THE NORTHMAN

A relentlessly stark and violent revenge epic that strives for complexity but keeps on repeating the same, familiar beats.

'I will avenge you, Father! I will save you, Mother! I will kill you, Fjölnir!' That's the mantra young viking Amleth adopts when he flees after witnessing his uncle murder his dad and wed his mom.

Despite the visceral images director Robert Eggers paints on the screen in this, that's about as complex as The Northman gets. So when an adult Amleth, played by Alexander Skarsgård as masculinity personified, finally sets out on his mission of wrath the narrative keeps on repeating the same beats, at times annoyingly so.

If from a concept perspective The Northman hews pretty close to Hamlet and Ridley Scott's Gladiator, in execution it resembles much more the brash, indulgent sound and fury of a movie like 300, which might entice young males to check out the film but which will disappoint viewers hoping for the same subversive horror Eggers displayed so brilliantly in his previous features.

Yet even if the picture as a whole mostly underwhelms, like a frustratingly addictive oxymoron the beautifully constructed frames the director puts on the screen keep catching your attention.

release: 2022

director: Robert Eggers

starring: Alexander Skarsgard, Nicole Kidman, Claes Bang, Ethan Hawke