Verdict: 'Highlander' series can't be killed by normal means.

Details: Starring Christopher Lambert and Adrian Paul. Rated R for violence.

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Review: At one point the young immortal looks up at his older immortal mentor and asks, "Connor, what the hell is going on?"

People who pay to see Highlander: Endgame probably will be asking one another the same question. The fourth movie in the series that began with Highlander in 1986 ends essentially the same way as the first three movies.

But there are so many confusing turns, plot deadends, red herrings, interminable flashbacks and special-effects-muddled fight scenes along the way that you'll need a color-coded flow chart to follow the story to its familiar climax.

Highlander: Endgame is not a continuation of a story line begun with Highlander and advanced in its two movie sequels. In fact, the sequels--the atrocious Highlander II: The Quickening from 1991 and the boring Highlander: The Final Dimension from 1994--are completely ignored.

Endgame instead melds the story line from the original movie with the plots from the Highlander television series that ran from 1993 to 1999.

The Highlander mythology involves a group of immortal beings who have been living among humans for thousands of years. They can't be killed by normal means, but they duel with one another with swords and if one immortal cuts off the head of the other, the winner gains the strength and knowledge of the loser.

Ultimately, according to the Highlander legend, "There can be only one," and the last immortal standing wins the Prize, which is never explained.

Endgame begins with the immortal hero of the first movie, Connor MacLeod (Christopher Lambert), dropping out of sight after a woman he loves is killed in an explosion. Constantly outliving his loved ones has finally broken Connor's will, and he retires to the Sanctuary where worn-out immortals are held in drug-induced suspended animation.

A group of renegade immortals led by arch-villain Jacob Kell (Bruce Payne) invades the Sanctuary and kills the dormant immortals.

Duncan MacLeod (Adrian Paul), the hero of the Highlander television series, refuses to believe his old friend Connor was killed in the attack. But when Duncan starts investigating Connor's whereabouts, he's attacked by Kell and his henchmen.

There are subplots about a woman Duncan once loved who now hates him, an honorable Asian warrior now enslaved to Kell, a group of mortal "Watchers" who keep tabs on the endless immortal duels, a priest who tries to burn Connor's mother at the stake and lots of other reasons why everybody wants to cut everybody else's head off.

But, of course, it all comes down to the bravest, most resourceful good guy facing off against the strongest, most depraved bad guy in a fight to the death.

The first Highlander was not a particularly good movie, but it had style and was based on an interesting idea.

Highlander: Endgame starts promisingly with magnificent footage, shot in Romania, of Connor MacLeod riding through hills representing Scotland, where he lived his first lifetime.

But it quickly goes astray with fight scenes laden with too many bullets, too many explosions, too many sparks, lightning bolts and weird lights--and too many impalings. The martial-arts choreography is rendered unimpressive by the fact camera tricks were obviously used to speed up the action.

The middle of the movie drags along with the characters stopping every five minutes to explain the rules of the immortal game and why some characters follow the rules while others don't.

And then it ends, as Highlander stories generally do, with a beheading.

The third Highlander movie was subtitled Final Dimension, and this one is subtitled Endgame, but don't expect it to be over.

There can be only one immortal, and apparently a few are still kicking.