In reference to another review, "It is as bad as its painted to be".
They made a good film, crap! Its a remake of a Norwegian film, but a poor one. Apart from all the factual errors, there are two other major problems with this film, its too dark, and the camera work is too close, when we need to see wider shots. I know its set in winter, but the darkness is too much, its like a Tim Burton horror/fantasy, maybe they wanted to copy that style, but for me its not good in this film, and the close ups are too close, we need to see more, not just the gory faces. Karl Urban was ok, and its good that they got real indigenous actors to play those parts, but most of everything else was off, the mountain shots were not real, or from archive footage. The action was ok, but a bit too gory, but it seems they intended that, but that goes against the subject material, Vikings discovering a new land, yes there would have been some killing, but nothing like this. The only saving grace was that it was not overlong. They could make a much better film at about 2 1/2 hours by turning it into more of an adventure with more colour and better camera work, but that does not save this film.
Do yourself a favour, if there nothing else available, listen to the radio, and save yourself from this dross.
They made a good film, crap! Its a remake of a Norwegian film, but a poor one. Apart from all the factual errors, there are two other major problems with this film, its too dark, and the camera work is too close, when we need to see wider shots. I know its set in winter, but the darkness is too much, its like a Tim Burton horror/fantasy, maybe they wanted to copy that style, but for me its not good in this film, and the close ups are too close, we need to see more, not just the gory faces. Karl Urban was ok, and its good that they got real indigenous actors to play those parts, but most of everything else was off, the mountain shots were not real, or from archive footage. The action was ok, but a bit too gory, but it seems they intended that, but that goes against the subject material, Vikings discovering a new land, yes there would have been some killing, but nothing like this. The only saving grace was that it was not overlong. They could make a much better film at about 2 1/2 hours by turning it into more of an adventure with more colour and better camera work, but that does not save this film.
Do yourself a favour, if there nothing else available, listen to the radio, and save yourself from this dross.