I can easily see what the makers of Highlander were going for. Somewhere in this movie, there’s a story about a man dealing with his life as an Immortal, learning the rules to a game he was forced into playing. The premise is perfect for a character drama with heavy doses of action, truly epic in scope.

Yet there are so many ways in which this film didn’t stick the landing.

Let’s start with the actors. These characters are all wonderful in theory, but their actors are far from superlative. Take Christopher Lambert, for example, in the lead role of Connor MacLeod. He can do cool, distant and threatening without a problem, which is fortunately the majority of what our stoic badass protagonist is called upon to be. But on those occasions when Lambert is called upon to emote or deliver a line of dialogue, he is simply not equal to the task.

Then there’s Roxanne Hart as MacLeod’s present-day love interest. On the page, I can easily imagine how Brenda might appear as a strong and smart woman who would give MacLeod enough reason to risk heartbreak for her. On the screen, there’s nothing memorable about her, aside from how often she screams during the climax. And speaking of female roles, a mention is due to Rachel Ellenstein played by Sheila Gish. This is a character who MacLeod had rescued from a WWII battlefield when she was just a girl, raising her as a sort of adoptive daughter ever since. I personally find this a fascinating concept ripe with dramatic possibilities, but the movie doesn’t allow enough screen time for Rachel to do anything relevant or for Gish to make an impression.

I could go on about the cast, but it would essentially be more of the same, save only for two highlights. The first is Clancy Brown, who looks to be having the time of his life chewing scenery as the creepy and scary badass called “The Kurgan.” The second is Sean Connery, who delivers a sarcastic yet suave and nurturing performance as the mentor character, Ramirez.

Of course, why Ramirez took McLeod under his wing instead of trying to decapitate him is anyone’s guess. That’s just one of many little plot holes I noticed. For another example, there was an entire scene when The Kurgan is standing directly behind MacLeod, yet the latter doesn’t sense his proximity as Immortals usually do. Additionally, great stress is put on The Gathering, that time when all the Immortals gather together in mortal combat until only one survives. Yet we see Immortals fighting and killing each other well before The Gathering, so what’s the point of it?

Visually, the movie is hit-and-miss. The lighting and production design are pretty good, but there are some camera shots (particularly that aerial-cam in the film’s opening) that look awkward. Speaking of which, this movie has some surprisingly lackluster fight choreography for a premise centered around sword fighting. The special effects can get rather strange as well, from walls that inexplicably collapse during the Kurgan/Ramirez fight to the laughable execution of the final Quickening.

Then there’s the editing. The plot alternates between the present-day storyline and a few storylines set at points in the past, with transitions that are very well-paced and often quite clever. At all other points, the editing is pretty much crap. There’s one especially baffling cut that goes from a sex scene directly to a close-up of a roaring lion in a zoo. There’s a car chase soon after that’s made nearly unwatchable by how it’s cut together.

Still, I think my biggest problem with this film is in how much potential it had that went completely untapped. The movie presents several scenarios for immortality (accusations of witchcraft in medieval times, losing all sense of identity after changing locations and names so many times, love and friendship with mortals, love and friendship with Immortals, etc.), any one of which could make for an entire film’s worth of drama in its own right. However, since they’re all crammed into two hours, none of them are really taken far enough. Furthermore, this movie is enormous in scope, taking us from medieval Scotland to 18th century Britain to WWII to the present day. We might conceivably have followed McLeod on his adventures all over the world through past, present and maybe even the future. With him, we might have learned so much about the Immortals and their origins (though I respect the film’s vagueness on this matter).

The premise seems built for a franchise, except for that one clause built into it: “There can be only one.” The movie is simultaneously designed to end as a one-shot movie, but also to leave the door open for several more stories. It’s like the film establishes potential and squanders it irreversibly, all at the same time. As such, it’s understandable how this spawned a ton of sequels and also how they all completely stunk.

To me, everything in Highlander adds up to a stellar premise with flawed execution. There’s a ton of effort on display, but a couple of bad creative choices and some key talent deficiencies keep the film from delivering the full extent of its massive potential. I think it also hurt that this film was made way before its time; just the addition of modern special effects and fight choreography would have helped quite a bit.

Fortunately, given the strength of this premise and how thoroughly the franchise has been fucked beyond all repair, this movie is perfect material for a remake. Luckily, the challenge has already been accepted by the director of Fast Five and the woman who wrote all the Twilight movies.

…Wait, what?