This is under N because of the director Nicolas Winding Refn.
Writer: Nicolas Winding Refn, Roy Jacobsen (Screenplay)
Starring: Mads Mikkelsen, Alexander Morton, Stewart Porter, Maarten Stevenson, Matthew Zajac, Gordon Brown, Gary McCormack
Plot: Forced for some time to be a fighting slave, a pagan warrior escapes his captors with a boy and joins a group of Crusaders on their quest to the Holy Land.
Runtime: 1 Hour 33 Minutes
There may be spoilers in the rest of the review
Verdict: What Was This?
Story: Valhalla Rising starts as One Eye (Mikkelsen) is forced into fights to prove his owner has the strongest fighter, waiting for his chance to escape, he does joined by The Boy (Stevenson) the two go in search for something more, when they join Kare (Lewis) as a Crusader heading to the Holy Land.
As the journey continues, One Eye slowly sees the Crusaders start to lose their own minds, believing they are doing God’s will, with their blind following, while One Eye proves just how dangerous he is.
Thoughts on Valhalla Rising
Characters – One Eye is a slave in early mankind, he is forced into fights, where he always kills the enemies, after he escapes, he becomes a warrior that leads people in a direction they aren’t ready to go down. He doesn’t say a word. Kare, Gorm and Eirik are Christian Vikings from the Crusades looking for the Holy Land, they each believe there is something different in the message sent to them with One Eye, which sees them lose control between themselves.
Performances – Mads Mikkelsen is the highlight of the film here, he keeps his character looking mysterious, while also being deadly. The rest of the cast might handle the dialog which fills in a lot of the story, they don’t do much else in the film.
Story – The story follows a slave kept for fighting that breaks free going on his own adventure leading a group of Crusaders into the depths of a place they haven’t been to before. This is a story that doesn’t seem to get very deep, with most of the story being traveling and see how blind the Crusaders would be in their beliefs and see one man break free and becoming a leader, the ending will leave you scratching your head though.
Action/Fantasy – The action in the film follows the fight sequences that One Eye goes through, though a lot of action is being held back from what could happen, with the fantasy side of the film showing us just how the world doesn’t seem as real as the characters believe it is.
Settings – The film uses the settings to show the new discoveries that the character go on along their journey.
Special Effects – The effects are used for the brutality of the fights, which show us just what is going on in the fights.
Scene of the Movie – One Eye’s first fight.
That Moment That Annoyed Me – There is a lot of walking.
Final Thoughts – This isn’t the most engaging film you will see, it seems to have plenty of walking and symbolism around the early era of the Crusades.
Overall: Something or Nothing.