This is the exact kind of remake I want to see more of. Take something that didn't pull of what it was trying for and have a blast with improving it. The sword and sorcery subgenre in the 80s is filled with potential for this. Helll, a lot of Corman's no-budget works are good fits!
This at least has a much more creative look for the costumes and scenery than Red Sonja does, although I wish everyone and everything looked a bit dirtier and lived in.
There's a lot of MST3K episodes that have really good movies underneath all of the cheesiness, and I'm convinced that we'd have some legitimately good modern cult classics if they got this treatment.
Yup. We've been arguing this for ...forever(?) on the podcast