Movie Review: The Northman

Robert Eggers is back on the big screen with his third feature length movie The Northman. Based on Scandinavian legend of King Amleth, this movies is promoted to be a stylistic and brutal depiction of the story with a captivating cast and alluring locales. Eggers is no stranger to directing strange and mesmerising period piece films as his current filmography includes The Witch and The Lighthouse so the Viking/Norse era feels like a perfect fit for him, so it's all the more disappointing that I feel the film suffers ultimately by being more style than substance. 

The story of The Northman isn't really anything different than the typical plotlines you would find in tv shows like The Vikings or The Last Kingdom. It's a story focused purely on revenge by reflecting on the efforts Amleth goes to in order to seek the man who killed his father when he was younger. It's a fairly conventional story and it doesn't really offer much in the way in variety in my eyes. I appreciate I may be in the minority on this take but I just honestly felt the pace and progress of the films narrative was surprisingly predictable. I think a lot of my issues that stem from these type of stories and why I wouldn't sit down to watch the shows I previously mentioned is because they all feel way too familiar. Once you have seen one viking-based story, you have honestly seen all of them and I just hoped Northman would provide something different on an overall level. I'm not discrediting the entire narrative however, when the film decides to focus on the mythology aspect and how it ties into Amleths story I feel it does do enough to be quite intriguing; but sadly those moments are few and far between in the scale of things. 

I think what only serves to reinforce my issues with the narrative is what I feel is the waste of an amazing cast which fill out these characters. It's a very commendable collection of actors and actresses filling out the roles in this film, each bringing their true A-game to make the roles feel truly believable. Alexander Skarsgård, Nicole Kidman, Claes Bang, William Dafoe, Ethan Hawke and Anya Taylor-Joy all give the film some of their best performances and I can't fault the variety and range in their output in the film, even with my issues with the narrative. 

Where the film does manage to captivate me the most though is in it's visual style. Where Eggers struggles in terms of narrative I think he more than makes up with in direction. He and cinematographer Jarin Blaschke make this film into a truly mesmerising visual treat to behold. There's an amazing use of imagery and colour throughout the films entire runtime. The way this world is projected at the audience feels like it's most confident aspect. There's a ton of interesting shots littered all throughout the film and the way the film covers the Norse mythology aspect of the world is really vivid and unique to Eggers interpretation.  The film's action feels notably distinct in conjunction with the art style too, although I did feel it was lacking a more comprehensive amount of the sequences. For a film about a viking warrior, it did feel like there could have been more opportunities to enforce a combat style besides the very end.

I think despite my issues with the films narrative, there is a lot here that carries the film to make it captivating to sit through. I can't find any issue with the impressive cast line up and their performances and it's really easy to get lost in the cinematography and visual style of the film. It's a good film but it just feels like the narrative misses the mark and stops it from being truly great. It's still worth the watch if you like anything to do with Vikings or the Norse Era though.