The Northman (2022)
A tale of Viking revenge which takes place over decades. Robert Eggers film certainly looks the part from a world building scenario, is very well acted and directed and feels mythical and surreal enough for a classic Viking epic but i never really felt invested in it. I was never really gripped by the story which proved too slight for the films 140 minute run time.
In a way it's ambition lets it down. Although the world building was commendable as i alluded to above, it's still quite small in it's vision. Whilst the village may look authentic enough right down to the crockery, the film lacked any what you would call classic Viking imagery. There were no long ship assaults on coastal areas, nothing pulse pounding in that respect just a few bloody battles that when examined closely were rather small in scale.
Meanwhile the characters never pulled me in aside from a couple of conversations between lead Alexander Skarsgård (You wouldn't want to mess with him) and Eggers fave Anya Taylor-Joy, the film had no emotional hold from it's characterisation whatsoever. I'm usually gripped by historical films akin to this be it Gladiator (2000) Braveheart (1995), The Long Ships (1964) or even Mario Bava's 60's mini epics Erik the Conqueror and Knives of the Avenger but i wasn't by this.
The lack of a score from Wardruna didn't help even if Icelandic Goddess Bjork played a seeress in the film and was beautifully effective in her performance.
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