I enjoyed it and thought it was a fairly good film. The plot wasn't terribly complex and the characters were underdeveloped, but given the fact that I felt the movie was trying to go for that fairy tale adventure style, those are understandable failings, to the point of not really being failings.
What surprised me, however, was what I felt were some pretty strong homoerotic undertones. I don't know if that was intentional or merely my own warped imagination. So I went on YouTube, found the whole movie in a single video, and decided I'd share it with my readers to see what all of you think.
Here are some of the things that jumped out at me:
At 8:00: Larn is laying on the ground, surrounded by subhumans. The camera shows an up-close and personal shot of his crotch and then very slowly pans up his body to his face where he opens his eyes. Total eye-candy moment.
At 10:00: As Larn tries to climb the tree, the dying subhuman rushes up to him and does a full-on caress of his lower back and ass. All shown close up and personal so you get to see as the hand rubs against that firm globe of man-flesh. Yeah, I know the rationalization is that the subhuman is still trying to catch Larn in his dying throes, but come on!
At 51:00: Juliana presents Teegra to Nekron, stating that she intends for the captured woman to be her son's mate. Nekron spurns the captive and throws a downright hissy, insisting he has no need for a mate or heirs. This isn't erotic, mind you. But if the writers and directors didn't expect me to see Nekron as a major queen at this point, I don't know what they were thinking.
At 58:27: The big battle between Nekron and Larn starts about here. Granted, Nekron first has to paralyze Larn and have his subhumans bring the intruder over to him. Quite frankly, with that "You interest me" line, I would not have been surprised if the swords they dueled with were made of something a bit softer than iron (though I'm sure they would've been steel-hard). And the whole battle just strikes me as sensual and intended to be more like foreplay than an actual battle to the death. Maybe a battle to see who gets to top. (Though, honestly, I suspect Nekron would secretly throw that fight.)
Beyond those specific points, I just find the whole idea of a movie where a bunch of lithe, nearly-naked men run around in a manner I find somewhat sensual to be somewhat less than innocent. I mean, sure, Teegra was half-naked the entire film too, and they certainly showed enough booty-shots of her too. But the whole movie struck me as an opportunity for a gay boy to have a huge drool fest.
Plus the other thing that I'll note is that most of the men in this movie -- including Larn -- did not fit the more stereotypical "manly man" pattern of such movies. They weren't overly muscled mountains that moved like lesser beings better dive for cover. They were lithe and moved with a certain animalistic quality to them. I suppose the style of movement was intentional, since the story is supposed to take place after the last ice age.
Alas, if only Nekron had sent the defeated Larn to his personal chambers instead of the dungeon.
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