I like the Idea of Highlander Much More Than the Franchise Itself

(Image taken from: debrakristi.wordpress.com)

"There can only be one." One what? One good movie in the entire franchise? Being a massive nerd, I've always wanted one science fiction/fantasy franchise to really cling on to. I like Star Trek and all, but I could never call myself a Trekkie. Star Wars has its merits, but I don't share the enthusiasm that its true blue (lightsaber) fans share. So what then? Stargate? Nope. Fringe? Ummm...nope. Firefly? Well, I want to love it, but I just don't (Does that make me a bad person?) The only show I've truly grown obsessive over is Breaking Bad, but it doesn't fit the sci-fi/fantasy quota I've been looking for. I'm a pretty big fan of Harry Potter, but I'm not obsessive about it, and I WANT to be obsessive for a fantasy/sci-fi world. I really do.

Well, a few years back, I thought I might have found what I was looking for in Highlander. The first movie was amazing. It featured Christopher Lambert (Raiden!), Sean Connery (James Bond!) and a theme song by Queen (Queen!). It had pretty much everything I was looking for in a fantasy/sci-fi world. Lightning, decapitations, and a pretty cool lore. I had finally found my series!



Or so I thought. After being totally jazzed after watching the first Highlander movie, I quickly watched its sequel, Highlander II: The Quickening, and my God! What the hell happened? For those who don't know, Highlander II basically takes a dump over everything you liked about the first movie and then vomits all over it for good measure. It is one of the worst movies I have ever seen, and the follow-up flicks (Highlander: The Source in particular) are all travesties. And the TV show, I'm sad to say, wasn't much better, either. Sure, it had its qualities (Adrian Paul being its prime one), but other than him, the series lacked in anything relatively interesting or groundbreaking like the first film did.

In many ways, the biggest problem with Highlander is that it never one-upped its first outing. It had, and still has, so much potential, but I much prefer the concept of Highlander to the actual franchise. We'll see what happens with the supposed reboot we're supposed to be getting sometime down the line.