As a longtime reader and fan of Roberrt E Howard, one can immediatly see and hear a discrepancy between dialog and storyline. The main reason is that the source material was NOT from the short stories but from the Conan comic books, and it shows.
This fundamental flaw is why these films, for me. fall short. Dispite the amazing cast and budget...these could have really been so much better. It was almost like somone that once read a comic book version of your favorite Harlan Ellison or Harry Harrison Book, and based it on the comic book without going to the main source materials...results in product such as this.
Don't get me wrong, if I had never read the original stories of Robert E Howard, it might have inspried to seek his writings out and that's a plus.
And it's not a bad production. My point is that both these films could have been elevated by the inclusion of the main source materials, that was lacking by it's absence.
This fundamental flaw is why these films, for me. fall short. Dispite the amazing cast and budget...these could have really been so much better. It was almost like somone that once read a comic book version of your favorite Harlan Ellison or Harry Harrison Book, and based it on the comic book without going to the main source materials...results in product such as this.
Don't get me wrong, if I had never read the original stories of Robert E Howard, it might have inspried to seek his writings out and that's a plus.
And it's not a bad production. My point is that both these films could have been elevated by the inclusion of the main source materials, that was lacking by it's absence.