Pearl, stage much of the action in brooding forests of primeval darkness, fog and shadows. Nispel and his cinematographer, Daniel C. But our boy has one last trick up his sleeve. Once he acknowledges that he speaks the Norse tongue, the cruel Viking leader (Clancy Brown) forces him to take them to the next village to slaughter. How he comes by his skills with a Norse sword is a mystery - must be in the DNA - but he is able to pick off the Vikings as they conveniently come at him one by one, then lays traps for larger numbers.Įventually, though, he is captured along with Pathfinder and Starfire. When his village is wiped out while he is away hunting, the white Indian falls in with another tribe, where he comes under the influence of a shaman named Pathfinder (Russell Means) and the arresting gaze of the man’s daughter Starfire (Moon Bloodgood). He gets to confront his demons when Norsemen return to the New World for more barbarous raids seeking land and slaves. New Zealand-born Karl Urban, who has played athletic men of action in two of “The Lord of the Rings” films, “The Bourne Supremacy” and “The Chronicles of Riddick,” is the haunted youth brought up in two different worlds, Viking and Indian, without feeling a part of either.
Fox’s wide but underpromoted release doesn’t appear designed to seek out audiences beyond the obvious, which in this case may be wise.
Fight them, you will die.This film from Marcus Nispel, a veteran video director and remaker of the cult classic “The Texas Chainsaw Massacre,” nicely balances action and adventure with American Indian wisdom and a modest romance to provide a graphic-comic-book movie experience for males in urban markets. The few spoken lines in English are cheesy and shallow, and come down to something like: “Run and you may live. The sparse dialogue is mostly undermined by the subtitled roaring of the Norsemen, who look and behave like giant orcs from The Lord of the Rings. Other than its high degree of violence, Pathfinder has absolutely nothing else to offer. In one scene, for instance, we get to watch the Vikings literally tear off the four limbs of an old man. Gore galoreĪlthough Pathfinder’s numerous action sequences are generally well made, they also tend to be repetitive.Įven worse, most of what takes place on screen comes down to a free-for-all bloodbath, packed with decapitations and geysers of human blood. Neither Ghost nor his close friends carry even a modicum of personality. Consequently, the plot suffers from slumber-inducing simple-mindedness: The Vikings show up and kill, Ghost strikes back and takes his revenge, and before we know it the movie is over. The crucial downside of this revamped tale is that the filmmakers put no emphasis whatsoever on characters or story development. Star Trek Beyond (2016) Movie Review: Problematic Gay Sulu It’s hard to believe that a movie as monotonous as Pathfinder is based on Nils Gaup’s screenplay for his 1987 Norwegian period action drama of the same name (original title: Ofelas), which received an Oscar nomination for Best Foreign Language Film.īut then again, this updated version written by Laeta Kalogridis (she of Oliver Stone’s Alexander) and directed by Marcus Nispel (he of several music videos and The Texas Chainsaw Massacre remake) heads into a totally different direction. Driven by revenge, Ghost sets out on a perilous mission to kill as many Vikings as he can. Soon after, a troop of barbaric Norsemen drop anchor in North America in an attempt to eradicate its people and thus claim possession of the land. Fifteen years later, he has grown into a warrior named Ghost (Karl Urban), who vows to destroy anyone seeking to harm his guardians. Set 600 years before Columbus, Pathfinder tells the story of an abandoned Viking boy adopted by Native Americans and raised as one of them. One man with a big sword challenges a horde of ruthless butchers in Pathfinder, a movie crippled by an excessive amount of gruesome slaughter and idiotic action sequences.įor most of its 98 minutes, this lackluster adventure looks like your typical video game, in which a heroic figure must mow down randomly appearing enemies to advance to the next level.
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