First Impressions Friday (3): Conan the Barbarian

First Impressions is a meme hosted  at Within Pages where we take a look at all things, mostly booky, and reflect on our initial thoughts. Non-bloggers, non-book bloggers, and everyone alike can participate on any topic you'd like. Feel free to drop your links or thoughts in the comments!

A new Conan the Barbarian movie will soon hit theaters, just 29 years after the original was released. The film, starring Jason Momoa, opens on August 19. Momoa, who recently appeared as Khal Drogo in the HBO series Game of Thrones, beat Kellan Lutz (Twilight) for the role and for that I am thankful. With his portrayal of the Dothraki leader in Game of Thrones, Jason Momoa really has found the part of a Barbarian. This a new take on the mythology of Conan and is not related to the Arnold Schwarzenegger movies. It does, however, focus on how the myth of Conan the Barbarian began and his origin in Cimmeria.

I also watched the Red Band trailer and it is extremely gory. Like, whoa blood. I mean, they're barbarians after all, so I guess that's to be expected, but dang. It looks like it'll be a decent movie. Ron Perlman plays Conan's father, so that's pretty cool. Rose McGowan is in it. I recently learned that there were posters of her released as the title character in a Red Sonja remake, but that seems to have all but disappeared. I don't think there is anything particularly remarkable about the above trailer, however. I'm only not posting the Red Band trailer because it is 18+. It's widely available on the interwebs, however. We'll know in August just how the movie turned out, I reckon.

Conan the Barbarian opens in 3D (and hopefully 2D, though I honestly haven't seen anything stating that it actually will) on August 19.