Solomon Kane: Critic Reviews

Mr. Basset is too enamored of the usual action film cliches ... But he has a graphic visual style that suits the simplistic material and he keeps you watching even as the wet, sucking sounds of skewered flesh grows tedious.

There's plenty that's good here: a serious tone, steady pacing, muddy and bloody scenery and a convincing turn by Purefoy in his own west country accent. But Kane is an ill fit into the origins tale template; it's a story with few surprises.

Who knew there were skinhead and zombie equivalents in late-Elizabethan England?

It is, for a contemporary CGI-fraught fantasy-slash-living-video-game, not at all bad, dotted with moments of Bosch and steady on its storytelling feet.

[It] does have its moments and gets better as it goes along.

This muscular yet monotonous Kane just isn't much fun.

Been there, done that.

"Solomon Kane" succeeds by embracing its identity as a straightforward genre exercise, complete with bone-crunching and blood-spurting action. By not aiming for more, it hits its target.

It's not everyone's cup of bloody tea, but an unapologetic genre treat for those willing to dive in.

Formulaic, but it settles down into a fine if square-jawed groove, delivering rousing adventure of a sort which should generally please fans of throwback, morally black-and-white entertainment.

Director Michael J. Bassett seems to know how to correctly handle the material, giving it a lightness of touch but also enough bloody and shocking spectacle to stir up viewers.

Writer/director Michael J. Bassett stages the carnage under so much rain-soaked filth, you can almost smell the stench. It's a good stench.

Few characters have much to do but grunt and scream and bleed.

Bassett gives us plenty of reasons to respect his tale, then refuses to break that contract with cheap tricks or shoddy delivery.

If some of the special effects aren't so special and the theology is bit foggy, director Bassett knows that there is almost nothing more inherently scary than a dark forest and leading man Purefoy brings conviction to Kane.

The script by director Michael J. Bassett wallows in formula and takes itself too seriously.

Uneven and far less deep that it believes itself to be, Solomon Kane is nevertheless a solid B-movie diversion that excels when sticking to its pulpy, action-fantasy roots.

The results suggest a compelling movie could be made from the material, even if it isn't this one.

Lacking a charismatic lead or villain, struggling with its big themes, it's not surprising this 2009 picture sat on the shelf for so long.

It's hardly original (and Max von Sydow is wasted in brief scenes as Kane's father), but "Solomon Kane" is worthy of big-screen appreciation.

The fight choreography has a gracefulness bordering on elegance, and so it's a shame that these standalone thrills aren't better integrated into the film as a fully formed narrative whole.

It grinds along on the dubious strengths of its generic battle sequences and midbudget special effects, whipped up around a stone-faced hero who's part Christ figure, part embodiment of wickedness, all crippling bore.

A borrowed melange of Lord of the Rings pomp, weightless CGI sorcery, artfully smudged cheekbones and exceedingly dull sword slicings.

Both the movie and the hero are too relentlessly dour.

Renouncing CGI and superhuman stunts, 'Solomon Kane' gives Solomon and its own effective visuals time to develop.