140, Conan the Barbarian

For those of you like me, Jason Momoa is better known for playing Ronon Dex in Stargate Atlantis however he was first cast much earlier, finding (part) fame in Baywatch Hawaii and a few other lesser known titles.  It was Stargate that launched him onto the world stage and after 5 years of that along with a role in Game of Thrones at Khal Drogo we find ourselves face to face with him as Conan - a role originally played by regular hard man, Schwarzennegger himself!

So how does this compare to the original? Well, seeing as its been 29 years since Arnie hacked and slashed his way across the war torn wastelands the graphics, script and story have definitely improved.  Jason is awesome as the barbaric warrior and this is demonstrated even more brilliantly by Leo Howard, the actor responsible for the "young" Conan and the one who really shows where the skills were honed with an awesome fight scene early on where he easily takes down a number of slightly beastly enemies, resulting in a presentation of their heads to his father and leader of his people played by Ron Pearlman.

This part of the movie is longer than you would expect but really does set the scene brilliantly for the remainder of the movie.

The fight scenes are similar to that of the recent Spartacus programmes being shown on Sky 1 with the easy releasing of blood and guts being flung around like confetti at a wedding and the sound effects of skulls smashing against rocks is as realistic as you could ever wish for.  If full on swords and slayer action is your thing then you wont go far wrong with this.

Pearlman is brilliant as the endearing father, even though he's training a savage killer and later in the movie the father / daughter relationship of the enemies, Zym & Marique is just as lovable, albeit it slightly creepy and dare I say it, scarily incestuous?

Either way, its Conan that steals this one from start to finish and with a few warrior mates along for the ride he pretty much takes down armies single handedly, something his predecessor also managed with ease.  Arnie managed to play Conan twice (Barbarian & Destroyer) and I am hoping Mr Momoa will don the bearskin pants again and wade his way through more baddies, spilling their insides all over the place.

Its gory, its bloody and Conan also manges to get his rocks off a few times in between slaying creatures which seemed similar to the Orcs of "The Rings" movies which in a way is slightly gratifying.

Don't expect a super in-depth storyline, its all about revenge and destroying an evil army to get it, so hold your lunch down and enjoy!!!