Yeah, this film was pretty bad. Okay, visually it was quite nice, but honestly, I really found it boring. In fact it came across as being one of those fantasy style adventures, and even pretty much ran as if it was a fantasy adventure, but it fell down badly in the sense that it was basically set in the real world, or at least England where the Vikings were fighting the Saxons. Okay, I'm sure things like this happened in the real world, but honestly, if the film is drawing on countless fantasy tropes, a part of me really would prefer the film to be set in a fantasy realm.
As I mentioned, the film is set in during the time when the Vikings had invaded England, and things are going badly for the Viking king. So, he calls in reinforcements, and along comes his son. However, the king, who has been wounded in battle, decides that his son won't take his place, but instead go and search for his elder brother. Thus begins the quest, where our hero goes and searches for clues, encounters some trouble, and finally stumbles upon his brother who, not surprisingly, has joined a cult where he is basically the leader.
So that is basically it, the typical fantasy trope tied around the typical quest narrative. Of course, the whole narrative is a coming of age story, and also toys with the idea of the savage Viking becoming somewhat calmer and more passive. However, that doesn't seem to last all that long because once he returns, the father decides that his son has proven himself and he proceeds to go and slaughter Saxons, except that in reality the Saxons won.
This is probably the spot I struggled with in the film. Honestly, they probably should have switched the roles, however Vikings tend to be a lot more appealing than do Saxons. Yet this still really didn't work - why have a Viking as the hero, and have him go on a quest to prove himself, when ultimately it is all going to come to naught. Sure, this could be a metaphor of the futility of life, but honestly, this really wasn't one of those deep and philosophical films. No, rather it was just an adventure flick that in the end was really boring.
Okay, maybe it is because of budget reasons that the creators decided to dispense with the fantasy elements, however I don't really feel that is the case here, However, there is more to a good movie, even a good adventure movie, than just fantasy elements. In the end this film falls down on so many levels - the characters were rather hollow, it really didn't know what it was or what it wanted to be, and the acting wasn't that intriguing either.
Oh, and there was also the idea that they were trying to set this film up as if it was some form of Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels. Well, that didn't work for me either. So, in the end, it is one of those films that I was really glad when it came to an end.
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