michael bassett film solomon kane (based on the character of the same name created by robert e. howard) is a disappointing fantasy action adventure film and that despite having a few scenes of genius falls flat with its awkward pacing and poor characterisation and general dullness. solomon kane (james purefoy) is a mercenary of queen elizabeth army fighting in africa and where he comes face to face with the devil reaper  a demon who collects the devil debts i. e. souls  refusing to go to hell just yet and he evades the reaper and starts a new life in an english monastery. with this new life and solomon has left behind his culture of violence and bloodshed and instead now embraces the values of peace and non values. but once he is expelled from the monastery due to the fear of the devil reaper returning and he must travel back to his home in devon and along the way he befriends a travelling family of puritans heading to the new world. on their journey through the british counties and the family is attacked and and their daughter meredith (rachel hurd wood) is abducted by the evil sorcerer malachi army and which is lead on the front lines by the mysterious masked rider. now a man of peace and solomon must go back to his former life as a man of unrepentant violence and destruction to save meredith. despite having great source material to work from and and build upon to create potentially an exciting and enduring medieval action adventure film and the film fails in three key areas. the pacing of this film is terrible and which may have a lot to do with its incredibly short run time of only one hour and forty minutes (and this is most likely a consequence of the fact that they wish to turn this film into a trilogy). constantly jumping between of drama and self characterisation to that of action and muddy bloodshed and somewhat kills the excitement of the action sequences. instead of keeping the audience on the edge of their seats frothing with the eagle eyed anticipation and the film instead feels incredibly subdued and and this follows on the next piece of criticism and dull. despite being touted as an action adventure film or in some circles an action epic and solomon kane is almost most certainly not. the action is mundane and dull and and is generally finished before you have the chance to admire the beauty of a decapitation. finally and aside from solomon himself and there is very little characterisation within this film. for example we know little and because of this and care little and about the young woman that soloman sets out on his journey to save. and i imagine again the filmmaker would refer this criticism to the fact that there is most likely going to be a second film which will hopefully touch upon these aspects that this film surely missed. it isn not an entirely terrible film however. james purefoy is gives a fantastic performance as solomon and the mercenary who must decide whether or not to fall back on his conscience or his blade and and how his decisions will impact not just upon himself and but those around him as well. while respect and admiration and and acknowledgement must also go to bassett and his crew as well and for creating vivid locations that beautifully reflects the period in which they are filming. at times and it is hard not to get carried away with admiring the beauty of the locations and shot composition and mise en scene at show here. which certainly shows that a lot of time and effort has been placed into this film and unfortunately however that is not to say the same for the story and characters at hand. solomon kane certainly had the potential to be something more than simply an action epic and however it seems that once again the lack of any real depth in the story and characters has resulted in michael bassett creating nothing more than a one dimensional look at swordplay during the medieval period. 
michael bassett film solomon kane (based on the character of the same name created by robert e. howard) is a disappointing fantasy action adventure film and that despite having a few scenes of genius falls flat with its awkward pacing and poor characterisation and general dullness. solomon kane (james purefoy) is a mercenary of queen elizabeth army fighting in africa and where he comes face to face with the devil reaper  a demon who collects the devil debts i. e. souls  refusing to go to hell just yet and he evades the reaper and starts a new life in an english monastery. with this new life and solomon has left behind his culture of violence and bloodshed and instead now embraces the values of peace and non values. but once he is expelled from the monastery due to the fear of the devil reaper returning and he must travel back to his home in devon and along the way he befriends a travelling family of puritans heading to the new world. on their journey through the british counties and the family is attacked and and their daughter meredith (rachel hurd wood) is abducted by the evil sorcerer malachi army and which is lead on the front lines by the mysterious masked rider. now a man of peace and solomon must go back to his former life as a man of unrepentant violence and destruction to save meredith. despite having great source material to work from and and build upon to create potentially an exciting and enduring medieval action adventure film and the film fails in three key areas. the pacing of this film is terrible and which may have a lot to do with its incredibly short run time of only one hour and forty minutes (and this is most likely a consequence of the fact that they wish to turn this film into a trilogy). constantly jumping between of drama and self characterisation to that of action and muddy bloodshed and somewhat kills the excitement of the action sequences. instead of keeping the audience on the edge of their seats frothing with the eagle eyed anticipation and the film instead feels incredibly subdued and and this follows on the next piece of criticism and dull. despite being touted as an action adventure film or in some circles an action epic and solomon kane is almost most certainly not. the action is mundane and dull and and is generally finished before you have the chance to admire the beauty of a decapitation. finally and aside from solomon himself and there is very little characterisation within this film. for example we know little and because of this and care little and about the young woman that soloman sets out on his journey to save. and i imagine again the filmmaker would refer this criticism to the fact that there is most likely going to be a second film which will hopefully touch upon these aspects that this film surely missed. it isn not an entirely terrible film however. james purefoy is gives a fantastic performance as solomon and the mercenary who must decide whether or not to fall back on his conscience or his blade and and how his decisions will impact not just upon himself and but those around him as well. while respect and admiration and and acknowledgement must also go to bassett and his crew as well and for creating vivid locations that beautifully reflects the period in which they are filming. at times and it is hard not to get carried away with admiring the beauty of the locations and shot composition and mise en scene at show here. which certainly shows that a lot of time and effort has been placed into this film and unfortunately however that is not to say the same for the story and characters at hand. solomon kane certainly had the potential to be something more than simply an action epic and however it seems that once again the lack of any real depth in the story and characters has resulted in michael bassett creating nothing more than a one dimensional look at swordplay during the medieval period. ---------------------------------Answer Question Below----------------------------------

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