Nispel's latest workman-like re-imagining does little to add to the 80s sword-and-sorcery efforts - it is more gritty, less camp and less cartoonish - and it certainly ticks all the genre boxes, with plenty of digital squelch and blood for today's audience. This is a painfully simple revenge tale which consequently holds no narrative surprises, coupled with very basic characters, yet it merrily zips along from one set piece to the next leading to a berserk showdown at the end. Jason Mamoa gives the title character imposing physicality and glowers a lot, and Stephen Lang and Rose McGowan are passable as one-dimensional baddies. There is some excellent location shooting and design, and the soundscape is created to very good effect, including a suitably epic score by Tyler Bates that throws in the soaring heavenly choirs and the orchestral kitchen sink. However, this film displays some of the most uneven post-3D-conversion work since The Green Hornet, which can be distractingly disappointing at times. Conan The Barbarian 2011 is lively and well-mounted but ultimately does little that is new or truly engaging.
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