A powerful Cimmerian warrior, Conan (Momoa) carves a bloody path across the land of Hyboria on a personal vendetta. That soon turns into a an epic battle against evil, for Conan’s mortal enemy, Khalar Zym (Lang), seeks the legendary Mask of Acheron. The artifact will enable Khalar Zym to raise his wife from the dead and achieve immortality for himself, but it will also unleash a malevolent force upon the land, and only Conan and his companions can stop it.
- Based on characters created by Robert E. Howard.
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After watching the Arnold Schwarzenegger classic Conan the Barbarian, I noticed there were a few issues with it (including some dated special effects). Since a new version, Conan the Barbarian (2011), came out a while back, I wanted to check that out. After all, there was room for improvements from the original film. Would this remake be able to improve the flaws, or was it just another Hollywood cash grab?
Jason Momoa takes over for Ah-nold in the new Conan the Barbarian (2011), and seems to do a better job in the role. While the original kind of muted Arnold, with him giving out more of his unique grunt sounds than actual dialogue, this new version gives Momoa more of a chance to give the title character some personality. While he tends toward the gruff, there are moments where he’s able to let a wry smile play across his face (which helped him tremendously in Aquaman). While he’s still the tough guy, he’s got a bit of a sense of humor and humility, something that the previous version lacked.
Most of the rest of the cast doesn’t do a bad job either – with one exception. This updated Conan the Barbarian (2011) trades the iconic James Earl Jones for Stephen Lang (the bad guy from Avatar) and seems to highlight how much he can’t match up. In fact, his creepy daughter, played by Rose McGowan, easily outshines him at every step. Rachel Nichols, as the “damsel in distress,” doesn’t do a half bad job either, and the chemistry between her and Momoa isn’t half bad. Even Ron Perlman turns in a pretty good performance as Conan’s dad.
The storyline is also much easier to follow in Conan the Barbarian (2011). One of the biggest sins of the original was to downplay the revenge aspect of the story, with Schwarzenegger’s Conan on the verge of tossing his revenge aside at several points, only for something tragic to happen to get him back on point. In this film, while Momoa’s Conan may, at first, just be randomly freeing oppressed peoples, it becomes obvious pretty quickly it’s just something to do while searching for a clue to the people he’s looking for. Once he recognizes someone, he’s off, determined to deliver his retribution. It works much better for the film as a whole, and viewers will tune in to see how he fares.
The special effects in Conan the Barbarian (2011) start off not so hot, and then actually get a lot better. One of the first sequences shows what is, apparently, one of the hardest things in Hollywood to correctly show: a baby. Lots of films, from The Flash to American Sniper, this seems to be the Achilles Heel of CGI, and this film is just another to fall victim. Thankfully, after that bad CGI, it gets much better, as the filmmakers obviously used a combination of CGI and real-life effects to make things more realistic. It doesn’t always succeed, but after seeing that total unrealistic baby in the beginning, viewers will actually appreciate the rest a little bit more.
All in all, Conan the Barbarian (2011) seems like a remake that was worth doing. With a pretty good cast (with only Stephen Lang under-performing), and a screenplay that doesn’t stifle them as much, there are a lot of things that have improved over Conan the Barbarian. Even the storyline is less muddled, and the revenge angle is never tossed aside for no reason.
There’s only one problem: the original seemed a bit raw, a bit more rough-around-the-edges. This new version is much more standard Hollywood fare – with each edge sanded down and polished to a shine (including its happier ending). While the film improves on the first film in a lot of ways, this Hollywood polish might have gone too far. The first film is too raw (and seemingly low budget), this one is a bit too overdone – and Conan would have been better served somewhere in between.
