ABC Film Challenge – World Cinema – V – Viking (2016)

By Newguy

Director: Andrey Kravchuk

Writer: Andrey Kravchuk, Johan Melin, Andrey Rubanov, Viktor Smirnov (Screenplay)

Starring: Danila Kozlovsky, Aleksandr Ustyugov, Kirill Pletnyov, Maksim Sukhanov

Plot: Kievan Rus, late 10th century. After the death of his father, the young Viking prince Vladimir of Novgorod is forced into exile across the frozen sea.


Tagline – “Istoriya eto simptom. Diagnoz eto my” (“History is a symptom. The diagnosis is us”)

Runtime: 2 Hours 22 Minutes

There may be spoilers the rest of the review

Verdict: Too Much to Process

Story: Viking starts as three brothers rule different kingdoms under the Russia we follow the youngest Vladimir (Kozlovsky) who is trying to end the war between them after being exiled to the frozen land of Novgorod. Completing his quest, he will need to come across new enemies, while old enemies are waiting in the wings for his weaknesses to be exposed.

Thoughts on Viking

Characters – Vladimir is the youngster son of the king, he gets the weakest area to rule, but isn’t going to let that stop him taking control of the area, he proves to be a strong leader one that is fair and will look after his people. When it comes to the rest of the characters it was hard to figure out who to focus on, because as soon as one looked like they were going to be important, they seemed to get killed.

PerformancesThe performances suffer because of the issues with the characters not being given the focus they require in the film, it is too hard for the audience to know who they should be following in this film.

StoryThe story seems to focus on Vladimir the youngest son of the rule of Russia, whom after his death gets given part of the land to defend, we watch his rise to try and claim his crown as the rule of Russia as he takes on enemies from all over the land including his own blood. The story telling process is difficult to keep up with as we do seem to meet group one get slightly invested in these character, but nope they get killed leaving us wondering just who we are meant to be supporting through the film.

Action/History/WarThe action is plenty of battle sequences, each one getting bigger, bloodier and deadlier as the film unfolds. The history, well I don’t know how accurate any of it is, most of that would involve research and the war side of the film shows us the different strategies adopted during the 10th century.

SettingsThe film shows us the settings that will keep us believing we are in the time the film is set, it keeps the battles feeling down and dirty which is how you would imagine them happening.


Scene of the Movie –
The hiding escape.

That Moment That Annoyed Me Too many characters introduced for nothing.

Final ThoughtsThis is an overly complicated movie that is trying to tell a massive story only for it to end up not given enough time for most of the characters to develop or unfold.

Overall: Too long and dull

Rating

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