Bad Movie Challenge: Conan the Barbarian (2011)!

Conan tries to deflect bad reviews with his sword.

Earlier last week my buddy and fellow blogger Bill (of Bill's Beta Ray Blog fame) saw the new "Conan the Barbarian" and was raving about it. He really enjoyed it. Thinking that perhaps I was too harsh in my earlier assessment of the film's trailers, I decided to look up "Conan" on IMDB and Rotten Tomatoes and discovered that not only did the majority of film critics and reviewers hate it, but so did quite a few fans. (Enough "Average Joes" enjoyed it enough to give it a, currently, 5.4 over at IMDB.)

I taunted Bill with excerpts from various reviews that spewed venomous comments about the film. He became agitated and fought back against me, saying I couldn't really judge the movie unless I had seen it for myself. And thusly, a challenge was (seemingly) inadvertently laid before me. I told Bill I'd go see the film this weekend but NOT in 3D, and would follow it up with a review. The former I'm doing to appease my friend because quite frankly, I don't really want to give ANY money to this movie: I'm pretty sure it is going to suck. (Sure the critics hated it but the box office numbers never lie: This flick is a bomb!) The latter I'm doing because I need to get back to writing, plus bashing this film will provide me with some catharsis for the pain I'll most likely endure.

So in a few short hours, I will be sitting (by myself because no one will share the pain with me) in a theater and watching the CGI exploits of Momoan the Barbarian. Will I end up hating the film? Will I kinda-sorta like it? Will I have a huge change of heart and praise it as one of the best movies of the year? Well if you follow me on Twitter or Facebook, you'll know later tonight. Otherwise, stay tuned for my capsule review!