This is the first Sword and Sorcery movie of the 80s, pre-dating the Conan movies, Krull etc.etc. and it shows.
In many ways it feels like the tropes have yet to be established as there's clearly identifiable pseudo-Christian institutions, Nuns, Abbots etc. but also a Witch who Hawk rescues and who later uses lots of magic to make stuff happen.
There's a Giant, Elf and a Dwarf character but they're not quite the usual fantasy tropes beyond the Elf being an Archer.
Structurally and tonally it's a Spaghetti Western with fantasy trappings and a bit of the old Sinbad adventure movie thrown in.
The very intrusive soundtrack is like Jeff Wayne's War of the Worlds and Ennio Morricone had a love child.
Everybody hams the fuck out of it. It's almost like they've given the script to some LARPers with 10 minutes to prepare for their scenes.
Voltan is supposed to be a widely feared badass conqueror but we never see this onscreen. At one point he kills some locals in a pub. There's no real explanation of what he's been up to since he killed Hawk's wife or why the two haven't crossed paths since.
There's a shadowy evil wizard in a cave up to something but who mostly zaps Voltan with a healing spell between scenes.
It's all kind of odd. Objectively much about it is bad but it has the feel of something where people with a tiny budget were innovating in a new (for then) genre with love and as such much of this can be forgiven. 6/10, ropey but for reasons.