Highlander 5: The Source – a Movie Review

Highlander 5: The Source is the latest movie installment in the Highlander series. Adrian Paul returns as Immortal Highlander Duncan MacLeod. Duncan and his fellow immortals are on a quest for the immortal Holy Grail: The Source. Peter Wingfield and Jim Brynes return as their characters from the Highlander TV series. Thekla Reuten plays Anna Teshemka plays Duncan’s current mortal wife. Warning: my movie review contains plot spoilers.

The movie is not my favorite Highlander movie but it isn’t bad for mindless entertainment. It really seemed more like an extension of the Highlander TV series with a moody whiney Duncan. The movie is set in the not so far off future where chaos has rained supreme. So now we have Highlander meets Mad Max. And of course the villain looks like a Mad Max villain reject. The basic plot is Anna leading the immortals around the chaotic world following the alignment of some stars. They reach their destination with a final battle between Duncan and the villain (guardian of the source). Of course Duncan defeats the villain, gets the girl, and finds out the source is actually life. Yup, he can now get his wife pregnant. Seriously? What a lame ending! There can be only one” really meant that only one was worthy enough of getting his desire of living with the woman he loves and creating life.

One of the problems with the movie was it was directed too much like a TV show and not a movie. I really felt like it was just three Highlander episodes rolled into one. And maybe that was the producers originally intention because my Blockbuster DVD sleeve says “the legend is reborn in a new trilogy that follows Immortal Highlander Duncan MacLeod.” As far as I know, there aren’t two other movies planned so I am assuming they meant this was originally planned as a TV movie. Actually maybe it was a TV movie because my mom swears she saw it on TV. Oh and the director decided to film several of the scenes like rock videos, which seemed so out of place and ruined the flow of the movie.

I am trying to think of what I liked about the movie. I liked Peter Wingfield as Methos. He was always my favorite character from the series so it was nice to see him return in this movie. And there is a chance he survived the cannibals so if another producer is stupid enough to make a sequel in ten years, at least Methos might be able to return. Actually I think I just came up with a great idea for a spin-off. Now that McLeod is off making babies, let’s follow Methos around as he tries to come to turns with the fact that he killed lots of immortals for apparently no reason.

I give the movie 2 out of 5 stars. The movie wasn’t a complete waste of time but definitely not something I will be watching again