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#632 - Highlander: The Final Dimension
Andrew Morahan, 1994
An immortal swordsman must confront his past when a vicious adversary who has been buried for hundreds of years unexpectedly resurfaces.
The original Highlander was a fun little B-movie with a good high concept about a secret race of immortals who must duel each other to the death in the hopes of being the last one standing and thus acquiring a magical prize. The problem with such a concept is that its narrative and conclusion don't exactly open up a lot of room for sequels. This is why Highlander 2: The Quickening is especially reviled among sequels because of how drastically it had to change the existing canon in order to accommodate a sequel (most notably dropping the low fantasy angle of immortal warriors in favour of some nonsensical sci-fi premise that recast said immortals as amnesiac aliens banished from their home planet). While Highlander 2 is a prime example of a sequel that goes off the rails completely, its immediate successor Highlander: The Final Dimension goes in the complete opposite direction by choosing to shamelessly rehash the first film. Taking place eight years after the events of the original Highlander (and disregarding the events of Highlander 2 in the process), The Final Dimension starts by showing series protagonist Connor MacLeod (Christopher Lambert) traveling to Japan to visit a wise immortal (Mako) only to be tracked down by an extremely vicious immortal named Kane (Mario van Peebles). Eventually, Kane and his crew of evil immortals are sealed inside a mountain for centuries and are only broken out during an excavation being overseen by archaeologist Alex Johnson (Deborah Kara Unger). Kane then makes it his mission to find MacLeod and travels to New York in order to find him and kill him.
While I can't blame the creators for wanting to recreate the same kind of magic that made Highlander a cult hit in the first place, this mainly extends to empty replication. It's pretty obvious that Kane is meant to be the same kind of vicious barbarian as the original film's Kurgan and any differences that van Peebles brings to the proceedings are either negligible or too ridiculous (such as his centuries-old character's reaction to a condom). Unger's character is also familiar in that she is supposed to be the civilian scientist who stumbles upon the secret of the immortals while also becoming something of a love interest for MacLeod (which is made extremely straightforward when MacLeod has flashbacks to his romancing of an 18th-century French noblewoman who also happens to be played by Unger). MacLeod, well, he's still MacLeod and Lambert's Wiseau-like accent is still in full force. Even Mako channeling the same kind of wizened mysticism he displayed in Conan the Barbarian makes very little difference here. Other sub-plots are recycled, such as MacLeod once again becoming the prime suspect in a police investigation (which naturally doesn't go anywhere). The addition of Kane being able to perform illusions and sorcery does little to spice up the sword-fighting aspects and its application is frequently baffling (especially when taking into account the shoddy effects work involved).
Though you'd think it'd be hard to overtake or even measure up to Highlander 2 when it comes to being a bad sequel, Highlander: The Final Dimension manages it just fine. For all its faults, at least Highlander 2 took a stab at trying to do something different, which makes its failure weirdly admirable. The Final Dimension, on the other hand, feels like an attempt to apologise for its predecessor's weirdness by attempting to restart the continuity and play things extremely safe (use of sorcery notwithstanding). Of course, in doing so it still plays serious havoc by contradicting the established rules of the game (apparently MacLeod was able to win despite Kane still being alive, which is pretty ridiculous even for this franchise). The action is also pretty weak and the film feels very dated in a lot of ways, especially that score (which seems to rip off Mötley Crüe completely during the final fight) and the cinematography, which is occasionally eye-catching in its garishness but often feels as trashy and '90s as you'd expect from this film. Very difficult to recommend even to people who liked the original.
Andrew Morahan, 1994
An immortal swordsman must confront his past when a vicious adversary who has been buried for hundreds of years unexpectedly resurfaces.
The original Highlander was a fun little B-movie with a good high concept about a secret race of immortals who must duel each other to the death in the hopes of being the last one standing and thus acquiring a magical prize. The problem with such a concept is that its narrative and conclusion don't exactly open up a lot of room for sequels. This is why Highlander 2: The Quickening is especially reviled among sequels because of how drastically it had to change the existing canon in order to accommodate a sequel (most notably dropping the low fantasy angle of immortal warriors in favour of some nonsensical sci-fi premise that recast said immortals as amnesiac aliens banished from their home planet). While Highlander 2 is a prime example of a sequel that goes off the rails completely, its immediate successor Highlander: The Final Dimension goes in the complete opposite direction by choosing to shamelessly rehash the first film. Taking place eight years after the events of the original Highlander (and disregarding the events of Highlander 2 in the process), The Final Dimension starts by showing series protagonist Connor MacLeod (Christopher Lambert) traveling to Japan to visit a wise immortal (Mako) only to be tracked down by an extremely vicious immortal named Kane (Mario van Peebles). Eventually, Kane and his crew of evil immortals are sealed inside a mountain for centuries and are only broken out during an excavation being overseen by archaeologist Alex Johnson (Deborah Kara Unger). Kane then makes it his mission to find MacLeod and travels to New York in order to find him and kill him.
While I can't blame the creators for wanting to recreate the same kind of magic that made Highlander a cult hit in the first place, this mainly extends to empty replication. It's pretty obvious that Kane is meant to be the same kind of vicious barbarian as the original film's Kurgan and any differences that van Peebles brings to the proceedings are either negligible or too ridiculous (such as his centuries-old character's reaction to a condom). Unger's character is also familiar in that she is supposed to be the civilian scientist who stumbles upon the secret of the immortals while also becoming something of a love interest for MacLeod (which is made extremely straightforward when MacLeod has flashbacks to his romancing of an 18th-century French noblewoman who also happens to be played by Unger). MacLeod, well, he's still MacLeod and Lambert's Wiseau-like accent is still in full force. Even Mako channeling the same kind of wizened mysticism he displayed in Conan the Barbarian makes very little difference here. Other sub-plots are recycled, such as MacLeod once again becoming the prime suspect in a police investigation (which naturally doesn't go anywhere). The addition of Kane being able to perform illusions and sorcery does little to spice up the sword-fighting aspects and its application is frequently baffling (especially when taking into account the shoddy effects work involved).
Though you'd think it'd be hard to overtake or even measure up to Highlander 2 when it comes to being a bad sequel, Highlander: The Final Dimension manages it just fine. For all its faults, at least Highlander 2 took a stab at trying to do something different, which makes its failure weirdly admirable. The Final Dimension, on the other hand, feels like an attempt to apologise for its predecessor's weirdness by attempting to restart the continuity and play things extremely safe (use of sorcery notwithstanding). Of course, in doing so it still plays serious havoc by contradicting the established rules of the game (apparently MacLeod was able to win despite Kane still being alive, which is pretty ridiculous even for this franchise). The action is also pretty weak and the film feels very dated in a lot of ways, especially that score (which seems to rip off Mötley Crüe completely during the final fight) and the cinematography, which is occasionally eye-catching in its garishness but often feels as trashy and '90s as you'd expect from this film. Very difficult to recommend even to people who liked the original.