Highlander: The Source: How Far Can a Franchise Fall?

Fans of Highlander the Series will be exited to know that Adrian Paul will return as Duncan MacLeod when the movie is released in September, and he is joined by old friends Methos and Joe, but that's where the excitement ends.

The premise of the film is that Duncan MacLeod, sometime in the near future, will join with a band of immortals to seek out the true source of their immortality. Though Mac and friends do go on a quest, the true source is never explained to the audience.

We meet our hero in what is complete departure from character; MacLeod wanders the streets of an anarchic Eastern Europe, completely broken up over the loss of a girlfriend - a woman who left him after he shared his immortal secret.

The new antagonist, the Guardian, is enough to singlehandedly ruin the film. He is a cross between "the gimp" from Pulp Fiction and "that yellow bastard" from Sin City, with yellowish skin and worse one-liners than C3PO.

To make him powerful, the Guardian has been given a gimmick. He has the awesome ability to move "really fast," made possible by the futuristic effect by speeding up the film, which looks as awful as it sounds.

Supporting Characters

It's not just Duncan, all of the characters are off base. Methos, MacLeod's trusted friend, who at one point was willing to sacrifice his 4,000 year old life to save Duncan, is cold, callous and uncaring. His character has been rewritten to self-centered extremes.

While Joe Dawson makes an appearance, it is brief. His Watcher network is all but extinguished (with no mention of how or why). Fans of Dawson will much prefer his five minutes of screen time in End Game to is confounding role in The Source.

Several new characters join in on the quest. The most notable is a priest named Giovanni. His cowardice, flamboyancy and inability to defend himself makes for an unconvincing immortal who's been able to live for hundreds of year by the sword.

Who forgot to bring the Plot?

The movie doesn't explain anything. The world has fallen into chaos. How? Why? Who knows! I can only suppose that the writers didn't consider storytelling to be important to the movie's natural progression.

This is also evident in the complete and utter lack of flashbacks which had become a Highlander staple. The only flashbacks in the film revolve around MacLeod's girlfriend, who the audience meets very early on in the movie.

MacLeod's girlfriend has visions about how to find the source. How? Why? Again, that must not be too important to the plot.

Aside from the Guardian, the second absolute worst part character is Jabba the Hut's cameo. You'll know what I mean when you see the film.

Final Points

-Duncan MacLeod doesn't take a single head
-There is only one quickening in the entire movie
-The ending is horrid

I have said about as much as I can without completely spoiling the movie for fellow fans who, like me, want to give it a chance.

Unfortunately, this is the worst episode in the Highlander saga. Other notoriously bad Highlander chapters, including the final season of Highlander: The Series, the entire Highlander: The Raven spin-off, and the Highlander 2 film pale in comparison to The Source's levels of unpleasantness.

Leading man Adrian Paul also has not voice confidence in the final product. When asked in an interview if the movie is any good, he indicated that he had seen it, and that you will need to "Judge for yourself." Paul has later gone on the record saying that he will not participate in another Highlander film unless he has creative control.

Highlander: The Source is officially scheduled for release on September 15th. The movie will not see a theater release as with the four previous films, nor will it be release directly to DVD. The studio will not stand behind the film, so they have given the rights over to the Sci-Fi Channel. September 15th at 9:00 PM, Highlander: The Source will be released directly to TV.