Just watched Conan the Barbarrian

[Jon Miller]

It had been a long time since I had last seen it. And I know that it has been ~10 years since I read the books.

How similiar are they?

I remember Conan being very harsh. I also remember more magical stuff (in the books). Is the Destroyer any good? How about Red Sonya?

Jon Miller

[Dis]

a lot of people don't like Destroyer, but I do. Red Sonja is crap though.

barbarian is still the best though. He only has like 6 words in the entire movie. great acting.

[Jon Miller]

Honestly?

That seems to be in character for the Conan of the books. So I didn't mind that. The pacing was a bit slow at times.

Jon Miller

[Dis]

I never read any of the comic books, so I have nothing to base it on.

I just know what I like.

[Jon Miller]

I never read any of the comic books either. I did, however, read everthing (?) by Howard, who is the creator of Conan the Barbarian.

Jon Miller

[LDiCesare]

It's been a long while, but I think the movie sticks to the book a lot, except at the end where the arrow was aimed at the girl and not Conan or some such slight difference. But then again, the best would be to re read the book just before (or after) seeing the movie.

[JohnT]

So, did you wake up yesterday thinking: "My goal for the day is to completely waste 2 hours with absolutely no benefit to me, society, or the Universe at large"?

[Dinner]

Red Sonya sucked. The first two rocked but were very different from the book.

[Ming]

I've read most of the original Howard Conan books... and the first movie was great. While the movie was not taken from a single book, many of the scenes were put together based on different short stories. The theft of the tower was a short story, and his meeting with the witch where she foretells his future was another short story. Many of the other scenes also came from different stories. And yeah, the perfect role for him... look tough, and don't say a heck of a lot.

[Boris Godunov]

The first Conan movie is good, if just for James Earl Jones. I think it's solid sword-and-sorcery fare.

The other two mentioned are utter crap.

[child of Thor]

The movie was based on a book that LeSprague de Camp and Lin Carter collaborated on, called Conan the Barbarian. So it wasn't an origonal Howard creation, but it takes parts from many of conans other stories to create the film/book version.

Everything else Conan based(movie wise) i find really difficult to fit into Robert E.Howards origonal world, also many of the other non-Howard books are pretty dicey.

part of the fun of owning the books was to try to fit them all into correct chroniological order. I seem to remember you could get it about 98% correct.

[Zkribbler]

Originally posted by Dissident
a lot of people don't like Destroyer, but I do. Red Sonja is crap though.

I concur.

[The Emperor Fabulous]

There's another Conan in pre-production.

Robert Rodriguez was just named the new director after the old one left. WWE Wrestler Triple H was supposed to play Conan, but Rodriguez wants to get Arnie to reprise his role.

[Mr. Harley]

The first Conan movie was alright - Conan never would have tolerated that sidekick they saddled him with in the movie. Sans the sidekick it was more-or-less true to the books. Conan the Destroyer was weak, and I never braved Red Sonya.

[Zkribbler]

Originally posted by The Emperor Fabulous
Rodriguez wants to get Arnie to reprise his role.

I love Arnie's movies but he's at least in his sixties and maybe earliy seventies. He's old enough to play Pratchett's Cohen the Barbarian.