In the near future Highlander Duncan MacLeod reluctantly joins a band of fellow immortals on a quest to claim The Source, believed to be the mythical roots of their longevity.
So here we go again with yet another sequel to Highlander - did someone say there can be only one? Following on from Endgame, which saw the mantle pass from Conner to Duncan MacLeod (Adrian Paul, star of the TV show) The Source is little more than an attempt to cynically reboot the franchise and, like most of the sequels, ignores any real attempts at narrative continuity. In fact this 4th entry makes a mockery of the simplistic mythology established in the 1986 classic.
We first meet MacLeod moping about on rooftops, occasionally swooping down to rescue some poor soul from the criminal element in your run-of-the-mill bargain basement dystopian landscape. It's not long before this would be superhero joins a gang of bland sword wielding immortals - probably also transferred from the small screen although there's no attempt to fill in the gaps for the uninitiated. Rather than cutting each other's heads off as is the norm they embark on a collective epic quest. Well, there's little that is epic about what transpires, the budget won't stretch to much more than forests and an abandoned shipyard, backdrops for some dull action scenes.
At the very least fans expect some enjoyable sword fights and a handful of fun historical flashbacks but this (hopefully) final sequel fails to deliver on that front. Instead it adds a rather comical adversary in the shape of The Guardian, a villain who looks like he's stepped out of a beat 'em up videogame, zipping around the screen like Road Runner. The inevitable final confrontation between this cartoonish character and our hero is a damp squib, a silly denouement that frustrates with its attempt to drastically modify the central concept.
With any luck this artless offering will signal the final nail in the coffin of the saga of Highlander. It's a shoddily directed, patchily scripted offering. A muddled mess of ill thought out ideas – did I mention that MacLeod’s mortal ex-wife is on board; she's got psychic powers and has some confusing link to The Source. In closing it's painfully obvious that the only reason this movie was made was for the sole purpose of milking the last drop of cash from the pockets of fans. The best thing to do is ignore it altogether.
