Review of Conan the Barbarian (2011) by Sandrick — 21 Apr 2012

Thanks to all of the negative reviews here I was pleasantly surprised by how much fun this movie was. I thought that the casting was spot on and that the narrative captured the essence Howard's world. I loved the into to young Conan and I thought that Pearlman was ideal for his father.

I love the Howard stories, loved the comics, loved the old movies, but I definitely think that people's nostalgia for the old films has been the curse of this one. I couldn't help but appreciate how much practical movie making (real sets, stunts, etc) there was in place of CG.

Sure some of the locales were computer generated, but I found that these were done very well and it didn't detract from the experience. This was a fun adventure that I hope people discover later as a cult film.

My only gripe with the film is the use of Morgan Freeman as a narrator that drops out halfway through. If there is a narrator, then they should bookend the film, closing it out. Also, Morgan Freeman's voice was not a good choice.