
Stefan
RPG Superstar 2009 Top 32, 2010 Top 8
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Liked the first movie liked the series.
Almost liked the uncut version of the Connor/Duncan/Lell movie (endgame?)We got to see a flash of 'evil Methos' with his 'I didn't say it was easy' comment.
I think the alternate reality was the best way to explain the series.
I've never seen this movie or any of its sequels before. Should I watch it?
I've never seen this movie or any of its sequels before. Should I watch it?
The first movie is dated but excellent. The animated film (released in 2005, I think) is also excellent, but shouldn't be confused with the animated series, which was terrible.
The series got its stride midway through through the second season and stayed good until most of the way through season five. The spinoff series, the Raven, just sucked.
None of the movie sequels are worth watching. Ever.