It’s just a week until the new Conan the Barbarian 3D movie hits theaters. But it’s been flying under my radar for a while.
I enjoyed Robert E. Howard‘s Conan stories when I read them back in the ’80s. And since I rarely re-read anything, I haven’t been compelled to pick them up again.
The trailer below doesn’t really inspire me to see the movie. It makes Conan seems no different from any other period action movie. In fact, it reminds me of the John Carter trailer, with different actors, costumes and locations.
But I blame the promotions folks who put out cookie-cutter trailers.
I visited the film’s official website, where you can watch a two-and-a-half minute clip of the “egg race.” Now, that made me want to see the movie. It seems a better representation of the effort that went into the film. But that’s hard to tell until you actually see the film.
The promotional material says the movie is “eftly adapted from the original works of Robert E. Howard and faithful to the mythology and psychology of this iconic character.” Again, it will take watching to the movie to see if this rings true. It is rated R, so in that respect it will be like the stories.
Again, why couldn’t they have adapted one of the original stories, rather than pulling bits and pieces of ideas from Howard’s adventures and using them in a completely new story? (I will have to admit, the 2009 Solomon Kane was an enjoyable film to watch despite being just that.)
Also, it looks as if the first film (assuming this becomes a series) is an origin story. Why can’t we just start medias in res? Every character hero film seems to have to tell the story from the beginning. It would be much more interesting and add a bit of mystery to have us learn of the lead character’s background as the film (or films) progresses.
Ah, well, that’s the difference between pulp fans and Hollywood bean counters.
Robert E. Howard always rewards rereading. Fortunately, we can get the real Howard now instead of those volumes of rewritten Howard and pastiches that were published in the 1960s and early 1970s.
My favorites (in order of publication):
“Queen of the Black Coast”
“A Witch Shall Be Born”
“Beyond the Black River”
“Hour of the Dragon”
“Red Nails”
Nothing I’ve seen in the previews for the new Conan movie makes me want to see it (at least in the theater). It doesn’t even have Ah-nold going for it like the 1982 movie. That was good, not great. I don’t want to see a Conan origin story. I think the character is well-known enough to dispense with that.
Hey, Charles,
Check out the “exclusive” preview at the movie’s official website. I didn’t have a strong urge to see the film until I watched that clip. (Now, I don’t have a “strong” urge, but it’s certainly stronger than the ambivalence I had before.)
I haven’t read the first two on your list. And the others may have been of the re-written variety (though I’ll have to dig them out to check).
Maybe Ah-nold could play the old Conan (but, he’s probably already too old for the average Hyborian lifespan.)