Pros: Has some of the most trippy and awesome cinematography on the big screen. Bjork's small appearance being one of the best moments. The sound design is absolutely astonishing. See it in a screen with the best sound tech as possible. It's exactly what you'd expect from Eggers.
Cons: It's completely style over substance. The story doesn't really go beyond what you see in the trailer with "I will avenge you father..."
The tagline "This generation's Gladiator" is a load of shite. It's nothing like Gladiator.
__________________ Sweating on the streets of Woking
I really enjoyed this, but I also set my expectations up way too high as it wasn’t as epic as I had envisioned it would be. 8.5/10 (I had 11 in my head going in)
Set, costumes, weapons, gear, buildings, and ships where top notch; they felt authentic. Those aspects coupled with Eggers style of using a single camera and close up shots for an entire scene puts you in the time period, also feels like you’re watching a much older film at times, which works considering the settings of his films. That first battle/raid is pure visceral brutality, loved it.
The heavy-handed use of mystic and supernatural elements was at the same time cool to look at, but took away from the story at times. Some of these scenes worked, some didn't, imo. I didn’t mind the extreme singular nature of the plot, this is straight up a revenge film and doesn’t pretend to be anything else.
As Jaden noted, this is an Eggers film, you should expect everything you see. I will be watching this a second time.
The setting only felt authentic because popular culture has made the vikings seems like something they never were. Shadiversity addressed a lot of the misconceptions about Viking history when Assassin's Creed Valhalla came out. Particularly the rubbish about Scandinavia being a frozen wasteland when it was actually warmer than it is now during the Viking period. That they never wore furs pointed out the way. That the stereotypical view of the berserkers being howling madmen with bear skins over their heads...None of it was historically accurate.
Hopefully he'll do a video on The Northman as well.
__________________ Sweating on the streets of Woking
Gonna see this Sunday and I have nothing but high expectations for this
__________________ "Happiness is a lie. Life is horror. The light is always dying all across the universe. The last star will flicker out someday, when it does, all that remains is shadow. And I will be its king!"'-Amahl Farouk