Released: 2007
Director: Brett Leonard
Run Time: 86 Minutes
Rated: R
Cast:
Adrian Paul: Duncan MacLeod
Thekla Reuten: Anna
Peter Wingfield: Methos
Jim Byrnes: Joe Dawson
I’ve decided I’m going to try something new here. There’s a ton of truly awful movies out there, and I’ve seen a lot. I have an interesting idea. At least I think it’s interesting. Some of these movies are so dreadful they deserve a category of their own. I figured maybe once a week I should watch one of these abominations. It might be good for a laugh. To celebrate the birth of this new category, I have chosen to watch the last of the live-action Highlander films: The Source. Back in 1986, there was a little fantasy movie starring Christopher Lambert and Clancy Brown called Highlander. It was about a group of immortals who fought each other in order to win The Prize, something that would give them the power to rule the world or destroy it. The only way to kill an immortal is to take his head and with it his knowledge and life-force. The film tanked in the States, but it did pretty well overseas. Over the years it did find its audience. As a result, we got 4 live-action sequels, an anime spin-off(which was amazing by the way), a live-action TV series with its own spin-off and a cartoon. Highlander: The Source was the last of the live-action sequels. There’s a reason for that.
Set in a future where governments no longer exist and civilization has fallen into decay, a group of immortals lead by Duncan MacLeod have discovered that an unusual planetary alignment. They believe that alignment will point them to The Source, the immortals’ Holy Grail where they believe that their immortality came from, or so the previews of the film would have you believe. The only thing standing in their way is The Guardian, the most generic of all the Highlander villains. You know, back in 2003 or 2004 I had started hearing rumors that they were going to make a fifth live-action Highlander film starring Adrian Paul, the guy who played Duncan MacLeod in the TV series and Highlander: Endgame. A while later, the rumors had evolved to the point where it seemed that The Source would be the first in a new trilogy of films. The Source happened, but the aforementioned trilogy? Nope. Why? It debuted on the Sci-Fi Channel. That’s NEVER a good thing. I knew there was a problem when that was announced. So, what went wrong? As it turns out, damn near everything.
Let’s start off with the fact that the film debuted on the Sci-Fi channel instead of theaters. The Source is the first in the series to skip theaters entirely. Given the quality of the work that’s on the screen, I’m not surprised. Any movie that debuts on the Sci-Fi channel is generally not very good. Next, the whole film is set in a nearly post-apocalyptic future. That would be fine, if it didn’t look so fake. There’s a lot of green-screen shots here. It’s very obvious. There are precious few scenes that actually take place on location. It’s low-budget fare, but they really could have done without the excessive CG backgrounds. Some of the Quickening effects aren’t too shabby. But that leads into another problem. There’s only one scene where the quickening happens when someone loses their head. That’s towards the beginning when The Guardian corners an immortal. It’s pretty spectacular watching the whole building explode when that happens. But that leads into several OTHER problems. One: There are no other encounters between immortals where one takes another’s head and gains his power. Yeah, heads do roll, but there’s nothing terribly spectacular about it. Next, and this a big one: The villain. The Guardian is one of the most laughable and non-threatening villains I’ve ever seen. At times he’s trying to sound like the Kurgan, and others he’s coming off as an announcer of sorts. He even looks ridiculous. Not only that, he moves like Tazmanian Devil from Looney Tunes. That also leads to some fairly one-sided and silly confrontations.
Oh, there’s still more crap here for me to talk about. The acting is atrocious. Adrian Paul is the only one who seems to be pulling his weight along with Peter Wingfield. Everyone else is either underacting or completely overdoing it. Like I said before, The Guardian is an absolute joke. I’m not blaming the guy who plays him, but the character is just poorly written and not explained very well. Then again, nothing is explained well in this movie. Planets that move out of their usual orbital paths to show the way to The Source? Astrophysics aside, that’s….stupid. The whole planetary alignment nonsense has been used in sci-fi and horror movies for decades. It’s a stale plot device. Let’s talk about The Source itself. According to the film’s ever-changing mythology, The Source is apparently where immortals can find answers to who and what they are as well as gaining power. But it turns out that only one can use The Source with a woman to have a child………WHAT?!?! So all that jazz over the previous films and TV series about the mantra that there can be only one and The Prize is all B.S? Pretty much. I’ve seen sequels that piss all over the mythology that the previous films had established, but not like this. Let’s discuss the film’s music. The orchestral stuff isn’t too bad. Low-budget, but it’s pretty tolerable. The songs they use though: Oh, man. It’s clear they couldn’t get permission from Queen to actually use their songs in Highlander: The Source, so they paid somebody else to cover certain songs, namely Princes of the Universe, and Who Wants To Live Forever. Those are two of my favorite songs from the original Highlander. They really butchered them here. Princes of the Universe isn’t horrible, but the other one is an absolute joke. The original version of Who Wants To Live Forever was excellent because it combined Queen’s music with Michael Kamen’s musical score. It was brilliant. The version for The Source? Abominable, embarrassing and terrible to listen to. I’d rather listen to finger-nails on a chalkboard.
Is there anything good about the movie? Well, there’s Adrian Paul. He’s brooding and somewhat emo, but he still manages to kick some serious tail in the film. Some of the action isn’t too shabby either. The sequence in the tower at the beginning of the film is actually fairly engaging and has some pretty interesting visuals. There are certain ideas that could have panned out if the writers actually used their heads. Unfortunately, the majority of action sequences involving the Guardian are poorly edited and choreographed. Watching Methos antagonize Duncan was pretty amusing. Some of the explosions were pretty big. One of the songs that was not a Queen cover wasn’t actually bad. The film also runs for 86 minutes. I would say that it doesn’t overstay it’s welcome, but I don’t think Highlander: The Source was welcome in the first place. This movie was universally panned as the worst Highlander movie ever made. I can’t argue with that assessment. This movie was a disaster right from the get-go. There was another Highlander film released around the same time called The Search for Vengeance. Now THAT was a good Highlander film. Why? It took a really different direction and went anime. I feel that Japanese anime suits the franchise. For visuals and story-telling, The Search for Vengeance wound up being the second-best Highlander film ever. That one I highly recommend. The Source? No, just…no. The only reason I have the film on DVD is because I’m a completionist.
Because of Highlander: The Source, the franchise got buried, along with the video game that was announced for 2008. Somebody decided that it may be a good idea to re-make the original film. It could work if they get the right writers and director for it. But if it sucks, it’s going to bury the franchise for good. So…my final verdict for Highlander: The Source? As an action film: 6/10. As a Highlander film: 1/10. Do yourselves a favor, stick with the original or the anime.
Nice article. Agree with you on most points having been a fan of these films. Heck Highlander 2 the Quickening is a masterpiece when compared to The Source and that very nearly killed the film franchise such as it was.
At present, a few of us over at scifipulse.net are working on a Highlander article discussing various ways in which it could be brought back for television. The options are to revive it, reboot it or re-imagine it. The article will have one writer discussing each possibility. I’ve drawn the short straw of reviving. So to that end am going to disregard The Source and pick up after End Game.