I have to admit that I have a thing for Highlander. Though I missed the initial theatrical release, I got hooked on the film on home video. Ok, so it's implausible, corny and goofy. Hey, no one ever said all movies had to be high art.

Generally, movies that are unheard of at the box office don't tend to inspire sequels. Highlander created such an impact on home video, however, that the studio and creators decided to give another theatrical go at it. The result (Highlander: The Quickening) was one of the worst movies of all time. I don't throw such statements around lightly -- this film really deserves it.

The sequel was so bad that it inspired another rarity in Hollywood -- yet another sequel. The third film, Highlander: The Final Dimension, tried to fix the errors of The Quickening by simply pretending the second film never happened. While part three wasn't nearly as bad as the Quickening (nothing can be that bad), it still failed to capture the spirit of the original.

Part of the problem with the sequels was that the original film was written to be a singular, self-contained story. Neither of the two sequels convincingly addressed the issue of why they should exist at all.

But wait, there's more.

Acting very much like the immortals of the storyline, the franchise refused to die. A completely different approach was taken: format the concept for television, create a new hero (this time Duncan Macleod -- no blood relation to the original Connor, but from the same clan) and completely rewrite the history of the first film.

Finally, they got it right. Against all odds, a television show managed to capture the magic contained in the first film. Sure, Adrian Paul's Duncan didn't have the edge that Christopher Lambert's Connor had, but Paul played the part well and was much better trained for the action scenes.

The show did quite well for itself, but fans were confused by the decision to end it after the seventh season. Even before the end came, rumors started that a film version was being planned, thus creating yet another Hollywood improbability -- a movie inspiring a TV show inspiring a movie.

That's a pretty long build-up for a movie review, but then again, Highlander: Endgame has a pretty convoluted history. There were some pretty high expectations for Endgame and I wish I could tell you it lived up to them all. Unfortunately, though it is vastly superior to either of the previous sequels, it still falls short of the original film and even many of the TV episodes.

The problem is simply that Endgame tries a little too hard to be like its television parent and doesn't try hard enough to be like its movie grandparent. What I mean is that the movie paces itself like an episode from the series. You can almost feel the pauses for the commercial breaks. It also relies far too heavily on the television back-story. The film barrels along, never bothering to pause long enough to develop characters or plot elements -- it simply assumes that everyone watching saw last week's episode. The result is a storyline that hardcore fans of the show may be able to follow, but will leave everyone else (including those who've only seen the films) lost after the first few minutes.

Endgame's case isn't helped by the fact that the main villain, Joseph Kell, is simply laughable -- Bruce Payne overacts his part to such an extent that the corn-ball bad guy he played in Passenger 57 seems rather reserved.

Also, the special effects of this Highlander film are substandard at best. They may have worked for a television show, where a lower budget is understood, but a feature film should simply have better.