Synopsis:
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 raids Slavic villages. He soon meets a seeress who reminds him of his vow — save his mother, kill his uncle, avenge his father
Review:
The Northman is Robert Egger’s highly anticipated follow-up to his mind-blowing film ‘The Lighthouse’ reframing with former collaborator Willem Dafoe and also bringing some fresh meat to his new film including Ethan Hawke, and Nicole Kidman in a scene commanding presence. If you go in blind to The Northman, it may be the best thing for this $90 Million budgeted Viking saga epic. One thing I should point out to viewers or readers of this review is the legend that Shakespeare used for his legendary play ‘Hamlet’.
The Northman is one of those films that have such a grueling experience and emotionally draining aspect to it, and it may have a one-time watch value to it, the visuals and cinematography are glaringly beautiful when you can see them, it seems the film editing team wanted the film to be as dark as shown in the final product it’s hard to see the journey our ‘hero’ Viking takes throughout the ‘Ths Northman’.
The pacing is also a big gripe I have with the film itself, during our promotional/ press screening it was so slow people just kept whispering and talking throughout the because it became too cerebral and thought-provoking than a typical Marvel movie out there in theaters nowadays which has slowly killed any chance of success that ‘The Northman’ would previously have. Alexander Skarsgård gives a commanding performance for Robert Eggers as well as Anya Taylor-Joy who is wonderful in everything she’s been in yet.
Unfortunately, where ‘The Northman’ will lose most of its audience is with its runtime and slow pacing again, one thing I will the movie is drawn out exceedingly making it feel like it had three different final acts, I would have loved to see the editor shave off 20-30 minutes, it did end up feeling this is the directors cut of ‘The Northman’.
Overall Grade:
3/5 stars
