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Movie Slate — Corman Month, Deathstalker by jamescorck
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Movie Slate — Corman Month, Deathstalker
by jamescorck
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Fan Art / Digital Art / Drawings / Movies & TV©2018 jamescorck
#armour #fantasy #illustration #mlpfim #sword_and_sorcery #spike_the_dragon #art_commission #ask_pony_blog (show more)
Ask Movie Slate — Corman Month — Deathstalker

Today's Movie Slate is brought to you thanks to :iconssjcharon:

The moment this idea was presented to me, I seized it with both hands. I love the genre of sword and sorcery, I'd go as far as saying it's one of my top three favourite movie genres ever. They have a very distinctive look with murky caves, skimpy dressed heroines and buffed up heroes, evil wizards in darkly lit castles, and lots of forests (because forests are easy and cheap to film in, and it doesn't require a lot of set dressing so the movie's budget doesn't go overboard). So I took this piece and just had fun with it.

I particularly enjoyed drawing Spike, now with wings and sassier than ever. I very rarely have the chance to draw grown up Spike. He's got a cool design and now with the wings he looks ever cooler. Expect to see more grown up Spike in the future.

So, "Deathstalker". There's no way I can talk about the series one by one in Movie Slate's format, but I will say first of all that I learned about it thanks to James Rolfe's review. He brought these up to my attention and I am so happy for that. These movies are clearly bonkers. They are essentially rip offs of Conan the Barbarian, but they have so much shit going on in them that it's difficult to keep up. But that doesn't meant they don't have a personality. There's a charm to how cheaply they are made, and especially with the second movie you can very well tell they are taking the piss. Watching this movies is a rite of passage for any movie buff out there, and with how short and concise they are it's almost a no brainer (there are TV shows that have episodes that are longer than these movies). So what do I really think of them? Well let's go one by one:

"Deathstalker": Fun, unpretentious, and enjoyable. This movie is very gritty and at times it feels a bit too serious, but when the action gets going and the head start rolling you're in for a fun ride. Rick Hill is just perfect in the role, he's such a meathead he makes Dolph Lundgren look like a Shakespearian actor. Also Lana Clarkson is great as his counterpart. It's a bit meandering though, and takes too much time to establish atmosphere and setting when yo don't really need to, but it's all par for the course and it doesn't hurt the end result all that much. The excessive amount of sexual assault however, that's another story and it takes likeability points away from it.
Final Score: Wizard Hat, complete with Wizard Fire! Poof! Wizard Hat, complete with Wizard Fire! Poof! Wizard Hat, complete with Wizard Fire! Poof! Wizard Hat, complete with Wizard Fire! Poof!

"Deathstalker II: Duel of the Titans": Without a question, my favourite of the Deathstalker movies. It has an "Army of Darkness" feel to it, as right from the start the movie becomes self-aware and it turns into an outrageous comedy right until the end. The character of Deathstalker, played by John Terlesky (known for his directing work in Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. and Castle), actually comes across as really likeable when he's thrown in the main plot and tries his best to fight and womanize his way out of it. But besides the humour and the self-awareness, the movie is also a pretty solid action adventure fantasy film with tons of (very cheap and adorable) settings and set ups for action scenes. The sword fight between the Deathstalker and the evil sorcerer at the end is very excited and in the tone of the best swashbuckling movies. So yeah, I love this one, it's absolutely great.
Final Score: Wizard Hat, complete with Wizard Fire! Poof! Wizard Hat, complete with Wizard Fire! Poof! Wizard Hat, complete with Wizard Fire! Poof! Wizard Hat, complete with Wizard Fire! Poof! Wizard Hat, complete with Wizard Fire! Poof!

"Deathstalker III: The Warriors from Hell": Maybe this movie was at a disadvantage as it was riding on the coattails of the second one, but it feels very underwhelming and pretty bland. The tone is completely different from the other two, like they were trying to capitalize in the more gentle type of sword and sorcery films like Princess Bride or Legend, and quite frankly as one of those this movie works perfectly fine. But it's not a Deathstalker movie. It has no bite, no punch, and all the action is moved to the last segment of the movie where most of the audience would've left by then. Which is a shame but perfectly understandable. I think it's not that bad but it's a bit of a damper in the series.
Final Score: Wizard Hat, complete with Wizard Fire! Poof! Wizard Hat, complete with Wizard Fire! Poof! Wizard Hat, complete with Wizard Fire! Poof!

"Deathstalker IV: Match of Titans": I think it's around this point you've realized the subtitles for these movies make zero sense. This movie hurts to watch, and not just because they spliced it with footage from the first movie every five minutes (if you want to play a game, see if you can tell the almost ten years between Rick Hill from Deathstalker I to this Deathstalker). The whole thing feels like they had some money left and decided to put together another movie just for the sake of filling up a hole. And what a perfect analogy is that. This movie is just a hole, empty, dark, and with nothing interesting in it. It may be the boring villains who don't even get an evil speech or a distinctive look. Maybe it was the lion masks that every background character wears around. Or perhaps is how they ended the movie in barely one minute, offing off the two bad guys and offering no conclusion, almost emergency crashing onto the credits. It's not very good. You can very well skip this one and you'll miss nothing.
Final Score: Wizard Hat, complete with Wizard Fire! Poof!

So there you have it! I went and included all four movies in a single review, because in the end they are all quite similar to each other story wise and setting wise, with only variations in the tone and the dialogue. Each character in the picture represents a different Deathstalker, with Big Mac being Rick Hill (I and IV), Spike being John Terlesky (II) and Movie Slate being John Allen Nelson (III). I thought it was a fun idea and well worth exploring. Besides drawing outfits and costumes on fantasy creatures is always neat.

I hope you guys enjoy the picture!

Upvotes at import: 23 | Stars at import: 14
Posted previously at: 2018-12-27T17:46:01 | Posted previously by: Charonib