Highlander Duncan MacLeod embarks on a quest to locate the eponymous Source. Regarded as a myth by most immortals, the Source may hold the answers to the unexplained origin of the immortals and the key to great power. As the world falls into chaos and destruction, MacLeod aimlessly roams a crumbling city in the remote reaches of Eastern Europe, haunted by memories of happier times and a lost love, his wife Anna. Unexpectedly sought out by a band of immortals, including his old friend Methos and the mortal Watcher Joe Dawson, McLeod finds himself leading them in search of the Source. But unbeknown to them, their prize is protected by an ancient warrior, The Guardian, a being destined to hunt down and destroy any who seek its secrets...

Highlander: The Source is the fifth movie in the franchise, and to be perfectly honest I think they should really call it a day now. While I loved the original film starring Christopher Lambert, it all started to down downhill a bit from there really didn't it? This new movie really scrapes the bottom of the barrel, providing fans with absolutely nothing new or exciting to get worked up about. Okay, we get the MacLeod and Joe that were in the TV series, but that's about it for excitment - if you can call it that.

To start off with just about every single actor turns in a terrible performance. Now I know this can't be purely down to the actors. For a start, Peter Wingfield has appeared in several shows (Stargate: SG-1 and Holby City for starters) and is a pretty good actor. While it's true that he comes across as the best performer here, most of his lines are just terrible.

And herein lies the problem - the script. There are mistakes made that even a fine art student, dosed up to the eyeballs on illegal substances, wouldn't make. The plot is paper thin, with some of the worst dialogue you've ever heard.

Even the Guardian character has every ounce of potential smashed out of him. There was a real opportunity here to have a scary villain who would help to add jeopardy to our heroes quest. Sadly Cristian Solimeno hams his way through like Terry Gilliam's Patsy in Monty Python and the Holy Grail. We end up with a character that is about as believable as a pantomime villain. Mind you, his hammy acting is not helped by the ludicrously silly looking effect that sees him moving quickly all over the screen. I don't think the director intended for the audience to roll around laughing, but it had me in stiches.

Stylistically, Highlander: The Source looks incredible. The director of photography is the only person that seemed to be taking their job seriously. The lighting and colour scheme used throughout is worthy of a much greater project, and is the only positive thing I found in the whole movie.

But then, some fool takes even this positive and smashes it over the head with a lump hammer. What on earth was the video montage set to a cheesy rock track (which I assume was designed to make to hark back to Queen and their soundtrack for the original movie) all about? It looks bloody awful.

But by far and away the worse crime is the closing act. What on earth was the recap all about? Was it designed to sledgehammer the ending home to the cerebrally challenged?

I'm not spoiling anything here when I reveal that the prize, that is the Source, is anything but a surprise. The whole movie builds up to only one of the immortals finding the Source and then reaping the benefits. Now everyone knows it will be MacLeod that will win the prize and it's not too much of a spoiler to reveal that... er... the Lambert movie already visited this particular thread with its final scene.

Extras include a Making of featurette (23 minutes); Theatrical Trailer; and Highlander: The Game Trailer.

To be honest there's nothing here that would make me even want to consider watching this movie again. I was tempted to give this release 1/10 purely so I could close the review by saying: "I can give this movie only one" but even I'm not that sad.

3

Darren Rea