I Care Not...

I live, I love, I slay and I am content.

Ah, Conan. What a poet.

I'm mucho impressed that they included a (nearly complete) quote from an original Conan story (Queen of the Black Coast) by Robert E. Howard in the teaser. I know that the actual story of the movie isn't taken from a Howard tale, rather it's a Hollywood origin story (parents murdered, Conan seeks revenge, sort of a Hyperborian Batman) but the inclusion of source material like the quote is a reason to hope that the filmmakers will put a Conan I can recognize on the screen. I'm also hearing from the cyber-ether that the sequel (is there any doubt?) will be based on an actual Conan story from one of the original novellas.

I'm not a fan of the "Conan as Hyperborian Batman" scenario. That makes him a victim from the get-go and one thing Conan most definitely is NOT is a victim. In the books, he leaves his northern Cimmerian homeland because he wants adventure, plunder, wine, women and song. And women. And more women. Conan is basically a big, tough, swashbuckling adventurer who does what he does not because it's his duty to his dead parents, but because he likes it.

Sadly, the original Conan films with Arnold the Governator have set a template that movie execs assume to be the way the public sees Conan and the way they'll best accept him. Heaven forbid that a barbarian reaver not have a noble motivation for cutting all those people to pieces. Idiots.

Thankfully, somebody convinced them to ditch the furry Speedo.

Ah well. I guess I can't have everything. At least (for once!) I got the actor I wanted in a role that I've been waiting to see him do. Momoa was born to play Conan. I've said it since before they cast him and when this movie kicks ass in August, I'll be proven right. I'm hoping for a long and awesome series of Conan movies following Momoa into his middle age.

I'll probably only get a trilogy, but I'll be there every opening day if they keep makin' 'em into my old age.