UNDER THE SPELL OF SWORD AND SORCERY

As a kid I was mad about knights on armour and adored my plastic breastplate, helmet and sword. having a mad love for monsters too it was only natural that I'd like fantasy films that involved swords and beasts. Jason and the Argonauts and the Sinbad films filled my head as a nipper.

This sub-genre became known as sword and sorcery, which I suppose was a fantasy off-shoot of the older Sword and Sandal genre.

In my twenties I enjoyed films like Beast Master, Conan, Red Sonja and Legend [the one with Darkness].

Thanks to Netflix I've recently caught up on a few more modern Sword and Sorcery flicks of late, mostly mythological in nature:

The Immortals: rather than the ubiquitous Perseus, this film was about Theseus, another of Zeus's half-human super sons.  His epic struggle against a barbarian army was quite enjoyable and I particularly liked Mickey Rourke's portrayal of its brutal leader. It reminded me of his role in Sin City and the film had the look generally of 300. The other baddie in the movie is the Minotaur, who was disappointingly small. I would have loved a colossal bull beast man. Theseus was played by Superman Henry Cavill so the Minotaur had no chance.

Seventh Son: I enjoyed this film a lot. It had all of the main food groups: witches, monsters, warriors and warlocks. It also featured Pendle Mountain, which was clearly based on Pendle Hill in my birth county of Lancashire and the spiritual witch hill of England [the new Hell Boy features it too!] Jeff Bridges and his old chewy voice is a real gem playing the Warlock and the film's lead.

Gods of Egypt: its unusual for a big film to be about Egyptian Gods. Osiris, Anubis, Ra, Seth. They were all present and correct and knocking seven ankhs out of each other. I enjoyed it as well.

Do you like these sorts of films readers? Have you any Sword and Sorcery toys or games? What about the action taking place on other planets like John Carter of Mars?