When The Raven Flies aka Revenge of the Barbarians aka Hrafninn Flýgur (1984)

Having survived a Viking raid when his parents were killed and young sister kidnapped, Irish youth Gest (Jakob Þór Einarsson) spends 20 years planning his revenge.

Arriving in Iceland, it isn't long before he's Yojimbo-ing things up between his two targets, the blood-brothers Erik (Flosi Ólafsson) and Thord (Helgi Skúlason).

These Vikings had fled to Iceland with their men, to escape the wrath of King Harald of Norway after a failed coup attempt, so they're not exactly trusting to start with.

Gest very quickly starts playing them off against each other, and when one is killed you expect the film to be heading into its final act.

However, things get complicated when Gest discovers not only has one of the men married his sister (Edda Björgvinsdóttir), but also fathered a child, Einar (Gottskálk D. Sigurdarson) with her.

An almost legendary film that's hard to track down these days, When The Raven Flies goes by several names (the "When" seems to be optional in the main title, for instance), including Revenge of The Barbarians in the States and Hrafninn Flýgur in its original Icelandic.

Touted as the "most authentic Viking film ever", this Icelandic-Swedish co-production from 1984 certainly benefits from its shooting locations in Iceland, complete with black beaches and craggy hills; and unremitting weather, alternating between torrential rain and gale-force winds; as well as a cast speaking Icelandic.

But When The Raven Flies also owes a debt to the sword-and-sorcery genre so prevalent in cinema at that time, not that there's any magic or monsters in this one, but it has that gritty, Earthy, small-cast feel of so many similar cinematic stories featuring people swinging swords and axes.

While the overarching plot may not be that original - we've seen it played out with samurai, Wild West gunslingers, fantasy warriors, and gangsters - the Viking period, with its set attitudes to honour and ritual, gives it a fresh feeling.

The verisimilitude is heightened through the use of unusually-fashioned weaponry, which I'm presuming are the 'real deal' compared to flashier Hollywood armaments.

I also loved the fact that everyone rode the small but powerful horses native to Iceland, just adding another layer of authenticity to the drama.

The film is, naturally, violent throughout, but the bright red 'blood' - and avoidance of too much dwelling on injuries - lowers the gore factor down to almost Saturday evening family viewing.

Easy to root for, Gest is a pretty cool hero, armed with his spear-concealing shepherd's crook and an array of deadly throwing blades.

While he's barely set foot in Iceland before he's killing off bad guys, it's all part of a methodical, long game.

And I couldn't stop myself from making Batman comparisons (inspired by the murder of his parents before his eyes), even though it's never expressly stated how long Gest spent on his training and how long on actually setting his Machiavellian scheme in motion (we discover that it began quite some time before he arrives in Iceland).

Possibly because it's subtitled, I must confess at times I felt this 105-minute tale dragged a bit in the middle (there is an English-language cut of the film on the DVD, but that was about quarter of an hour shorter and I wanted the full experience).

However, the pay-off at the end is worth the time invested, especially as it sets up the potential for another cycle of violence... as happens with blood feuds.

When The Raven Flies turns out to be the first part of a Viking Trilogy, but, except for brief trailers on the disc, I know nothing (yet) about the subsequent films, In The Shadow Of The Raven and The White Viking.

I was lucky enough to snag a DVD - via eBay and shipped in from Germany - for just over £3, around a tenth of the price I've seen the film listed at (when it crops up on either eBay or Amazon).

If you like Viking films, then I'd definitely say this is one worth hanging on for, just be careful not to pay over the odds.

The Warrior And The Sorceress (1984)

David Carradine is Kain, a wandering holy warrior (now, where did they get that idea from?), on the dying planet of Ura, which appears to have turned to mostly desert under the harsh twin suns.

Kain finds himself in Yamatar where two rival gangs are fighting over control of the village's only well and the local peasants are suffering in the process.

In a rip-off/homage/remake of the samurai classic Yojimbo (which also inspired A Fistful Of Dollars and Last Man Standing), Kain hires himself out first to one side and then to the other, playing the two gangs off against each other in an escalating cycle of violence.

Caught up in this is the captive "sorceress" Naja (Maria Socas), who shows no evidence of magical ability throughout the movie. In fact the only thing magical about her performance is that for 99 per cent of her time on screen she's topless.

She is, though, ultimately responsible for overseeing the forging of the Sword Of Ura, a magical MacGuffin thrown in for good measure in the film's final act, that appears to have no real paranormal power beyond being quite light weight.

There are also a flat, tentacly monster, a pair of cackling freaks, a pet lizard-creature and some orky-lizardmen slavers who get mixed up in all the shenanigans, to spice up the gang war, but the highlight of The Warrior And The Sorceress for many people is the classic scene when Kain is being feted by one of the crime bosses - Zeg (Luke Askew) - and is entertained by a nude, four-breasted dancer!

Except for the nudity there isn't much to justify the movie's 18-certificate - there's no gore and very little bloodshed, despite the surfeit of sword fights and opportunities for Kain to show off his moves.

The Warrior And The Sorceress is quality entertainment given its 78 minute duration, even if it is truly lacking in the "sorcery" element you really expect from a swords and sorcery movie.

13 Assassins (2010)

The theme of 'honour' is often central to samurai movies, but I can't think of another movie that has handled its complexities as well as 13 Assassins.

Directed by Takashi Miike (who I tend to associate with graphic and disturbing horror movies rather than chambara swordfighting flicks), this is the story of 12 samaurai and a woodsman, who acts as their guide, plotting the death of the Shogun's half-brother, the evil Lord Naritsuga (Gorô Inagaki).

Naritsuga isn't Darth Vader/comic book evil, but a full-on, conscience-free psychopath, whose violent appetites, arrogant ambition and total disregard for human life threaten to shatter mid-19th Century Japan's fragile peace.

Of course, because of his blood ties with the Shogun (he's also the son of the previous Shogun), he goes unchallenged, until the Shogun's advisor Sir Doi (Mikijiro Hira) gets tacit approval from the Shogun to deal with the problem "off the record".

Doi recruits seasoned samurai Shinzaemon Shimada (Kôji Yakusho) for the difficult task - Shinzaemon's only chance is to ambush Naritsuga on the road back from the capitol to his family lands, when he's accompanied by around 70 soldiers.

In this time of peace, finding trained samurai up to such a task is hard work, but eventually Shinzaemon assembles a hit squad of a dozen and comes up with a plan to divert Naritsuga's caravan through a village which Shizaemon will have had fortified and turned into a "death trap".

While the plot is very straight forward, the story can get rather complex for a Western viewer as the opening, explanatory text flashes by fast enough to give you whiplash, and then the dialogue is quite heavy with a lot of names and places (much like Game Of Thrones in that sense) and much, if not all, of the motivation for the protagonists is driven by the concept of honour - they know it's a suicide mission, but it's the right thing to do to save their country (before Naritsuga can assume the high political office that has been offered to him by his half-brother).

On the other side of the coin, Naritsuga's chief samurai Hanbei (Masachika Ichimura) - an old frenemy of Shinzaemon - knows that his master is evil, but also sees his obligation as protecting his master with his life and not questioning orders.

The first hour-and-a-quarter of 13 Assassins sets the chess pieces in place, motivations and reasons are established, the assassination team is assembled (and some have a brief tussle with some henchmen of Naritsuga's clan), but all this building up to the stunning finale, a 45-minute running battle between the assassins and Naritsuga's army (which turns out to be far bigger than they first believed).

Now, I knew in advance of the much-heralded 45-minute battle scene and wondered if Miike could pull it off. And the simple answer is: yes. It's almost a mini-film within the film, never gets repetitive or boring, allows all the assassins their moment in the spotlight, is incredibly creative and bloody (without being unnecessarily gory) and wholly convincing. It shows how a small force of highly trained individuals with a strong leader and a solid plan can take on a much larger force and achieve some sense of victory.

There are, of course, some similarities between 13 Assassins and Akira Kurosawa's Seven Samurai, but not to the detriment of either film.

Supaidâman - Episodes One to Four (1978)

Although officially licensed from Marvel, Toei's 1970's live-action Spiderman (not Spider-Man) show, aka Supaidâman, is way more Power Rangers than modern Marvel Spider-Man movies; his powers come with their own transforming robot (Leopardon) and flying car... because Japan!

Beyond his hyperagility, the majority of Spiderman's powers also seem to originate from his alien suit, the Spider Protector (Venom-much?), and include "spider sense", which acts more like a radar, and a variety of vintage powers such as "spring string" (rope-like projectile webbing) and "spider netting" (for capturing bad guys in).

For a Westerner it's weird, earnest, fun, mixing a character we know so well with the established tropes of Japanese super sentai sci-fi to create a truly unique and wonderful show.

And there's something deliciously camp about the way Spiderman likes to bust a move and strike a pose at every opportunity - even when it serves absolutely no purpose.

Each episode is less than 24 minutes long, including a trail for the next instalment, and tears along with the speed and careless abandon for logic that makes certain old children's shows so enjoyable.

Occasional bursts of dialogue border on the nonsensical, but this could simply be a mistranslation in the subtitles, and there's certainly never any doubt what's going on in the very simple storylines.

Beyond the costume, and the odd refrain from the classic Spider-Man theme music, there's very little of Peter Parker's DNA in this iteration of the character.

Even his supporting characters are wildly different. Although, in his secret identity, the protagonist is a bit of a waster and coward, he's also the "man of the house", looking after his younger sister, Shinko (Izumi Oyama), and little brother, Takuji (Yoshiharu Yabuki).

I'm guessing their late parents had good life insurance as no-one in this family appears to have a steady job, yet putting food on the table doesn't appear to be an issue.

These first four episodes establish a simplistic formula and stick to it, while still drip-feeding the audience with more and more information about Spiderman's backstory and powers.

Hopefully, one day, I'll get to reviewing the remaining 37 episodes of this show and learn Professor Monster's fiendish plans and why he's so determined to kill Spiderman.

But in the meantime, here's my summary of these episodes...

EPISODE ONE: The Time Of Revenge Has Come! Attack The Iron Cross Army! The origin story - it's soooo different to that of Peter Parker's Spider-Man.

Shinji Tôdô stars as Takuya, the motorcycle-racing son of space archaeologist Dr Hiroshi Yamashiro, who receives a psychic summons from a stranded alien Garia (sometimes called Galia).

Garia has been on Earth for 400 years, having chased Professor Monster (Mitsuo Andô) and his duck-billed Iron Cross Army here after their conquest of Planet Spider.

Professor Monster

Garia is seeking revenge for the devastation of his homeworld, but has been trapped underground by Professor Monster until Takuya came along.

Not sure what Professor Monster was doing for those four centuries if his plan, as stated, is to conquer the Earth? Perhaps he was waiting for humanity to just wipe itself out?

In a very Yoda-like move, Garia passes on the power of Spiderman to Takuya then appears to die, instantly reincarnating as a spider that spouts motivational commentary to Takuya.

Takuya's father is killed by Professor Monster's forces when Takuya's family are investigating a crashed UFO, which is actually Garia's ship, the Marveller (see what they did there?) and so now he has two reasons to seek revenge on Professor Monster.

EPISODE TWO: My Serious World! The Man Who Lives According To His Destiny: Professor Monster has started to derail trains, using a giant flying brain creature, for reasons...

Takuya wanders into a church and recounts his origin story to a statue of Christ (bit odd), giving us some more information about Garia and Professor Monster's feud and how they both ended up on Earth.

There's a suggestion that after Garia and Professor Monster fought in the samurai era, leaving Garia trapped underground, Professor Monster went into hibernation until recently.

Back in the 1970s, the arachnid Yoda, Garia, decides he's done enough, curls up into a spidery ball and dies - for real.

After this things start to slot into a formula: Spiderman fights some of the duck-billed Iron Cross Army ninjas, the creature-of-the-week appears, the creature grows to kaiju size, Spiderman hops into his flying car and summons Leopardon.

The giant robot and the kaiju fight, then Leopardon throws its sword at the monster - which explodes.

The end.

EPISODE THREE: Phantom Thief 001 vs The Spider: In a plot eerily reminiscent of the 2018 season of Daredevil, Professor Monster uses one of his creatures - a large insect that projects powerful light beams from its bug eyes - to bust Phantom Thief 001 from police custody, then brainwash him into thinking he's Spiderman.

The notorious thief then goes round tagging all his burglaries with Spiderman's name, and ruining our hero's reputation.

This is all a cunning plan to lure the real Spiderman out and, when he confronts the hypnotised Phantom Thief 001, he is ambushed by Iron Cross Army ninjas and the insect creature.

There's a nice touch where the real Spiderman saves the impostor, after the Iron Cross Army decide they have no further need for him, but then the story segues into its formulaic final act.

Ninja fight. Kaiju. Flying car. Giant robot. Power sword. Explosion. The end.

EPISODE FOUR: The Terrifying Merman! Silver String That Brings A Miracle: Takuya Yamashiro wakes from a prophetic nightmare that Professor Monster has written a computer program which has divined - after studying all the available film footage of his fights - the ultimate way to kill Spiderman.

Then, Takuya sees a death announcement for Spiderman in the newspaper, complete with funeral arrangements set for a couple of days' time.

The Spider Bracelet

This is, of course, part of another plan by Professor Monster to lure Spiderman into a trap.

The Professor has created a wicked Merman to attack innocents, and chasing this creature Spiderman falls into a cage... and has his first face-to-face meeting with Professor Monster!

After being severely wounded in his cage fight with the Merman, Spiderman escapes, but is later lured into another trap when the Merman and the Iron Cross Army kidnap freelance photographer Hitomi Sakuma (Rika Miura), Takuya's younger sister's best friend and the closest this Spiderman gets to having his own Mary Jane... but without any overt romance.

In this episode we learn a bit more about Spiderman's powers: with his suit he can see in the dark, but the alien injection that made him Spiderman has also granted him superhearing and a rapid healing ability.

I'm not sure if the prophetic dreams are a new power or simply a plot device for this episode as they're never explained.

It's also amusingly bizarre that Takuya wears a huge bracelet (with Spiderman written on it) - which contains the Spider Protector and has other gadgety uses - on his wrist, but no-one ever notices this!

After rescuing Hitomi, Spiderman heads into the final act and you should know the score by now:

Ninja fight. Kaiju. Flying car. Giant robot. Power sword. Explosion. The end.

The Marveller transforms into Leopardon, which has a spectacular array of anti-kaiju weaponry

Prey (2022)

Set in 1719 on America's Northern Great Plains, Prey follows eager young Comanche warrior Naru (Legion's Amber Midthunder), who struggles for acceptance by the male warriors in her tribe, despite her formidable tracking and herbal medicine skills.

Even her brother Taabe (Dakota Beavers) can't fully acknowledge her prowess.

However, when she spots a fiery "thunderbird" in the skies, she takes it as a sign that it's time for her "kuhtaamia", a coming-of-age ritual where you hunt something that can also hunt you.

When an enigmatic creature, presumed to be a lion or a bear, threatens her community, Naru goes off on her own to prove herself.

Only, it turns out that the big beastie in the woods is actually an alien Yautja (Dane DiLiegro) aka a Predator, who has come to Earth for some sport.

Escaping the alien killing machine, Naru and Taabe fall into the hands of a veritable army of brutish French fur trappers.

Even tooled-up with (admittedly primitive) rifles and pistols, the French prove to be little more than target practice for the heavy-armed, high-tech alien as it cuts a bloody swathe through their numbers on its hunt for more challenging prey.

Rhythmically paced, with no time for padding or slack, Prey is a lean, stripped back to basics, entry into the Predator franchise.

Taking place several hundred years before Arnie faced a Predator in Central America, this prequel engages a willing audience from its opening sequences - introducing us to the Comanche way of life - through to its kinetic, blood-soaked final act.

On one hand, it's a slow burn as the diametrically opposed hunters - human and alien - work towards their eventual confrontation, but on the other the film is beautifully and dramatically composed, making great use of the Canadian wilderness in which it was shot.

Assisted by her (thankfully) indestructible canine companion, Amber Midthunder is a charismatic action lead, although her Naru segues a bit too comfortably from hunting animals and fighting the Predator to out-and-out murdering Frenchmen.

Writer-director Dan Trachtenberg's script, co-written with Patrick Aison, does a great job of foreshadowing important elements that will eventually contribute to Naru's inevitable victory over the seemingly indestructible Yautja.

In the latter half of the 99-minute movie, however, it does tend to lean too heavily on emulating the original 1987 Predator and having Taabe actually say "if it bleeds, we can kill it" is a real cringe moment in an otherwise solid script.

What I'd like to see now is more of these "historical Predators": how about one set a hundred or so years later in the Wild West, or feudal Japan (Yautja vs samurai and ninja), or Medieval Europe (as depicted in the Kickstarter-funded Predator: Dark Ages, back in 2015), or during The Battle of The Somme (or some other grim First World War setting), or Victorian London, or the Stone Age?

The possibilities are endless. Although, if humanity wins every time you have to wonder why the Predators keep coming back!