[Trailer] Solomon Kane

[Klaus]

"A price I'll gadly pay" = "Men shall die for this"

Just read Red Shadows, and found nothing there that is contradicted by the trailer. Zombies, explosions, primal powers of the world, forgotten gods...

As for selling the soul,

Spoiler

from what I heard someone else sold Kane's soul to the Devil

.

 

[Kunimatyu]

Tell that to Spider-Man or Batman.

Both of those characters are cool because they're cool, not because their origin story is cool. Batman's origin story is painfully cliche but we don't care, because Batman is an awesome character who's fun to watch. Ditto for Spidey.

Another example: Han Solo. His backstory is pretty much "smuggler in a shady bar" and that certainly doesn't hurt the character.

 

[Darth Shoju]

Both of those characters are cool because they're cool, not because their origin story is cool. Batman's origin story is painfully cliche but we don't care, because Batman is an awesome character who's fun to watch. Ditto for Spidey.

Another example: Han Solo. His backstory is pretty much "smuggler in a shady bar" and that certainly doesn't hurt the character.

Both Spider-Man and Batman's origin stories are integral to their character. They would be shadows of the characters they are without them. Without the death of his parents as the motivator for his war on crime, Batman would be but a mysterious vigilante. Without the death of his Uncle Ben, Spidey wouldn't have learned that "with great power comes great responsibility", and would just be a wise-cracking superhero. Would they both be somewhat cool without their backstories? Sure, but they wouldn't be anywhere near as great as they are now.

And sure, Han Solo is awesome. But how much more awesome could he be with a bit of well-done backstory?

 

[Klaus]

Both Spider-Man and Batman's origin stories are integral to their character. They would be shadows of the characters they are without them. Without the death of his parents as the motivator for his war on crime, Batman would be but a mysterious vigilante. Without the death of his Uncle Ben, Spidey wouldn't have learned that "with great power comes great responsibility", and would just be a wise-cracking superhero. Would they both be somewhat cool without their backstories? Sure, but they wouldn't be anywhere near as great as they are now.

And sure, Han Solo is awesome. But how much more awesome could he be with a bit of well-done backstory?

Like, say, the fact that Han Solo was an Imperial cadet when he confronted a superior officer about the mistreatment of wookiee slaves, and ended up helping a wookiee slave named Chewbacca escape, fled the Imperial Academy and took up smuggling in the Outer RIm to stay out of "imperial entanglements", eventually winning the fastest ship in the galaxy from a friend in a game of sabbacc.

 

[Plane Sailing]

However, there are still derivative works that I can approve of, and I tend to rate these in terms of faithfulness to the source material and quality. Arnie's first Conan film qualifies despite diverging occasionally from the stories

"Diverging occasionally from the stories"? I thought that Arnies first Conan film got the whole origin of Conan so incredibly badly wrong that it wrecked the whole thing, personally. The actual origin of Conan is a thousand times better than the limp, stupid story they cooked up for the film.

 

[Kunimatyu]

Like, say, the fact that Han Solo was an Imperial cadet when he confronted a superior officer about the mistreatment of wookiee slaves, and ended up helping a wookiee slave named Chewbacca escape, fled the Imperial Academy and took up smuggling in the Outer RIm to stay out of "imperial entanglements", eventually winning the fastest ship in the galaxy from a friend in a game of sabbacc.

Yeah, I don't think that would have added anything to the character. We learned all we needed to when he shot Greedo, tossed some credits at the barkeep, and said "Sorry about the mess".

A good movie character needs a signature scene, but it doesn't have to be backstory.

 

[Krug]

Variety's review isn't too laudatory: (SPOILERS)
Solomon Kane Review - Read Variety's Analysis Of The Movie Solomon Kane

 

[Darth Shoju]

Yeah, I don't think that would have added anything to the character. We learned all we needed to when he shot Greedo, tossed some credits at the barkeep, and said "Sorry about the mess".

A good movie character needs a signature scene, but it doesn't have to be backstory.

Actually it clearly does add something to the character. Whether it is interesting to you is obviously your call.

In a movie, a good supporting character needs a signature scene instead of backstory. Han Solo is a supporting character. In this movie, Kane is the protagonist, like Luke. Should Luke have not had any backstory presented in Star Wars?

 

[Klaus]

Variety's review isn't too laudatory: (SPOILERS)
Solomon Kane Review - Read Variety's Analysis Of The Movie Solomon Kane

I quite liked that review. It expects the movie to do really well in ancillary releases (read: DVD). The biggest criticisms it gives are that the lead has to wear too much clothing (unlike Conan) and that it has a lot of Christian themes (surprise, surprise), but trades "Love Thy Neighboor" for "kick their asses" (which is, IMHO, awesome!).

 

[Desdichado]

Well, that is, in a way, true. The core of the Solomon Kane canon has been written and cannot be added to, seeing as Robert E. Howard has lain in his grave these past 70 years or so. Whatever anyone else does with his characters will be by definition a derivative, lesser work (a great deal lesser, in many cases).

No. It's by definiton a derivative work, it's not by definition lesser.

After reading several of these posts I finally get where you're coming from; you're elevating Howard's original corpus to some kind of canon of holy writ status and judging anything that follows by one and only one criteria: is it exactly the same as the scripture that Howard originallly wrote?

Well, you're more than welcome to do that, I suppose, but don't expect that that point of view has a lot of relevence with other people who only care if it's a good movie that has a similar feel to the original stories or not.