Highlander: The Source- Uhhh....no.
I usually start out teling something about this story. In this case I fear you would just start wondering the point of me babbling. If you don’t know the tv show that inspired it, you would be lost. If you do know the show you would be lost and annoyed. I’ll give you the gist of it anyway.
The world is in an apocalyptic state, complete with smoke machines being overworked in crumbling cities bands with a taste for human flesh wandering forests. The immortals, with the whole slice off each other’s heads because there can be only one introduced in a certain cult fave movie, are still about. Now they are obsessed with the legend of something mysteriously known as the source, an obsession ever heard of in the six seasons of the show despite hanging around lots of immortals.
Our main fella is all in a mope because his wife, a non-immortal, decided to leave him because his kind can’t have kids. So, in other words, she didn’t love him but loved the idea of breeding with a contibution of his DNA. Ths gal is in love with the idea of having a baby more than her fella with the magic body, and by magic I mean not so much he can be shot, stabbed, burned, crushed, and eat the food that’s been at the back of the fridge six months and still walk away from it. By magic I mean he won the lottery onthe asthetically pleasing front. If shooting blanks in bed is the only dealbreaker in their relationship, she is soooo not worth his brooding.
These “source” fanboys, including everybody’s beloved tvshowsupporting characters the ancient immortal Methos and the watcher (Slayers aren’t the only flukes with a non superpowered ancient observer cult shadowing them) turned bestie Joe...and also a couple immortal dudes we don’t know...keep insisting the master of moody must join their party of questers on the grounds he is the best of all the immortals. Or maybe they just think he’s best because the movie is called Highlander and he’s the only one that fits that description. It’s a toss up which.
Anyway, the estranged wife is having visions so she becomes the group’s guide. Remember, visions are never signs of psychological difficulties, but are clues from ... whatever... to the mystery prize. A Mad Max escapee goon that’s been chasing starts killing ‘em, and in the end it’s all some fertility treatment thing.
Yes I just spoiled it. You are welcome. Now you don’t need to watch.
Look, this is a bad movie, like MST3K level mocking was going on in this house.
But I have to make clear I REALLY liked the Highlander tv show. The original movie has it’s own wonderful cheesy Bmovie trash charms, and I liked it. But I liked the 1990s tv show spin off more. It was good! Honest!
I couldn’t have avoided the show with my brother basing his teenage persona on the hero. My brother grew his dark brown hair out in a ponytail, longer than my hair will even grow, fastened with this celtic design peice. He dressed like the hero and started having a build, not unlike a shorter version of the hero (his working out helped). He collected swords including a replica of the hero’s sword. (Yes, I do own a sword too, a nice one from the 1800s, but I didn’t get a stash). My parents and I were secretly amused by his trying to be like the character, bjt please follow our lead. If you see him don’t point out that the ponytail he still has started as a bit of adolescent copying, fanboy cool.
I say “fanboy” but I may have liked the show itself more than he did. I mean I liked it as stories about the joys and pains of immortality. I had fun noticing how the show had a different look when it was filmed in different countries (Canada and France) I delighted in the complicated shadings of the character Methos. You’d get flasbacks to the history of immortal characters and sword fights with pyrotechnic finishes. The begining of the first season was a little rocky and the final season was hitting an iceberg, but ignoring the occasional dud episode it was a great little show. It was never my absolute favorite, but I still have a strong affection for it.
Actually, the weirdest thing happened the other night: I dreamed about Highlander. I almost never dream about prexisting characters. For instance, I’ve been a Doctor Who fan since I was 9 or 10 and I haven’t had five dreams about it. So dreaming about Highlander, a show I haven’t even watched in many years, took me by surprise. That got my attention enough I looked up the next day and discovered I had never seen this movie.
It might have been best not knowing. Maybe I can blot it from my memory. I’m not entirely sure I didn’t actually see it before and have already had a round of erasing it frin my brain.
The only thing worse than a show having a weak final season is year later coming back with a movie that needs a full script rewrite because I can’t imaging who, fan or non-fan, is supposed to like this one. It could have been done I think. There are some seeds of workable ideas, and maybe another director could have found an effective way to mask the budgetary limitations. But what we get is just...bad. Very, very bad,
Did I mention it isn’t very good? LOL
