People are voting emotionally.

Good concept, poorly executed.

Let me be very fair here, this is not the best movie in my opinion. But, this movie is fun, it has purpose and is very enjoyable to watch.

Blistering performances.

Yoshiaki Kawajiri. That name may not mean much to your Average Joe but say the name to any anime fan and you'll start a conversation that you'd probably wish you didn't if you didn't like the genre. I don't like the genre but I LOVE Kawajiri. When I heard this existed, after watching Vampire Hunter D: Bloodlust I knew that he could easily put the original in its place and finally make a sequel that either comes up to the standard of or exceed the original. This managed not to waver expectations.The plot is that Colin MacLeod is in post apocalypse New York and his arch rivalry, Marcus Octavious is the leader of a fascist government that secretly creates a virus that wipes out 80% of life in New York. For him and Colin, that isn't a problem. Colin finds out about this and attempts to kill Marcus. After yet another failure where he manages to survive, he explains to Dahlia that he is an immortal trying to get revenge after he killed his wife and him, 2000 years ago. By the end Colin is less concerned with revenge and more concerned with fighting against the oppression of Marcus' "government".What to compliment? The music is almost heavenly. The piano song at the end is phenomenal and the guitar solo at the beginning is fantastic.The music isn't the best part, The script. I know there was this one guy from Germany who said this entry dealt with things that had never been in previous Highlander films before such as Sorcery (Highlander 3) and demons. This can easily be avoided because this isn't technically a sequel. Its a re-imagining. It isn't meant to be in the same universe as Connor & The Kurgan. While this isn't the best written script of all time, its still a fantastic script.Overall if you want a good Highlander continuation of any kind, I hold this up (no I have NOT seen the TV show) and I hope you enjoy it.

They used to say "there can be only one" great highlander film.Ladies and gentlemen, allow me to present "great highlander film" number 2 and one of the best and most highly entertaining anime films of its genre."Highlander: The Search for Vengeance" is one of the few rare anime co-productions created specifically for an international audience in mind. In highlander's case, up-and-coming Imagi Animation studios(creators of 2007's TMNT) teamed up with Davis-Panzer Productions and Madhouse Studios to produce this modern animated spectacle based loosely on the cult hit Highlander franchise. By "loosely" I mean that this Highlander show should be viewed as an "alternate universe" separate from the existing highlander movie and TV series; related only in the basic mythos of immortals, swords-n-sorcery, "the quickening" and other basic aspects of what makes Highlander "highlander".Colin Macleod (the 4th named Macleod character following Connor, Duncan and Quentin. Though he is not officially a "Macleod" clansman by blood) travels the post apocalyptic wasteland or the world seeking to exact his revenge on the immortal Marcus Octavius. The reasons for his obsession with vengeance are told through flashbacks into the past in typical highlander style. We find out that Marcus was directly or indirectly responsible basically for every crappy thing that has ever happened to Colin. From The death of his first wife, to the discovery of Colin's immortality following his first fatal fight with Marcus and his subsequent branding as a devil and being hunted by his own clansmen. Through the course of history, Colin has tried many times to kill Marcus but ends up being severely out matched by his superior adversary. He arrives in a decimated New York in which Marcus Octavius has established himself as dictator. Teaming up with a band of rebels, including Dahlia, a woman who reminds him of his dead wife, Colin Macleod prepares to exact his revenge one final time.Despite the small number of science fiction clichés like a rebel gang trying to take down an evil despot and some humanity killing virus, I found the story to be quite a strong one which presented a perspective on immortal life that was slightly different from the original Highlander. Where Connor in the original film treasured every moment of his immortal life, made numerous friends across the years, and went so far as to keep an entire room filled with mementos of his exploits throughout history, Colin has let the years slip by. Whatever new experiences he could have had, whatever friends he could have made, were always sidelined due to his obsession with vengeance. By the time we see him in the post apocalyptic setting, he is a lone wanderer with nothing to his name other than a fleeting memory of his wife, and an obsession that is as immortal as himself.Unwillingness to change and unwillingness to let go of the past has even affected Colin's battle prowess. Unlike previous highlander protagonists, Colin never received proper sword training. His fighting style has never changed over the years, hence his numerous defeats. I like his very direct fighting style(he basically just waits for an opening and finishes off his opponent with a well placed strike), which actually stands in stark contrast to Marcus's fighting style(he has very calm and composed feel and likes to play around with his opponent, proving his superiority, before the final cut); each man's sword techniques mirror's their personality. Also, I actually found this theme of how an obsession can drive someone to forsake the smaller but more important things in life (such as love and friendship) to be quite a heart wrenching one. This story theme can be even seen as a cautionary tale of sorts as parallels can be drawn between Colin's obsession and "workaholics" in the real world obsessed only in their work and forsaking so much more.This intriguing story is complemented by some extremely beautiful animation. Yoshiaki Kawajiri applies his trademark style to Highlander making each fight scene a veritable visual feast with his dynamic shot angles, slow motion, and an extremely smooth animation frame-rate. Bloodletting is not as over-the-top as his previous work, ninja scroll, but it is sufficient to keep fans of bloody action happy. Oh yes, and in typical Kawajiri style, there is the mandatory nudity and sex scene in this movie(then again, there is a mandatory sex scene in every other Highlander movie, so nothing new here) This film does suffer from a few low points here and there, namely in the pacing and the dialog. At times the movie moves along real slowly and this is not helped by the uninteresting script. At other times the show feels truncated and squeezed, with scenes rushing by or ending too abruptly. Also, a longer running time would have improved the narrative by a fair bit(86 minutes is too short to fully flesh out the story and back-story). The voice actors do a great job of instilling their characters with well rounded personalities and very realistic emoting on par with the acting in the original Highlander movie. Too bad about the lazy script and dialog they were given to work with.Another low point would be how the movie expects the viewer to be familiar with aspects of the Highlander mythos like "the quickening" or the "no fighting on holy ground" rule. Such things are never clearly explained which might confuse the heck out of people who are new to the franchise. Highlander: The Search for Vengeance is among one of the stronger entries into the Highlander franchise. As an anime film it is very appealing both story-wise and visual-wise. However, do not expect deep philosophical ramblings like Ghost in The Shell or heartwarming family stories like Ponyo. This is a straight forward action movie; pure unadulterated violence but with a great story, characters and some thought provoking underlying themes.

Being a fan of the Highlander franchise I was interested in seeing what this anime movie of Highlander was going to be like so I bought and I was impressed with it, it was a great movie. Highlander: The Search for Vengeance captures the element of the movie and series perfectly, the rules about the Immortals, The Quickening, the changing between the past and present. The animation is beautifully done and amazing to watch and it feels like Highlander.The film sees a young man Collin MacLeod of the Clan MacLeod in the future searching for a Immortal named Marcus who killed his wife and attacked his village years ago and since then he's been travelling from place to place down through the centuries trying to kill him but every time they encounter he beats him, now in a post-apocalyptic world Collin is still searching for him to get his revenge, he reaches New Jersey and encounters a group of creatures feeding on people and after defeating some of them a Immortal shows up but not the one he wants, the huge Immortal takes out a massive Chainsaw and attacks Collin and a battle begins. Collin chops off his head and absorbs the power of the Quickening while in New York the Immortal Marcus and his Immortal partner see it from a distance. Collin then goes to New York where he's confronted by Robot Guards and a human, he gives them the head and gets paid he then let into the city. While in the car he uses the guards gun to kill the Robot guards in the other car then breaks out. He meets a young boy tells him where the nearest bar is, Collin goes there and sits down drinking but soon he meets a young women named Dahlia who reminds him of his wife in the past, he follows her into the sewers and finds a underground civilisation where the people are safe from Marcus, some of the people are being killed from a virus in New York and they need the vaccine but the only ones are in the huge tower, at first Collin has no interest in helping them until he discovers that Marcus is in the tower and his search for vengeance would be completed so he offers to help.Going down through the sewer they're attacked by a huge Alligator but Collin just chops it's head off without any fear, continuing through the sewers they reach the tower and then Collin smashes in and kills the Robot guards then the other two jump in, she takes the guard's weapon and they continue going inside, they discover the lab and find the vaccine but they also discover that Marcus has been creating the virus that been infecting people in New York, suddenly the alarm goes off and while Dahlia and the kid are being attacked by the guards Collin senses Marcus's Quickening and goes into the lift, while going to the main floor the Spirt tells him that he shouldn't do this since every time he tries to kill Marcus he fails but Collin doesn't want to hear it since he wants his revenge. Reaching the top floor he meets Marcus and they fight, Collin gets smashes outside and they fight down the roof but Collin gets knocked down and falls from great hight failing again to kill Marcus. Collin smashes into the base where Dahlia and the kid see him there, he runs off while Dahlia checks him out and suddenly she sees that he's alive again and carries him out of the base. While unconscious he meets the Spirt again in his mind and he tells him that Dahlia is his wife are the same person, her spirit is inside her. Waking up he sees Dahlia and then he goes to see all the people cheering at him, then they decide to attack the guards and reclaim the city while Collin goes with them to confront Marcus for the final time and get his vengeance.I won't give out anymore of the film's plot, Highlander: The Search for Vengeance is a great new entry in the Highlander franchise and should be seen. 10/10

Legendary Japanese Anime' director Yoshiaki Kawajiri (the more-than-capable cult talent behind the explicit blood-letters "Ninja Scroll" and "Wicked City") took on the American "Highlander" series with this latest entry "Highlander: The Search for Vengeance." "The Search for Vengeance" is not a sequel per se, but is instead something closer to a Japanese animation re-imagining of the famous fantasy tale that spawned the immortal tag-line, "There can be only one."For those not versed in "Highlander" mythology, I'll fill you in: "Highlander" first came to be in the mind of writer Gregory Widen, who in turn pitched his idea to studio bosses about an ages-old battle between a group of immortal swordsmen who can only die by one another's hand, specifically by decapitation. When one of these immortals falls, his killer gains his knowledge and strength (such an event is called a "quickening") and he will continue his pursuit of the mystical "prize" during a time called the "gathering" when these epic sword battles take place. There are several rules all immortals must abide by though: never fight on holy ground and, most importantly, never fall in love with a mortal because, then, you will only know pain and suffering.Widen's script (co-written with Peter Bellwood and Larry Ferguson) was made into the 1986 cult film "Highlander," which starred Christopher Lambert as the Scottish Highlander Connor MacLeod, who discovers his "gift" after suffering a mortal wound on the battlefield and assumes different identities as he descends through the ages with the knowledge of never knowing death. "Highlander" saw three misshapen sequels, a television series (which starred Adrian Paul), and dozens of comic books before we landed at this new Anime' film from Kawajiri. As a fan of Anime' and the first "Highlander" movie, you could expect a little bit of skepticism about a new film, whether animated or not just because we've become so used to expecting so little from the series.Like the first "Highlander," "The Search for Vengeance" is equal parts present-story and back-story, with sudden, unexpected transitions between the present and the past. In the year 2187, Scotsman Colin MacLeod (with no stated relationship to Connor) meets his fate on the battlefield and discovers his allegiance to the band of immortals. And, Holy Lazarus, he is branded a witch by his former countrymen and is watched over by the wise-cracking spirit of a Druid priest named Amergan. For 2000 years, MacLeod has been searching through the ages chasing his mortal enemy, the Roman general Marcus Octavius, after Octavius crucified MacLeod's wife Moya in the 16th century and in these encounters, MacLeod is always bloodily outmatched and left crippled but alive and ready to fight another time (despite refusing to uphold Moya's dying wish of no retribution for her killing).Now in a post-apocalyptic New York City, MacLeod arrives on the scene and joins rebel Dahlia and an underground band of freedom fighters in a desperate battle against Octavius, who is now a full-fledged dictator and rules the city from, dare I say, a futuristic version of Trump Tower with his army of robotic sentinels and scientists working on a top-secret project meant to wipe out the underground resistance once and for all. In these battles, we also get flashbacks to Colin's past, the battles he's fought with Octavius, and his undying love for Moya.While suffering from some script problems, because of the transitions between past and present, "Highlander: The Search for Vengeance" is still one heck of a film experience. This is perhaps because of an outsider's view, Kawajiri's view. In Kawajiri's hands, the series now seems fresh and full of new life, with many new technical innovations on the story and characters. For 21 years now since 1986, we've had to endure one painful "Highlander" experience after the other. Here, it's clear that Kawajiri has a firm grip on the story and knows everywhere the "Highlander" sequels went wrong (and they went wrong in a lot of places).Another problem the film suffers from are one-dimensional characters. A skilled swordsman like Colin MacLeod, a man who has literally fallen through time and lives with the burden of knowing he will never die, is transformed into more of a one-note, tortured loner, or even a ronin (a master-less samurai). Perhaps the samurai angle is because of the Japanese influence on the story. The only other character who really stands out in any real way is Dahlia, who has a secret connecting her to Macleod's past and eventually becomes his love interest. Octavius is different from most "Highlander" villains in that he is not crazy and all over the place, but is instead soft-spoken, never raises his voice, and highly sexual with his Japanese mistress (is Clancy Brown, who played the Kurgan in the first "Highlander," the best the movies have to offer?). And lastly, am I the only one who thinks Octavius looks like the villain Gemma from Kawajiri's previous "Ninja Scroll"?Even with its faults, nudity and extremely bloody violence, this is nonetheless a fitting reinvention of a fantasy story that many thought had long outlived its uniqueness in the genre. For many, "Highlander: The Search for Vengeance" is at last the sequel we've been waiting for.8/10