Review: Sci Fi Channel’s Highlander: The Source

Bruce Simmons — Sun, 23 Sep 2007 19:04:34 +0000

I loved the first Highlander movie. The 2nd one, eh, not so much and it was downhill from there. When I heard a 5th Highlander was coming to the Sci Fi channel Saturday night movie, I shuddered. Sci Fi’s usual Saturday night B movies are good for killing time and just hanging, with the B standing for needing (B)eer, for the (B)oredom of the (B)ad effects, and a(B)ysmal acting. But then, I saw something that caught my eye.

The cast for this latest version included Adrian Paul, Peter Wingfield and Jim Byrnes. Suddenly there was hope… or was I being set up for an emotional fall? These are the actors from the Highlander televsion series that was on from 1992 to 1998, and they were reprising their roles in this newest movie “sequel”.

Here’s the synopsis of this 5th film in the series, titled Highlander: The Source: The world is falling into chaos, and Duncan MacLeod comes together with some of his fellow immortals on a quest to locate the grail of their immortal existence. (Personally, when I watched the original film, I was so engrossed in Connor’s development once he discovered his immortality that I didn’t even give a thought to where the immortals came from!)

And guess what? Highlander: The Source was not that bad. It was directed by Brett Leonard, whose past credits include titles such as Man-Thing(2005), T-Rex: Back to the Cretaceous(1998), Virtuosity(1995) and The Lawnmower Man(1992), amongst others.

Highlander: The Source played out more like a two hour television episode than a feature film, but it definitely makes an effort to deepen the Highlander mythos as it deals with Duncan’s past love life, a new antagonist that seems quite unbeatable at first (The Guardian), where immortals come from and why “there can be only one,” (which actually seemed to be one of the lame points in the story line for me.). It didn’t delve into the history between the characters as the movie assumes you’ve followed the TV series, so some interaction between the characters may mystify viewers who haven’t seen the TV show.

Personally, I liked how the first movie ended: Letting the immortal hear the voices of the world, and knowing things he needs to bring the world together (at least that’s what I remember taking away from it.) Although this deviates from that, since I’ve watched the series, I was fine with Highlander: The Source. Face it, it’s like the NASCAR off season. I’ll watch any racing on TV until the new season comes along, and that’s how I got hooked on the TV series.

Basically, If you were a fan of the TV show, I think you will like the movie. If you’re more of a Connor fan, it’s different and hopefully you will appreciate the fact that Highlander 5 was MUCH BETTER than 3 or 4!

If you have the opportunity, try and catch it. I’m glad I did.

The official movie web site: Highlander-The Source

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Review: Sci Fi Channel’s Highlander: The Source