The Northman

⭐ 7.5/10

(Originally written by Tim)

I really liked The Lighthouse, and when I saw the trailer for Eggers' followup I thought it looked incredible. Psychedelic, bloody, realistic (in terms of setting/costume/environment), when one commercial called it this generations Gladiator I thought that would be spot on. Well, with great expectations comes disappointment.

While I don't think this movie was bad by any means, it was much more traditional in a way I wasn't expecting. There is some weirdness, but I wanted full on weirdness. There are some amazingly choreographed fights that get your blood pumping, and I expected this to me more of a viking travelling over great distances through many trials to get his revenge. This is essentially a Lion King story, where the uncle kills the father and then he goes out seeking revenge, but its not very long before he is close enough to the uncle to get his revenge and then the movie changes. I can't put my finger on exactly what changed, I just felt like it really lost steam half way through.

I was excited to see Anya Taylor Joy again after the queen's gambit, and she had a role to play, but it all felt surface level. Maybe that's where this movie fell short for me, just a surface level revenge flick with some visually cool elements but nothing that felt like it amounted to anything. The final fight satisfies the weird itch, but felt a bit disconnected from the rest of the movie.

I want to shout out Nicole Kidman, and the arc of her character. That felt like the best curveball of the movie, and led to a deranged moment that I wanted more of. Aw, I'm even writing this on Mother's Day <3.

Anyways, this movie looks amazing and has some very cool scenes, but felt more like a director's desire to inhabit a fully fleshed out world than to tell a compelling story in that world. This movie actually reminded me of Creed, in that the protagonist is so incredibly built it makes me want to go home and work out for 5 hours a day. That's my main takeaway, MVP to that guys personal trainer making him look like an actual animal.