Un fort beau travail visuel a été accompli afin d'évoquer les illustrations originales de Frank Frazetta. Marcus Nispel, qui revisite ici certains éléments de son précédent Pathfinder, y va d'une réalisation robuste, certes tape-à-l'oeil, mais néanmoins efficace.

But with a script so pat and humor-free, Momoa has little to do but sneer and slice. The film informs us that Conan has the heart of a lion and "the loyalty of a bloodhound," but we get nary a sniff of that in this carnage fest. He's built like a tank, but Conan emotes like one, too.

At its best moments, Conan is goofy fun with extra testosterone. At its worst, it's repetitive, dull and transparent.

Even disjointed and somewhat disheveled, Conan the Barbarian is gritty enough and brutal enough that it's absolutely worth a look. Marcus Nispel knows how to shoot this kind of vicious battle story, and if only someone would've found a way to close up the cracks in its narrative, then maybe they'd have had something special.