If you know me as well as you've read my blog, I'm a sucker for some of these historical warrior clan type films from Gladiator to Kingdom of Heaven, and so this movie I felt intrigued to watch because it's a movie about Viking's and it has revenge in the mix so why not give this a chance. And to be fair I was expecting a bit on the predictability side to it, but once I started emerging myself into the Viking world it was a bit on the weird and don't know what to make of it but then realizing that this was something special and most importantly something I've never seen before. The Northman is a passion project that actor Alexander Skarsgard wanted to do, as he made it clear he always wanted to make a Viking movie, though as an actor he couldn't get the right story going so he brought in a writer director Robert Eggers to help him bring his passion project to life and along comes The Northman for which is a blend of both Viking lore and Shakespeare's Hamlet.
Prince Amleth (Alexander Skarsgard) is on the verge of becoming a man when his father (Ethan Hawke) is brutally murdered by his uncle (Claes Bang), who kidnaps the boy's mother (Nicole Kidman). 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.
Why haven’t you seen many great Viking stories over the years? In all truth, I think it's because they always viewed Vikings as mindless brutes who don't care anything but raid and slaughter many villages. For which yes, it's true but I believe there's a lot of intriguing stories to tell not just making Marvel films for Thor, and to be fair I was wanting to watch the TV show Vikings, though I have a good reason I'm very lazy when it comes to binge TV and sometimes, I need to turn my brain off sometimes. Okay, back to normal topic I heard some good things about the film and as always it seemed intriguing mainly because it has a great supporting cast in Nicole Kidman, Ethan Hawke and Anya Taylor-Joy and a sort of famous Icelandic singer Bjork who wore a swan for a dress (kind of like Lady Gaga before Lady Gaga). And so, watching the movie I must admit was something I'd never quite experience and there was something about this film that gave it both an epic feel to it and a more horrific feel as well, in all honesty I sometimes have the sense that Vikings took a lot of acid, but that's just my opinion. The best way to describe the greatness of this film is basically talking about both collaborators who brought the film to life Alexander Skarsgard aka brother to Pennywise aka Bill Skarsgard, and writer/director Robert Eggers. This is pretty much the first and only time I ever watch a film and could say that one particular star was the center piece of the whole movie and Mr. Skarsgard was really the fore front of making this movie for me, I mean he really did a great job embodying what a Viking should look like moreover show off his ability to question his fate and why he must do also doing a great job playing a Viking/Hamlet who's set for revenge. Robert Eggers who has made past films, such as The Witch and The Lighthouse both films that seem pay a lot of tribute to their folklore when it comes to his films, and granted I haven't seen his past work so this was the first time I actually sat down and watched the Northman from beginning to end, and really the way he was able to blend Norse Mythology to a epic revenge film, it brought a lot of what I like to call twisted excitement to the film with both scared and intrigued when it came to watching the film, furthermore both Skarsgard and Eggers do a great job in bringing this Hamlet like story to life. Now I'm not sure now I want to watch Eggers past work because in fairness I don't want the excitement of this movie be a buzz kill to watching the past work. Now, I'll say again I'm a sucker for these kind of epic warrior films and, there was something about this film that brought a lot of fun/excitement with scariness to go along as well, so if you’re into Shakespeare and Norse Mythology I would highly recommend watching The Northman.
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