UK Release for Solomon Kane!

[P_Clapham]

Sounds fantastic!  I'm a long time fan of the books.  Recently I snagged the collected Solomon Kane comics by Dark Horse.  I'd love to see a Africa central movie involving either the Harpies or the City of Vampires.

Just read the review of Solomon Kane in the latest SFX mag. Got a very good review, 4 out of 5 and Jason Purefoy says in an interview in the same edition that if there is a sequel it will be set in africa 

I tend to rely on SFX reviews, as they always seem to agree with my views on stuff. Whether or not this is a good thing is not for me to say, but I'm certainly very keen to see it now 

[Phil Robinson]

Off to see it in the next hour.

Not having read any of the books or graphic novels I went with no pre-conceptions, and must say I really enjoyed it, lots of action not to much pointless talking, some nice baddies, remininisent of the Orc raiders in LotR. Did it convey the early 17th century? not sure, but was very atmospheric and you didn't need telling it was in England as it it was either snowing or raining in most of the film If you go to see it for what it is 1 hour and 40 minutes of pure hokum I doubt you will be dissapointed, not sure if you are a Soloman Kane purist you will think the same though.

[Tacgnol]

I saw it a few days ago, and really enjoyed it.  The cast was great- James Purefoy was really believable as Kane, Pete Postlethwaite was his usual class act and Mackenzie Crook played a wonderful bulging-eyed nutcase role. The atmosphere was top-notch, so ominous and moody with non-stop rain and snow for most of the film.

The fight scenes were brutal and the film pulled very few punches in regards to violence, but it rarely felt excessive. The plot stumbled a little a few times, and at one point things felt a little rushed, but they still managed to fit in just the right amount of characterisation.

It's clearly the first film of a series, and I'm looking forward to the next one.

[JMGraham]

I'm insanely jealous off you Brits - I'm not certain that it will ever see a US theatrical release (heck, I'd be happy with a release to DVD right now).  Perhaps it's a good excuse for an international road trip.   

Jim

[Viper]

Firsts things first, I've not read the books, so keep that in mind...

I'm just back from seeing it and I LOOOOOOOVED it.

I have to agree with what others have said already.

The main thing I noticed was how refereshing it was to see a film of this type without all the typical forced hollywood things to try and widen the audiance, hopefully it will be successful and open up more support for this type of film being made in Europe. This film is made for people who like action/adventure and paranormal/fantasy stuff it doesn't try to shoehorn in love interests, eyecandy or anything like that, it just tells its story and tells it well.

The only negative I can possibly think of is that an hour and three quarters wasn't enough, I could easily have watch 5+ hours of it, the demonic monsters were fantastic and I would have loved seeing them get more or longer scenes.

The fight scenes were brutal and the film pulled very few punches in regards to violence, but it rarely felt excessive. The plot stumbled a little a few times, and at one point things felt a little rushed, but they still managed to fit in just the right amount of characterisation.

That's another thing that having a longer run time would have helped with, I don't know if the plot stumbled per say, from my point of view at least, but some more scenes could easily have kept the pacing smoother. I guess at the end of the day this doesn't have the big name, fanbase, or known cast of Lord of the Rings so having the film run for two and a half or three hours would be seen as too much of a risk.

I think the thing that made the violence seem so brutal and yet not excessive was how realistic it was. The weapons weren't like light sabers slicing off heads and limbs all over the place in massive gouts of blood with no effort at all on the part of the bearer. So there was blood, but a lot less than you would normaly expect in a movie of this sort, a more realistic level, while they also made great use of "just out of shot" deaths.

The fight choreography was stunning, the varied styles that come with different levels of training and different weapons showed in every fight.

Really I could go on and on about how much I liked this, and I went in expecting a lot from it.

Did it convey the early 17th century? not sure, but was very atmospheric and you didn't need telling it was in England as it it was either snowing or raining in most of the film

I'm not really sure it conveyed the early 17th century either, but certainly it was a good alternate version of "yee olde days" which I guess is what they were aiming for.

I didn't need to be told it was England because it was full of witches, sorcerers and evil thugs.
  

[Spong]

Please tell me Kane uses wheel-lock pistols and not flinlock ones, pretty please?

[Viper]

I can't say that I could tell during the movie, didn't look closely enough, the poster has him with a flintlock but I'm pretty sure most if not all the times he uses a pistol it has been taken from a fallen opponent rather than him having his own pair on him.

I'm by no mean an expert but most of what I've found online says that he had flintlocks in the book description, while very little other than the Kane RPG setting seems to mention wheellocks. Of course currently I wouldn't be able to tell the difference between a 1550s flintlock and a 1750s one, I'd just make a guess at which one looked less "modern" which is no judge at all when you can have basic or expensive engraved versions of either.

Sorry I can't be much more help, kinda just leaving more questions.
 

[Gluteus Maximus]

This all sounds very good so far! I'm definitely going to try and see it on the big screen