Highlander: Endgame

(This review includes spoilers.)

Connor: "In the end, there can be only one. And that has to be you."

Endgame was a valiant but ultimately unsuccessful attempt to reboot the Highlander movie franchise and replace Connor MacLeod with Duncan. How I wish it had worked.

This movie is so frustrating. I was so thrilled with the beginning, when they kept doing things I really loved, things that worked so well. And just when I was thinking, wow, this is going to be good, they started bringing in all these bizarre story elements that I found jarring. It was like they didn't define exactly what story they were telling, so they threw in lots of things they hoped would work. And it didn't. In the end, the good stuff just couldn't overcome the bad stuff.

So what did work?

They did a great job of blending the movie Connor with the series Duncan. The flashbacks to the two of them together in the past and the present were just wonderful, the best part of the movie. They reprised Connor's relationship with his adopted daughter, Rachel, before Kell killed her; flashbacked to Connor's wife Heather; had Duncan in Connor's secret storeroom – all great callbacks to the first movie. And I particularly liked Connor and Duncan conversing in three different languages, French, English and Gaelic, because it felt real, like something they would do.

On Duncan's end, they brought in Methos and Joe and even gave them a couple of good scenes. They brought back the infamous Bad Watchers, and they gave them a new and interesting pastime. The Sanctuary idea worked on two levels: as a refuge for immortals too depressed to function but unable to kill themselves, and as a way for the Bad Watchers to prevent there ever being "the One." It was creepy, too. Great idea.

And the two major duels were staged beautifully and looked pretty darned good. I'll give them that.

What didn't work?

Nearly everything involving Jacob Kell. He was like a silly caricature of evil. Kell having Connor's mother burned at the stake was just too much. And Kell's gang of rule-breaking immortal gangster minions with their fake-blood-spouting, martial arts bullshit was impossible to get into, and impossible to find intimidating.

Kate was worse. Absolutely everything involving Kate did not work. I honestly do not believe that writers should be slaves to canon under all circumstances; sometimes a cool plot requires some changes, and writers can't stay married to past mistakes. But the fact that Duncan has never been married was an important plot line in the series, and there was an entire series episode about not killing a prospective immortal before their time. It was out of character for Duncan to do what he did to Kate, and completely unrealistic that she would despise Duncan forever for giving her the gift of centuries of youth and beauty. (Yeah, that would really piss me off. Not being able to have children is a tough one, but still.)

And all of that stuff about the number of confirmed kills and the power meter and "we can't let Kell be the One" just bugged me. It felt like they were ignoring the existence of the oldest and most powerful immortal of all. In fact, when I first watched this movie, I was really worried that Kell would hunt down and take out Methos; it would have made Kell unstoppable. If I'd been writing the script and wanted to give the Kell plot some oomph, that's what I would have done. Well, except that the last character in the Highlanderverse that I want dead is Methos.

I was really ambivalent about how Connor died, too. I honestly thought that Connor dying worked for the movie; they needed to pass the torch to Duncan, yes. Connor's reasons for giving his head to Duncan worked in theory, too – his being suicidal over Rachel's death and just tired of living, giving Duncan a necessary power edge, etc. But Duncan killing Connor, even with Connor begging him to do it, felt like Richie and Sean Burns all over again. I bet it completely ticked off the Highlander movie fans, too.

Just as with a couple of other Highlander movies, there's a theatrical cut and a director's cut. Why can't they just do it right the first time? Maybe this movie would have been better if they'd cut a lot of the Kell stuff, and took Kate out completely. No, that would have left gaping plot holes.

Maybe the movies and the series were never meant to mix. Or (and I know I've said this way too many times) the producers just didn't understand what worked with their franchise, and what didn't.

Flashbacks:

— 1555 Scotland. Connor's dying mother was targeted by Kell's foster father, a priest. I think. This entire flashback was confusing and distasteful.

— 1712 Kildare, Ireland. Connor and Duncan, in absolutely great costumes, defended Kate from highwaymen. This one was just lovely. Although the wedding flashbacks that I assume weren't long afterward really ticked me off.

— 1631 Ravenna, Italy. Connor training Duncan and giving him lessons on how to be a good immortal. Again, great costumes, fun interaction. This was where they introduced the unstoppable blow thing that really didn't work in the Connor/Duncan duel on the roof.

— 1625 Glen Fruin, Scotland. Duncan resurrected from his first death and Connor was there, waiting for him. Another big break with series canon.

Bits and pieces:

— Adrian Paul looked incredible. Everything he did best in the series came through in this movie. I will never understand why he didn't become a big movie star. Was it the timing? Was he typecast? Was it the failure of this movie?

— Connor had 262 confirmed kills, and Duncan 174. Kell had 661. I actually liked this little tidbit, because killing his five minions would have given him the number of the Beast. Except he didn't kill Kate, making it 665.

— There was a brief glimpse of a neon sign reading "Silvercup." That was where the final duel between Connor and the Kurgan in the original movie was filmed. Nice touch there.

— Methos tends to coast under the radar; the two apartments we've seen have been nondescript with sparse furnishings. Here, he was living in a mansion. Out of character.

— Another change, or addition to canon: that if a prospective immortal doesn't die a violent death, they'll stay normal, be able to have kids, grow old and die. I can remember being surprised about this one, although my memories of the early movies isn't perfect; it could have been mentioned before.

— Why Joe and Methos, but not Amanda? Because she was working on The Raven and had a new love interest? I would have much preferred any sort of plot involving Amanda to the pathetic one with Kate.

— Several glimpses of the World Trade Center. Yes, we'll see it forever in movies set in New York. But it always gives me a strange feeling, like seeing a ghost.

— Jacob Kell. Another villain with a K name. There was Kate, too.

— No music by Queen. But we did get a lot of the beautiful Bonny Portmore.

Quotes:

Jacob: "I call this decap with a twist. No sugar."

Connor: "I'm Connor MacLeod of the clan MacLeod. Like you, my friend, I have a hard time dying."

Duncan: "In the end, there can be only one. And you're not it. Call ya."

This was probably the best Highlander movie, as well as the most disappointing. I honestly don't know how to rate it; it would probably be one of those "take an average" things. sigh

Billie
---
Billie Doux knows that there can be only one. And that's Methos.

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