Anna Flett

This is one of the strangest movies I've ever seen, hands down. I'll be honest, after the first half an hour of the film I was ready to walk out. It made no sense at the time and was hard to follow, with it seeming to be merely a dark gorefest with very strange portrayals of mysticism. But then the story actually began. I was enthralled from the moment they reached Iceland. The way the plot developed was fascinating, and you never quite knew what was coming next. Despite my distaste for the earlier scenes, the context they provided shone through towarss the end of the film. I will say that the acting was generally believable, with the only floor being some indecision over the prevailing accents which changed between, English, Scottish and Norwegian. This did not get in the way of the very passionate portrayal or their motives though, with Skarsgård and Taylor-Joy showing fantastic chemistry. The visual effects and scenery were also spectacular, however the women in the movie just looked a bit too perfect in my opinion (how on earth do Viking women have such imaculate looking brows). This over-beautification did undermine the realism somewhat. As much as I grew to like it, it is far from a perfect movie. It was at least 15 minutes too long, which could have been helped by trimming the opening section. This could have in turn made the film less off-putting by toning down the surrealism. Mysticism in general in this film is way too "in your face" for lack of a better term, especially the scenes with the sorcerers which were more funny than I believe the director had intended. Tonally if didn't really make sense. The treatment of women at times, although maybe historically accurate, seemed unnecessarily abusive and steps are never taken within the plot to condemn the behaviour. That said I would have liked to have to have seen the relationship between Amleth and Olga fleshed out a little better, as their chemistry was fantastic and it felt like things were rushed there. Would I recommend this film? Yes, but with a few caveats; persist through the first half hour, it's terrible but it does get better, and keep in mind that this film is way darker than you think it will be.