'Solomon Kane' Movie Review

The character Solomon Kane is on the run from Hell, while the film Solomon Kane ironically is just now escaping Hell: Distribution Hell. Filmed way back in 2008, the movie was released around the world in 2010 -- everywhere, it seems, except the US. Now, more than two years later, it's hitting a handful of theaters with a whimper rather than a bang, but the question remains: did it deserve this shoddy treatment?

In the early 17th century, notorious English mercenary Solomon Kane (James Purefoy), fresh from murdering and pillaging throughout the Ottoman Empire, finds to his chagrin that his bloodthirsty ways have made him a target for the Devil, who demands his soul, stat. Not ready to die, Kane bolts and reconsiders his path in life, giving all his wealth to the church and becoming a God-serving pacifist.

He joins up with a family of Puritans on their way to the New World, but it's not long before Kane's devotion to his new lifestyle is put to the test. Hordes of followers of an evil sorcerer named Malachi (Jason Flemyng) are pillaging England, and when they attack Kane's band of travelers and kidnap the young Meredith (Rachel Hurd-Wood), he's forced to toss the whole pacifism thing out the window in order to get her back. As a bonus, Kane is convinced that if he brings Meredith back to her family, his do-gooding will redeem his soul and save him from Hell. But is he right?

Solomon Kane isn't particularly original -- it's the sort of antihero redemption story we've seen before in Westerns, samurai tales, action blowouts, etc. -- but it's set in a medieval world of sorcery and the supernatural that's relatively fresh (and certainly superior to last year's Season of the Witch) and features an unusual sincerity for genre fare. The script delves into the internal conflicts of faith with surprising dramatic impact, nudged along by Purefoy's performance headlining a strong, if unheralded (save for an underutilized Max von Sydow), cast.

Reportedly, writer-director Michael J. Bassett, whose previous two films were the excellent under-the-radar horror flicks Deathwatch and Wilderness, himself isn't sure why Solomon Kane was delayed for so long. It's no classic, but it's certainly as good as most wide theatrical genre releases these days. My guess is that it was just too hard a sell: it lacks a big star; the titular character, created by Conan the Barbarian author Robert E. Howard, is not widely known; its genre is a muddled hybrid of action and horror; and it lacks the spectacular set pieces -- say, the massive battle scene of an historical epic or the effects-laden action sequence of a blockbuster -- around which trailers are built. There are only a couple of big CGI-dominated scenes in Solomon Kane -- one near the beginning and one near the end -- and in both cases, the effects are mediocre.

That said, the plentiful fight scenes are engaging and bloody, but given the limited window of opportunity available to convince someone to see your movie, Solomon Kane was fighting an uphill battle.

• Acting: B- (Solid all around.)
• Direction: B- (Good at handling both action and drama, with a touch of horror.)
• Script: C (Unoriginal and predictable, but sincere.)
• Gore/Effects: C+ (Ample bloody violence, but some of the larger CGI effects look cheap.)
• Overall: C+ (Nothing groundbreaking or earth-shattering, but dark and violent with a flair for drama.)

Solomon Kane is directed by Michael J. Bassett and is rated R by the MPAA for violence throughout. Release date: September 28, 2012.

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