We now live in a time when a franchise can now effortlessly slip between the boundaries of TV and cinema with relatively simple ease with such blockbuster heavyweights as Marvel, DC, the MonsterVerse and even Sonic The Hedgehog expanding their vast universes on both the big and little screen. However, the main drawback for such an ambitious venture is that if your product doesn’t inspire the kind of rabid FOMO usually reserved for habitual drug users, your overarching story will be nothing less then incomprehensible garbage to the casual user and it’s here we run into the first roadblock for the franchise merging Highlander: Endgame.
To be honest, while I kept up to date with the Highlander movies, I never watched so much as a single episode of Highlander: The Series beyond Queen’s rousing rendition of Princes Of The Universe that played over the opening credits, so immediately that put me at something of a severe disadvantage when settling down to watch the fourth feature that gave us a two-for-one deal of McLeod clansmen.
Choosing not to update any newbies on the details of how both Connor and Duncan McLeod of the Clan McLeod can exist in the same space when the former has outlasted every other Immortal playing the great game several times, we launch straight into a 1994 flashback that sees the two men chilling in New York. However, Connor’s rather dour mood foreshadows the murder of his adopted daughter, Rachel, who is promptly obliterated by an explosive device as she wistfully recalls being saved by the Immortal furing World War II.
Soon after, Connor vanishes and while we get a whole bunch of typically Highlander-style flashbacks seeing both McLeods getting chummy throughout the ages, ten years pass with no word from the original Immortal. This, obviously, worries Duncan, but after a decade of wondering, pieces of the puzzle soon start connecting together.
It seems that after an eternity of suffering and head lopping, Connor fancied taking a respite from the Great Game and took a time out thanks to a place called the Sanctuary which is run by a splinter group of Watchers – although being blindfolded bolted to a table for the best part of a decade doesn’t really seem like the best alternative.
As Duncan seeks to free Connor, yet another old threat from Connor limitless past rises up in the form of Jacob Kell, an Immortal priest from the ancient Scotland whose father was instrumental in the death of Connor’s mother and who has been a shadowy thorn in the side of our hero ever since. What’s more, one of Kell’s Immortal henchpeople is an old flame of Duncan whom he gave immortality to against her will on the night of their wedding – which, y’know, is kinda awkward. Can Duncan locate Connor before Kell makes his move and will non viewers of the TV series have any idea about what the hell is going on?
Quite possibly the most relatable thing about Highlander: Endgame is the fact that Christopher Lambert’s Connor McLeod has grown despondent and weary of his endless existence, because after witnessing this third sequel, I’m pretty fucking sick of this universe myself. The first movie still stands pretty tall as an awsomely eccentric slice of stylish, 80s, nonsense, from from then on in, the series pulled into an uncontrollable nose dive that no amount of belated director’s cut could hope to salvage. It’s never a good sign when you have a string of follow-ups so woeful, that every subsequent sequel positively falls over itself in order to ignore the previous installment, but I have to say, at least this fourth entry has the TV show to back it up.
However, the bad news is that I’ve never watched the show, but I honestly feel that even if I had diligently muscled my way through all six seasons, Highlander: Endgame still would have been an exercise of watching a movie get eaten alive by it’s own plot.
Rather than clueing in any poor soul who has no idea why there’s still loads of Immortals roaming about the place, the movie simply forges ahead, leaving vague crumbs here and there, that attempts to fill in the gaps with horrible inadequacy. Needless to say I was lost when it came to the universe in general, but when it came to the basic plot, things couldn’t be simpler.
Once again, a Highlander movie busts out the same old plot concerning yet another undying lunatic that been stalking Connor McLeod through the ages with a ridiculous amount of patience and this time it’s villainous character actor extraordinaire Bruce Payne who is called upon to fail to live up to Clancy Brown’s Kurgan. The guy gives it his best shot, I suppose, with all the preening and gurning that usually comes with Payne’s particular brand of badnick; but his uncontrolable overacting is so extreme in places that he misses “scary” and “threatening” completely and instead lands somewhere in the neighbourhood of “silly” and “irritating”.
What makes things all the more annoying is that a young Donnie Yen is right there, as the Hong Kong legend is present to pull double duty as both a henchman and the film’s fight coordinator, but you feel that not bringing him in to play a completely different type of Highlander villain is a massive missed opportunity. However, to give Yen the credit he deserves, the movie features by far the most interesting fight choreography seen in any of the sequels so far – it’s just a shame that Lambert now looks painfully done with the whole thing.
Maybe I’m wrong, maybe Lambert’s acting skills are so advanced that Connor’s existential malaise is merely just a performance – but I have to admit, for an Immortal, Chris is looking plenty ready to bid this world of clanging swords and awful Scottish accents far behind him. In comparison, Adrian Paul looks pretty excited to graduate from TV to cinema much in the same way Picard and co. did when the Next Generation crew got a movie contract. However, while he adds a certain degree of younger vigour, his subplot involving Lisa B’s vengeful Immortal ex seems included just to give him something to do before he takes over lead duties from a decapitated Lambert.
Yet another Highlander sequel means that we get yet another deeply forgettable follow up to a franchise that probably would have been better off for everyone if someone has chopped its head off way back in 1991. Fans of the TV show might get substantially more out of this than the average viewer, but despite the odd inventive duel (thanks again, Donnie), this is a curiously unemotional farewell to a character who’d been heroically chopping heads since 1986.
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