The Northman
Prince Amleth is on the verge of becoming a man when his father is brutally murdered by his uncle, who kidnaps the boy's mother. Two decades later, Amleth is now a Viking who's on a mission to save his mother, kill his uncle and avenge his father.
- Released: 2022-04-07
- Runtime: 137 minutes
- Genre: Action, Drama, History
- Stars: Alexander Skarsgård, Anya Taylor-Joy, Claes Bang, Nicole Kidman, Ethan Hawke, Björk, Willem Dafoe, Ralph Ineson, Kate Dickie, Gustav Lindh, Hafþór Júlíus Björnsson, Murray McArthur, Ian Gerard Whyte, James Yates, Olwen Fouéré, Edgar Abram, Rebecca Ineson, Eric Higgins, Kevin Horsham, Jack Gassmann, Tadhg Murphy, Ingvar Sigurdsson, Elliott Rose, Jonas Lorentzen, Ísadóra Bjarkardóttir Barney, Jon Campling, Magne Osnes, James Harper-Jones, Katie Pattinson, Luca Evans, Seamus O'Hara, Chris Finlayson, Scott Sinclair, Gareth Parker, Eldar Skar, Phill Martin, Oscar Novak, Jack Walsh, Ian Whyte, Andrea O’Neill, Nille Glæsel, Ineta Sliuzaite, Finn Lafferty, Helen Roche, Faoileann Cunningham, Mark Fitzgerald, Gavin Peden, Joel Hicks, Matt Symonds, Thomas Harper-Jones, Sheila Fitton, Lily Bird, Sunil Beniwal, Michael McGeown, Peter Vamos
- Director: Robert Eggers
Comments
- Mailer91630 - 6 June 2024
A Decent Viking Movie With Campy Writing
This film has some wonderful qualities. The scenery is fantastic and sets a mood that goes back and forth from absolutely stunning landscapes to dark, muddy, and filthy settlements. The mood is brutal and spare for the most part, but there are also some cool scenes with witches, priests, and berserkers that are take you into Norse mythology and culture.
Now, if I had to characterize the writing of this movie, I would say that the inspiration is more Edgar Rice Burroughs or Robert Howard than Norse legend. The dialogue was a bit more kitsch than classic, and for my purposes that's okay because it's not high art, but popular entertainment. It's not bad writing,; it's what you might expect from Conan the Barbarian or Tarzan, and I like those sorts of things. But suffice it to say that the dialogue can get a little camp.
So, realize that you're getting a good piece of popular entertainment, not an excellent or classic film, and enjoy the time with it. It's fun and worth an evening. - fh147 - 25 April 2024
Myth with details
I really enjoyed how much they put into the details on the wood carvings to their clothes to the way they speak it feels so authentic to being in the Danish Trelleborg .
And the Casting was really on most of the people were from Scandinavia a single from Iceland and their girl was from Florida and they were acting so well throughout the movie I could see the pain in their characters.
Movie has a mythic feeling to it with the many Viking storytellers and ritual and you begin to doubt if it's in the head or maybe the magic is real.
Brutality to the movie and their fully done Vengeance is what I truly was remarked by and the character acting was so good just to stairs the noises all of it come together to a painfully beautiful movie . - dandespick - 24 March 2024
Most accurate adaptation of the historical past
Eggers brings the past into the now. We have seen in the past princes in spandex and wearing collars in palaces, but the raw brutality, the dirt and the blood is most likely to be the truth than everything else. To accomplish such a task, it needs, first, knowledge of history, secondly, clear mind so that there is a certain detachment, and finally the capability to be able to attribute all of the above in an exceptional artful way creating a great atmosphere. Eggers has already shown that he is more than capable to do so from the Witch, although I didn't like it as much as the Viking. Here Eggers reaches new levels of mastery. The movie has it all, but above all its creator's unique view. Marvelous. - jander_downunder - 7 January 2023
Thought it would be really good but no...
Revenge! Vikings! Kingdome! Great seas and fighting scenes. How can this not be great or hardly even good?
I really love vikings, iceland, historic movies Nicole Kidman, Skarsgård and... I was so hopefull but... some cool scenes, beautifull footage and wild scenes. Still not at all what I hoped for. Its not beliveble. Not logic.
And it is so sad because it could have been such an epic movie.
Why start talk icelandic in the final scenes when he should not be able to know the language? Only because the filmmakers think it sounds cool?
There are part enjoyable but for the full movie... 4/10. I could have given it 5 or 6/10 just because its a viking saga but graduating movies should not be based of personal referenses. - markmcdonald-09849 - 3 January 2023
Celebrity Softball Game
There are over 30 Emmy Awards, Golden Globes and Academy Awards amongst this star studded cast. However, you'd never be able to tell that after watching this film.
Let's start with the positive take away's. The location of the film is absolutely gorgeous. The scenery and lighting are exactly what you would expect from a Viking era movie. The fight scenes are very detailed and epic. Almost TOO over the top though. That brings us to the negatives.
When you hear names like Nicole Kidman, Anya Taylor-Joy, and Ethan Hawke you immediately think of people who could play/portray any character in any film. This film proved us all wrong. It's almost as if no one in the film crew has ever actually heard a Norwegian/Icelandic accent. Oh wait, they did... because it also starred Thor Björnsson (who is literally Icelandic). Despite that little fact, none of the big stars even came close making it incredibly difficult to follow the script. In an attempt to cover up the horrible performance of the actors, the directors attempted to sway over the audience with overly gory battle scenes. Every casualty in every fight scene is either dismembered, beheaded, and disemboweled. It's almost as if no one on the film crew knew that most battlefield injuries during that time frame were actually stab wounds.
On top of everything that I've already listed, the story just isn't very interesting. Movies now days cannot simply be about a somewhat realistic scenario. Everyone has to have some form of superpower. Our "hero" in this story can foresee parts of his future. All thanks to a weird tradition in which William Defoe ( Who is the kings fool) performs a ceremony on the kings son while making him and his father pretend to be a dog and a puppy. It's all ok though, Anya Taylor-Joy's character (who goes from his prisoner to his future wife) has the ability to cast spells .
My overall review is that this film completely missed the mark. Bad acting, meets a very horrible plot. - mwgfgrey - 29 December 2022
Good, Not Great
While I really love the casting choices, setting and action sequences, it could have been a much better movie. I really like Vikings on Prime, Vikings Valhalla on Netflix and Last Kingdom. The storyline was pretty good, but it moved too slow at times. I also didnt like how he just ups and leaves his woman after he finds out she's pregnant with his kid. Sorry, but I'm not buying that Fjoolnir's reach is that far after most of his soldiers were slain. Amleth could've had his happily ever after, but I guess it wouldn't have been much of a revenge movie if that was the case. All that said, this isn't just another Viking saga story as others have mentioned and the acting is very good. The action was right there with Mamoa's Conan remake. Like i said, it was good. Just not great. If i wanna watch something Viking related, I'll go to Last Kingdom first and use this as a backup. - ajinkyamkasabi - 22 December 2022
Surprisingly Slow!!!
Let's say you're telling a story.
The story's idea is good. There're many opportunities to build the main character and a narrative. The only good thing I found about the movie is the acting.
But, story and dialogues???
It's a straightforward story. No character development.
What's the nature of Amleth's relationship with his father? Yes, he took the oath and he was supposed to kill his father's murderer, but there should be a strong emotional attachment to following the oath, right?
Why Amleth wanted to die just for the sake of a vision? Without him, Ogla will be all alone.
And the most important part - His Mother.
She was the only woman in his life, in his memory. His oath involved saving her. When he found out that she was happy with his uncle the first thing that was supposed to come to his mind was DENIAL!!!
That was the moment of conflict. His sole purpose of revenge was based on his father's greatness. How can he quickly decide that his mother is wrong?
I lost interest in the movie at that point only.
Dialogues: Dialogues were more dramatic than the tension between the character. If you're reading a novel then these types of dialogue are good, but can't say the same thing about movie dialogue.
What good things about the movie?
Acting, acting, acting... And cinematography And music
To conclude: don't expect too much! If you've never watched any revenge story, then watch this. - bainz - 17 December 2022
go watch King Arthur: Legend of the Sword ... much more enjoyable
This movie brings nothing new to the table frankly ... too long and pretty dull. Too many dudes yelling trying to capture that "300" energy but it falls flat and was pretty cringe i must say.
It was nicely shot, good cinematography, solid soundtrack, solid acting - although i wasn't buying the protagonists love interests accent lol.
Anyways go watch the Guy Richie flick King Arthur: Legend of the Sword instead. That movie was actually fun.
This one was a snooze fest. Too bad, i enjoyed Robert Eggers other medieval style flick, The Witch, but wasn't a fan of The Lighthouse though. To me he's a bit hit or miss. - gullyfoyle-26185 - 10 December 2022
Hmm, straight forward story and action but just a hair off.
It was nice to see something without unnecessary padding. The people, actors, and scenery looked historically accurate. I appreciate the ugliness of real lives of any time period.
The plot was straight forward revenge and the action fell in it's proper place. Not over done, not underdone.
Maybe the script could have used a bit more complexity. It never ran slow yet one understood where everything was headed.
There were a couple of surprises. Twists but nothing jaw dropping.
Although at one point some insights arise that offers an alternative point of view. Much like the original Last man on earth, at least the book and the Vincent Price film was fairly close to the book.
Nice time killer, not much of a re-watch . - aaronshadbolt - 3 December 2022
Predictable, poorly paced and poorly written
I was excited to see this given the hype that surrounded it on release. Within 10 minutes it becomes obvious that you're in for disappointment, with the pacing feeling off from the get go and an overwhelming sense that Eggers believes his script to be more intelligent than it is. The whole movie feels hollow - a classic Scandinavian tale repackaged with albeit stunning visuals, pretending to have deeper meaning than what Eggers manages to actually convey on screen. With most dialogue consisting of yelling, roaring and little else it leaves a lot to be desired.
I'm a Skarsgard fan but not even he can save this movie from it's half baked script. If you're looking for Viking drama stick to one of the Netflix offerings; if you're after a decent Hamlet adaptation stick to the original Lion King - at least it doesn't pretend to be more intelligent than it is.
