The movie's supposed to depict realistically the life of Icelandic vikings. To some extent, there it succeeds - life is gritty and hard, the skies are always gray, wind is always blowing. No stupid horned helmets or Hollywood swashbuckling (as in "Pathfinder"), the vikings do not resemble members of a heavy metal band, trying to be as revolting as only they know how (see "13th Warrior"). The serial killer hero approaches his labor of murder with noble stoicism. The location is postcard Iceland - black sand beach and "troll fingers" rocks near Vik
On the other hand, the budget and imagination are tight, all of the action is limited to the same location. It looks like a saga abridged to a level of a comic book - lots of slaughter, not much talk. In place of complex psychology, there is an overwrought and childish symbolism (crows, last scene, etc.). The soundtrack is bad and exploitative. The whole thing is amateurish and gets frightfully boring. This may be a petty quibble, but for a movie that's gunning for verisimilitude, the place looks wrong - in 9-10th centuries, Iceland was still forested, rather than the barren rock you see today.
The thing that shines most out of this film is the plot. The avenging son doesn't just come and kill people, he uses cunning to make them trust him and distrust each other, he separates them and then kills them when he has the upper hand.
The problem, though, is the amateurish directing and acting, something that I know well enough from my own country's productions. The fact that the language is Icelandic (and the horses, too, that's funny) doesn't help much, nor does the clearly minute budget.
In a way, I agree with many of the people that reviewed this positively: this felt like a real life Viking saga, with normal folk being dressed in animal fur and fighting with bow and knife in a dreary land. However, too much realism is bad as well, and I imagine the film would be liked only by a minority of viewers because of it. In fact, it feels like old Spaghetti westerns at times, with the bad sound and silly music added after the filming.
Now, I can imagine this done by Hollywood. They would definitely remove what was good with the script, because their heroes must always be moral and trustworthy, either white or black. The role of the woman would be relegated to something helpless, begging for assistance, rather than the courageous stance the Icelandic character takes. The fights would be epic, touching steampunk, with weird contraptions that mass murder tens of people (but without blood). When I compare this projection to the actual film, the Icelandic version wins, however I can't help think of what this could have been with just a little more resources at their disposal.
On the other hand, the budget and imagination are tight, all of the action is limited to the same location. It looks like a saga abridged to a level of a comic book - lots of slaughter, not much talk. In place of complex psychology, there is an overwrought and childish symbolism (crows, last scene, etc.). The soundtrack is bad and exploitative. The whole thing is amateurish and gets frightfully boring. This may be a petty quibble, but for a movie that's gunning for verisimilitude, the place looks wrong - in 9-10th centuries, Iceland was still forested, rather than the barren rock you see today.
The thing that shines most out of this film is the plot. The avenging son doesn't just come and kill people, he uses cunning to make them trust him and distrust each other, he separates them and then kills them when he has the upper hand.
The problem, though, is the amateurish directing and acting, something that I know well enough from my own country's productions. The fact that the language is Icelandic (and the horses, too, that's funny) doesn't help much, nor does the clearly minute budget.
In a way, I agree with many of the people that reviewed this positively: this felt like a real life Viking saga, with normal folk being dressed in animal fur and fighting with bow and knife in a dreary land. However, too much realism is bad as well, and I imagine the film would be liked only by a minority of viewers because of it. In fact, it feels like old Spaghetti westerns at times, with the bad sound and silly music added after the filming.
Now, I can imagine this done by Hollywood. They would definitely remove what was good with the script, because their heroes must always be moral and trustworthy, either white or black. The role of the woman would be relegated to something helpless, begging for assistance, rather than the courageous stance the Icelandic character takes. The fights would be epic, touching steampunk, with weird contraptions that mass murder tens of people (but without blood). When I compare this projection to the actual film, the Icelandic version wins, however I can't help think of what this could have been with just a little more resources at their disposal.