Love Erik the Viking & The Sword & the Sorcerer, (which has a little-known "sequel" w Lee Horsley reprising his role as "The Stranger" in credits, altho clearly Talon. Took them 28 years to do it, but same director, Alan Pyun, costarring Michael Pare & ugh, Kevin Sorbo, by the name of, Abelar: Tales of an Ancient Empire. Horsley isnt much more than a glorified cameo, and it carries a whopping 2.8/10 on IMDB, and that's... prettt generous to the product).

Better one than many of these (Krull is an awesome choice made by ofhers here,) is Hawk the Slayer. Feels very inspired by LoTR, complete with an elf, Crow, who can fire off shots at a machine gun clip & talks even faster while sounding as if he has a helium addiction, a Dwarf with an automatic crossbow, and a giant all lending their weapons to John Terry's Hawk, whose on a mission of revenge against the always awesome Jack Palance, who Terry accidentally really pierced with his sword during a fight scene. Hunted this one down on DVD (along w Shaw Bros' Five Deadly Venoms- both of which played seemingly monthly as a kid). It holds up fairly well, outside an ill-advised final showdown taking place entirely in bad slow motion. In 2009, there was an announcement that a sequel, Hawk the Hunter was going to get made, but sadly, never came to .

Just like the, "10 Marvel Heroes Who Could Defeat Superman," article, there is no defeating the Amazing Plot Convenience.

In any given issue or series, neither Supes nor Hulk are going to get the best of a writer who needs something accomplished & has the arsenal of fictitious wonders at his disposal.

Each of those 10 instances posited can be the victor or the defeated at the clickety-clacks of a keyboard by a writer needing to tell a story that has a compelling conflict at hand needing to (eventually) being overcome.

Because people dislike AI in its use to.bring back deceased actors doesn't make it a valid controversy.

The age we live in & its availability is something actors, their.families, the actors union, studios & filmmakers need to work out... amongst themselves. It doesn't include our input as filmgoers- who seemingly have begun to believe their fandom includes ownership. It doesn't. Our place in the chain is deciding on whether we attend films, or don't, that include it.

From all tbe info given, this inclusion of "Ian Holm" was handled the correct way from beginning to end. It was his widow that was approached & not just given approval, but shown the final film ahead of time to ensure she thought it was handled properly.

From her side, Ian felt invisible post LOTR projects and still thought he had more to offer- which is just sad, especially for an actor of his caliber.

I know, as a husband & father, if I can help provide for my family, even after I , I'd absolutely want it considered, and I wouldn't want people I've never known dictating whether I can or can't. I'd want the people that I loved & who loved me to make that call.

Was the inclusion of "Ian" utterly convincing? I can see why.people would say no. The FX are spotty, at best. IMHO, it actually added to the fact that he was a synthetic... (oops, sorry, Artificial Person). It felt as if that much damage he received.caused damage to some sort of "module" that kept his "skin" warm & pliable, reverting him to being truly machine with cold metal beneath & his skin becoming more rubber-like... as if their white "blood" perhaps flows thru, making their skin more lifelike.

All in all, Fede did an amazing job in bringing Sir Ian Holm back for one more film- an overall great film & the best in the franchise since 1986.

While Eddie may not return, you overlooked another replacement set up by the film, and it lies also in the Area 51 combat scene.

***SPOILERS***

***SPOILERS***

When one of the xenophages leaps into the helicopter above, it lawn-mowers the door gunner's legs, and never finishes the job before the chopper crashes to the ground. When it does crash, Strickland announces, "Thompson's down!" Heavily implying by both predicament and name that this is this Earth's Flash Thompson, aka: Agent Venom, and later, Agent Anti-Venom.

This Thompson is carried off to apparent safety, meaning Hardy may (or may not,) be telling the truth that this was his last appearance as Eddie the "main character," attached to Venom. This could be freeing up more of his time, allowing him to take on more roles, whilst still having the time to voice Venom in any future instalments. Of course, there's not much, say, a giant bag of Disney dollars couldn't fix to bring Venom & Eddie back together again for Secret Wars. Never say never, but that sequence convinced me that the next phase of Venom is going to include him as a very special agent, indeed.