Powers away relentlessly and soon becomes numbing - except when Makoare waggles his tongue in traditional warrior manner, which is genuinely a fearsome thing to behold.

By the final stretch, the combat is pure tedium, with each skuffle filmed and edited in the same way each time and the makers refusing to scale things up in the name of idle spectacle.

The Dead Lands is a distinctive tale that blends coming-of-age with some muscular action sequences.

It is lurid, furious, bloodthirsty fun.