The Northman

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
  • Maverick1962 - 13 June 2024
    Another take on the Prince of Denmark.
    I recently watched The Prince Of Denmark aka Royal Deceit starring Gabriel Byrne, Helen Mirren and Christian Bale. The Northman is the same story and fares no better. 4 stars for both movies although I thought that Christian Bale was a far more cinematic hero than Alexander Skarsgard, who frankly isn't very likeable in The Northman. These movies are based on an ancient Scandinavian tale that also inspired Shakespeare's plot for Hamlet, no less.

    On the positive side, Nicole Kidman is splendidly evil as the hero's deranged mother and the charismatic Anya Taylor-Joy is gorgeously sexy as usual. I love her deep voice which constantly surprises me and is very effective for strong parts. So many actresses trying to play tough, fail because they have light voices.

    The Northman, aside from that, is long, very dark and with diologue that's unclear from the leading actor. It's very violent in places but there's nothing much original in what we see so it suffers from lack of tension.

    Although it's not a great movie, I'd recommend the Christian Bale performance in Royal Deceit over this.
  • fmdead - 12 May 2024
    Silly
    This movie may have had a chance if around 40 minutes were chopped off. Well no, I take it back. Length isn't the only problem. The dialogue is either expressionless or overly histrionic (with lots and lots of war cry yelling.) The Norse rituals were often unintentionally ridiculous, not dramatic as intended. (And I really don't think that even back then people were running around Iceland so often without a stitch of clothing in freezing weather!) The Lord of the Rings/Game of Thrones type supernatural visions interspersed throughout came off as kind of cartoonish, not spooky. I watched at home and found myself doing a lot eye-rolling and making wisecracks back to the screen, it's that easy to make fun of. It's very one-note; the characters are all sort of icebergs themselves and there's no character development. I'm giving it a five just because the scenery was gorgeous - and I'm a sucker for Viking stories. But your time is better spent doing just about anything else!