Conan Movie Blog - Latest Comments

Re: Conan the Barbarian: A Critique

Ricky James Moore II — Mon, 09 Apr 2012 19:08:26 -0000

"In the script, the Dweller is built up in foreshadowing and outright references to the terrible thing lurking under Khor Kalba. This makes sense, since you want to build up a sense of dread and suspense going into your big set piece. In the film, though, all that’s taken out – and again, it’s just another thing that happens without any build up. The first we see of the dweller is when it attacks Conan, and the first we hear of it is when Akhoun names it. This is basic narrative convention, Marcus! It’s not hard to do this right!"

Maybe they were going for realism with the film! After all, real life has no plot. I know it's become expected to have foreshadowing and synchronicity in films but isn't this just another trope like 'Barbarians must be naked'? There really is no such thing as continuity or even sense in life, it's entirely tangential. When we write a biography of someone we're actually creating an artificial narrative that no one would have recognized while actually living it.

Re: Conan the Barbarian: A Critique

Ricky James Moore II — Mon, 09 Apr 2012 05:46:21 -0000

Your analysis reminds me of my criticisms of the Lord of the Rings films by Peter Jackson. While they weren't terrible films they totally missed the elements of what makes Tolkein's world unique. I don't mean Tom Bombadil or other plot elements (not that that is irrelevant). I mean the fact that in Tolkein (and his source material) elves are supposed to be bad-ass demigod body-builders, that Middle Earth is an antedeluvian Ancient World and not the middle ages, that Sauron is a wraith-like sorcerer living in his tower and not a giant flaming eye, and that Balrogs are black anti-angels and not fire dinosaurs, etc.

Essentially what happened to both Conan and Lord of the Rings is that the people making the film threw out the actual setting and background information in favor of generic-ass Dungeons and Dragons fantasy that the illiterate cretins in the public could understand better (actually, it may just be that the directors and producers were illiterate cretins, hard to tell sometimes).

Re: Studio Guignol Presents: Robert E. Howard’s The Frost-Giant’s Daughter

Sara Fulks-Whitfield — Fri, 06 Apr 2012 16:08:50 -0000

Firstly thanks and honor on your names for evenalong with venturing to bring this project about I have long sought to get something like this going myself , "TTOTE" is my absolute favorite but for cronology and budget "TFGD" is the obvious choice either of those stories would be pivotal to launching any Howard adaptations I have hooked many a new REH fan by suggesting those two along with "GOD IN THE BOWL" bieng the shortest but most poiniant .

Re: Millenium decided: Jason Momoa will be Conan

Kathleen — Fri, 30 Mar 2012 16:42:46 -0000

Not a good look for any man

Re: New Conan has the Arnold Schwarzenegger Seal of Approval

Mr Thangte — Mon, 26 Mar 2012 16:20:08 -0000

Ya. I like Arnold's Conan Sword than New Conan's....

Re: New Conan has the Arnold Schwarzenegger Seal of Approval

Mr Thangte — Mon, 26 Mar 2012 16:18:05 -0000

I still give Old Conan still the best. New Conan is good in action but I wish his body be more impressive like the Old Conan.

Re: Albion Swords working on Conan the Barbarian (2011) replicas?

Byron L Jones — Tue, 13 Mar 2012 09:01:17 -0000

um, 2012 is 30 years from 1982, and 2011 is 29 years from 1982.
Where do you get "20th anniversary edition" from?

Re: Conan the Barbarian: A Critique

vampire18 — Sun, 26 Feb 2012 14:14:47 -0000

I hope this movie doesn't destroy a potentially great franchise opportunity.
Two things that bothered me throughout the film and did so with the past Schwarzzeneger movies is this:
In all of Howard's and Le Sprague Decamp's tales much emphasis is placed on Conan's coal, black hair and volcanic blue eyes. In fact, it is often stated how his eyes bewilder people.In today's world of colored contacts and easily dyed hair, why would the producer 'gloss over' such easily corrected issues.
To any 'long-time' Conan fan these two physical characyteristics are crucial in imagining that the character is Conan.

Re: Twenty new pictures from Conan the Barbarian (2011)

André Labreure — Wed, 22 Feb 2012 05:54:03 -0000

this movie was awful demon shit. i regret deeply that i wasted my time

Re: Conan Blu-Ray Trailer

harrycason — Tue, 07 Feb 2012 00:37:33 -0000

Excited to watch Conan..

VPN

Re: Albion Swords working on Conan the Barbarian (2011) replicas?

Galen Pitts — Sat, 04 Feb 2012 00:45:04 -0000

I love the swords from the Conan movies and am more than willing to be a product tester. Contact me at michael.pitts24@yahoo.com. Its my birthday hook a brother up.

Re: Glenn Lord, The Greatest Howard Fan, 1931-2011

Stefan Klöckner — Mon, 02 Jan 2012 15:58:36 -0000

Gestern überbrachte uns der Conan Movie Blog die traurige Nachricht, dass Glenn Lord an Silvester verstorben ist. Lord hatte maßgeblichen Anteil am Welterfolg …

Re: Glenn Lord, The Greatest Howard Fan, 1931-2011

Steve Dilks — Sun, 01 Jan 2012 05:04:55 -0000

One of the driving forces behind getting Howard recognized both in the underground and mainstream. A true fan who worked tirelessly and selflessly while others, perhaps less deserving, reaped the benefits. Yet without Glenn the Howard name would be less recognized than it is now. Thank you and rest in peace Mr. Lord.

Re: The Filmgoer’s Guide to Conan the Barbarian (2011) Abridged

flankerfromthemaul — Sat, 31 Dec 2011 07:06:06 -0000

hi, everyone, blue ray and dvd edition has been released since the 17th of december , here, in france,and according to a friend of mine who works in a huge supermarket, and though the commercial advertising was pretty "invading", still, the sales expected by the store manager will not reach their goals.does anyone else in this blog have informations about how BR and DVD sales are going so far in his own country?

Re: Conan the Barbarian: A Critique

Victoria A. Jeffrey — Mon, 26 Dec 2011 22:25:18 -0000

Personally I enjoyed the film as run-of-the-mill Hollywood entertainment but I can understand your frustrations with it. It is certainly a by-the-numbers movie and Howard's work deserves much better than a new "Scorpion King"-like remake, which is what it seemed like to me.

It would be nice if those who insist on translating Howard's work to film took the same care and respect as Peter Jackson and his crew do with Tolkien's work.

Re: The Conan cast discuss the film at New York Comic Con

Alex Miraglia — Fri, 23 Dec 2011 12:16:44 -0000

It did have some faults, but I found this movie so damn exciting that it didn´t really hurt me much. There must be sequels...many sequels!

Re: Conan the Barbarian: A Critique

Mathew Freitas — Sun, 11 Dec 2011 22:33:52 -0000

I went into the film with no expectations, I heard it was horrid in some reviews, and not so bad in others. So I thought, expect nothing.

At the end of the film I wasn't quite sure what the hell I just saw. It felt like a live action walk through of a bad Video Game.

Forget Howard for a moment, looking at this film just as a film and it is absolutely horrible! It completely lacks any of the basic principals of film making and story telling (one and the same). As a Conan film, it fails as soon as the opening monolgue kicks in.

I agree with the review on this page, it hits pretty much all the points that I found wrong with this film. I wasn't as pleased with the camera work though, but, hey.

As a film student, I was flabbergasted to see this film ignoring the basic principals of story telling, it was antithesis of everything I have learned.

I have recommended it to teachers to show students so they can see how not to make a movie, and that a big budget doesn't make a film good. (I consider $70m to be big budget).

Re: Conan Blu-Ray Trailer

Chaz Elban — Fri, 09 Dec 2011 00:34:25 -0000

Gotta love it - been waiting for a while on this one I Love Blu Ray!

Re: Conan the Barbarian: The Conan Movie Blog Review

lenilee — Sun, 04 Dec 2011 19:33:19 -0000

Wow, great review. I found the film agonizing; I wanted to like it so much. Jason Mamoa has this amazing ability to project strength and gentleness simultaneously (somewhat zen-like but in a very masculinie, somewhat juxtapositional way) but I did not pick it up here. Conan is a flawed hero that we end appreciating and he brings us to an understanding of our own survival instinct and how this affects us. I wish the move had had more depth, more subltety and less contrivance and reliane upon the formula presentation. Jason did his job!!

Re: Conan the Barbarian: The Conan Movie Blog Review

ChimeraCoop — Fri, 02 Dec 2011 04:32:24 -0000

The review is as bad as the movie. Talk about missing the point of the bad of Conan. The screen writing was horrible. The movie was more Hollywood meets Sinbad than Conan in the Dark Ages. The actor's go from modern language to growls and yelps. Only Stephen Lang performance is convincing.

Given that the true character of Conan is well, barbarian, non intellectual, and adverse to conversation, Arnold's rendition is actually more convincing than Jason's. With proper direction and writing, with his performance as Khal Drogo in Game of Thrones, he could have pulled this off. Rachel Nichols, Rose McGowan, Ron Perlman, and Nonso Anozie, were all poor choices. Each tried to do well, but each gave their usual type performance s which did not fit their characters. Only the young Conan, Leo Howard did an admirable job.

Conan movies have yet to live up to the fantastic character of the original comic creation.

Re: The Filmgoer’s Guide to Conan the Barbarian (2011) Abridged

Freeso — Fri, 25 Nov 2011 21:33:07 -0000

This is a new Movie,Right? After your introduction, i decide to watch it later

Re: Conan the Barbarian: The Conan Movie Blog Review

Franco Traverso — Tue, 22 Nov 2011 05:59:37 -0000

hey just saw this and i think its great the time dedicated to the movie and waht people think about it ...

the classic conan is an epic masterpiece but i must admit i truly liked the new one and I think Jason Momoa was great, there´s really no point in comparing both movies plus im a fan ever since i saw game of thrones!

Re: Conan the Barbarian: A Critique

Briant — Fri, 18 Nov 2011 18:51:33 -0000

I believe that with the budget they were given they did the best they could as for the actors i still believe they chose well for conan but with better writters and better pruduction and a much larger budget they could do much better on a sequel after all theyre is still so much in tha hyborian world that as not been used in anny of the films like hyperborya or the entire mythos surounding the demons in this world that Howard created so lets say with the writers that adapted the lords of the rings and even maybe lets say Peter Jackson and a 3 years slate to make 2 entire 3 hours movies and lets say 250 million dollars for each we could get something marvellous out of this . But that my oppinion .

Re: The Filmgoer’s Guide to Conan the Barbarian (2011) Abridged

entertainment today — Wed, 16 Nov 2011 07:04:20 -0000

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Re: The Filmgoer’s Guide to Conan the Barbarian (2011) Abridged

Enrique Dueñas — Thu, 03 Nov 2011 17:21:59 -0000

I read the book. It is nothing special.