Born via battlefield
C-section, the hero of this movie version of Robert E. Howard’s Hyborian
champion is played by Jason Momoa (from Stargate
Atlantis). His unfortunately–doomed father is portrayed by Ron Perlman
(making Conan the ‘son’ of Hellboy!, Eh?). It starts in a Cimmerian village
where, after his day of chores, boy Conan takes a shortcut during local warrior
wannabes’ egg-in-mouth race home. He survives an ambush, and collects four
heads, but he’s not ready for a sword until the village is attacked in a storm
of blood and fire and that familiar rain-of-arrows cliché.
Bad guy Zym (Stephen Lang,
ex-killer of Smurfs-on-acid in Avatar),
re–assembles the bone shards of a powerful face–hugger mask to make himself a
god, and resurrect his beloved. Having lost the invasion battle, there is further
horror when Conan’s dad is doused in molten steel. Once grown up, Conan and his
chums free a bunch of slaves, and then our muscular champ saves elusive
pureblood ‘monk’, Tamara (Rachel Nichols; P2,
G.I. Joe, Continuum), in the slick yet rather characterless mayhem of
numerous action set–pieces happening amidst fairytale picture–book scenery.
Whether he is killing or carousing (“I live, I love, I slay”), Momoa wins this
month’s award for best ‘sneer with eyebrows’ performance. Rose McGowan (from Planet Terror) is venomously witchy as the
top villain’s daughter Marique, who conjures up a sand wraiths’ kung fu melee, while
shirtless Conan strikes his comicbook poses in strap–on rags.
Nispel is so fanatically intent on presenting stunts and special effects that lucid storytelling is neglected, and it falls to stilted unwashed dialogue and blunt flashbacks to carry the mediocre plot. Sadly, the filmmakers ‘forgot’ there needs to be an intriguing mythical dimension (which the original Arnie flick had plenty of!) to swordplay adventures like this. Empty spectacle is never appealing enough to fully entertain and this Conan fails the same way that Mike Newell’s clunky Prince Of Persia failed. It rattles hollowly and thoughtlessly along with nothing much to say about barbaric heroism or vengeance, and clearly no idea how to make up for its shortcomings with only the studio toolkit and high grade production values as commendable assets. “Behold, and despair!”
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