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‘The Northman’ Rated “R” for Strong Bloody Violence and Nudity

QSD

QSD

Member
LTTP but saw this tonight and I have to echo what some others here have said, visually excellent, with some truly stunning shots, quality production, but story so thin it feels kind of pointless in the end. Amleth feels so 1 note he's like Kratos in the first 3 GOW games. For a moment I thought the story was going to take an interesting twist when...

Amleths mom basically tells him that she doesn't want to be rescued, his dad was basically just another deadbeat slaver and he was a child born of rape. But Amleth just responds with more anger and dies a seemingly pointless death after having lived a reasonably pointless life dreaming of blood vengeance. His kids will be kings though, so foretells the prophecy, but the movie makes it seem like viking kings aren't exactly memorable or praiseworthy in any way, so the whole spectacle left me with a hollow feeling. Somebody else up top already said this but there is no-one likeable in this film, they all just seem like a bunch of stubborn assholes really. If you'd transpose the story to modern day, the movie would basically be about a bunch of mobsters or warlords killing each other, but at least mobsters can be charming and witty.
 
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EviLore

EviLore

Expansive Ellipses
Staff Member
Just watched this one…


“You! Slave! Do you know how to fight?”

“Who, me? Fight? I just clean the toilets sir”


IrOJkks.jpg
 
IDKFA

IDKFA

I am Become Bilbo Baggins
QSD said:
LTTP but saw this tonight and I have to echo what some others here have said, visually excellent, with some truly stunning shots, quality production, but story so thin it feels kind of pointless in the end. Amleth feels so 1 note he's like Kratos in the first 3 GOW games. For a moment I thought the story was going to take an interesting twist when...

Amleths mom basically tells him that she doesn't want to be rescued, his dad was basically just another deadbeat slaver and he was a child born of rape. But Amleth just responds with more anger and dies a seemingly pointless death after having lived a reasonably pointless life dreaming of blood vengeance. His kids will be kings though, so foretells the prophecy, but the movie makes it seem like viking kings aren't exactly memorable or praiseworthy in any way, so the whole spectacle left me with a hollow feeling. Somebody else up top already said this but there is no-one likeable in this film, they all just seem like a bunch of stubborn assholes really. If you'd transpose the story to modern day, the movie would basically be about a bunch of mobsters or warlords killing each other, but at least mobsters can be charming and witty.
Click to expand...

By modern standards, nobody from that era would have been likeable. Their way of life would have been completely alien to our own.

Maybe this is what the director was going for by striving for historical accuracy?

I liked the film. I honestly can't understand why it's being bombarded with 1 star reviews on Prime. it's not close to being a 1 star movie.
 
Lady Jane

Lady Jane

Banned
IDKFA said:
By modern standards, nobody from that era would have been likeable. Their way of life would have been completely alien to our own.

Maybe this is what the director was going for by striving for historical accuracy?

I liked the film. I honestly can't understand why it's being bombarded with 1 star reviews on Prime. it's not close to being a 1 star movie.
Click to expand...

Because it doesn't stroke the viewer's ego
 
QSD

QSD

Member
IDKFA said:
By modern standards, nobody from that era would have been likeable. Their way of life would have been completely alien to our own.
Click to expand...
True perhaps, though I would think that even in those times people would need to have sense of humour and interpersonal charm in order to get along living together in a subarctic village.
IDKFA said:
Maybe this is what the director was going for by striving for historical accuracy?

I liked the film. I honestly can't understand why it's being bombarded with 1 star reviews on Prime. it's not close to being a 1 star movie.
Click to expand...
1 star is definitely short-changing this, there's a huge amount of attention to detail that went into this. One detail I really loved was Bjork's costume, straight out of some Guillermo del Toro movie. (a collaboration between del Toro and Eggers would be awesome) I just found it kind of hard too care about the characters much.
 
IDKFA

IDKFA

I am Become Bilbo Baggins
QSD said:
True perhaps, though I would think that even in those times people would need to have sense of humour and interpersonal charm in order to get along living together in a subarctic village.
Click to expand...

Possibly. As it's really impossible to say what kind of conversations people had with each other back then, there could have been some creative license to add some likeability to the characters.

Agree with the attention to detail. It was spot on. Shame it didn't do so well as I'd like to see more historical films with the same attention to detail.
 
QSD

QSD

Member
IDKFA said:
Possibly. As it's really impossible to say what kind of conversations people had with each other back then, there could have been some creative license to add some likeability to the characters.

Agree with the attention to detail. It was spot on. Shame it didn't do so well as I'd like to see more historical films with the same attention to detail.
Click to expand...
Yah there were tons of little things that breathe life into the world, like the way at a certain point the antagonists believe they're being hexed by Christians, because "their god is a corpse nailed to a tree"
 
DanteFox

DanteFox

Member
QSD said:
LTTP but saw this tonight and I have to echo what some others here have said, visually excellent, with some truly stunning shots, quality production, but story so thin it feels kind of pointless in the end. Amleth feels so 1 note he's like Kratos in the first 3 GOW games. For a moment I thought the story was going to take an interesting twist when...

Amleths mom basically tells him that she doesn't want to be rescued, his dad was basically just another deadbeat slaver and he was a child born of rape. But Amleth just responds with more anger and dies a seemingly pointless death after having lived a reasonably pointless life dreaming of blood vengeance. His kids will be kings though, so foretells the prophecy, but the movie makes it seem like viking kings aren't exactly memorable or praiseworthy in any way, so the whole spectacle left me with a hollow feeling. Somebody else up top already said this but there is no-one likeable in this film, they all just seem like a bunch of stubborn assholes really. If you'd transpose the story to modern day, the movie would basically be about a bunch of mobsters or warlords killing each other, but at least mobsters can be charming and witty.
Click to expand...
That's an integral part of the story though. The point is that it wasn't a pointless death from his point of view because he ended up fulfilling his destiny and having a noble death, ending up in Valhalla. Of course, if you ignore that context to his motivation, his actions will leave you feeling hollow. As for the likability, that's more of a stylistic choice that the movie made. Yeah, the main character's not quipping it up and cracking wise throughout the movie, but you see his role as a son, a lover, and a father in brief moments through the movie. The film just chooses to focus more on the stark brutality and tragedy of his very difficult life. I very much enjoyed the movie, but I can enjoy very dark movies that lack levity that mainstream audiences would just consider "overly depressing."
 
QSD

QSD

Member
DanteFox said:
That's an integral part of the story though. The point is that it wasn't a pointless death from his point of view because he ended up fulfilling his destiny and having a noble death, ending up in Valhalla. Of course, if you ignore that context to his motivation, his actions will leave you feeling hollow. As for the likability, that's more of a stylistic choice that the movie made. Yeah, the main character's not quipping it up and cracking wise throughout the movie, but you see his role as a son, a lover, and a father in brief moments through the movie. The film just chooses to focus more on the stark brutality and tragedy of his very difficult life. I very much enjoyed the movie, but I can enjoy very dark movies that lack levity that mainstream audiences would just consider "overly depressing."
Click to expand...
Don't get me wrong man, I don't want "The Northman" to be a new Taika Waititi Thor movie. I think I understand the context that his life was tragic and brutal. Maybe one of the problems is that I thought the story of the main character fulfilling his destiny was a bit boring/predictable, like I said I thought the story was going to take a twist with
the revelation of the mother. Like this is the thing that has driven him forward his entire, extremely difficult life, to avenge his father, save his mother, only to be told it's not a worthwhile cause by his own mother, and he just responds by killing her. I mean, you would think that having killed your own mother in a fit of rage is enough to give a person pause on their path through life, so I was hoping for some more interesting/meaningful character development, but the movie just kinda let it hang there and it made Amleth seem less human to me. Also something that didn't quite sit right with me is Amleth's decision to jump ship and head out to the final confrontation is painted as ennobling, however he's also depriving his future kids of their father, while the example his own father set was something that *crucially* motivated and inspired him throughout his life.
 
The Fartist

The Fartist

Gold Member
QSD said:
Yah there were tons of little things that breathe life into the world, like the way at a certain point the antagonists believe they're being hexed by Christians, because "their god is a corpse nailed to a tree"
Click to expand...
I fucking loved this scene in the movie
 
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