Pathfinder Reviews

[Highly rated reviewer]

superb

this film is superb. it is an action adventure film, set in the time of the Vikings, when they tried to conquer North America.

'Pathfinder' tells the heroic story, of a young Norse boy left behind in a strange land, after the war party from his Viking clan, shipwrecks their longboats after an intense battle, on the North American, Eastern shores, some 600 years prior to the arrival of Christopher Columbus.

Despite his Viking Lineage and heritage, the boy is raised and nurtured by the North American Indians, that his Norse kinsmen set out to destroy.

Fifteen years later, as the Vikings return to stage another barbaric raid on his adopted village, the 25 year-old Norse warrior played by Karl Urban, who is known as Ghost, due to his pale complexion, wages a personal war to stop the Vikings' trail of death and destruction, when the Viking's slaughter the villagers.

Ghost, upon discovering the pile of bodies, left by his brethren from the North, sets out on a path to kill as many of the interlopers as he can, a suicide mission to be sure, but an honourable undertaking in the eyes of the young warrior.

in doing this, the young man begins, finding his own path, navigating between the two worlds.

On one hand he is born of the Vikings, and is inextricably tied to that culture, but he has also become firmly entrenched in the vastly different lifestyle of the native tribe.

Ghost must find out who he is; is he to be forever linked to the world of his birth and their bloodthirsty ways, or can he discover the path that will lead to happiness in his adoptive home.

by forging his own path, his destiny is revealed and his identity re-claimed.

well worth renting out.

[Highly rated reviewer]

IGNORE THE OTHER REVIEWS, THEY MUST BE FAKE, THIS FILM IS TERRIBLE

My name is stu, i'm an accountant from london using my girlfriend's account. I just had to say something about this film. It is terrible. I like action films and have seen an awful lot of them. This is poor, it's so bad I considered turning it off. It starts off ok, quite good to look at, but then loses its way horribly. The action is rubbish... when will people realise that actors have no fighting ability or skills. Indeed, action actors such as the ones in these films... can't even act ! The premise is good, but overall almost nothing good can be said about this film. Watch Last of The Mohicans... then this and you'll see what I mean. If you disagree with me then it is unlikely you know anything about film, culture or history.. are entertained by SpongeBob and possibly have difficulty tying your shoelaces.

BRILLIANT!!! better than apocalypto!

Vibrant, explosive and an incredibly paced film with an abundance of action and the story line very engaging. I thoroughly enjoyed this film and would go and buy it.

Vikings and Indians

Really wanted to cower at this celluloid spectacle's physical presence. The elements were present: marauding, pillaging Vikings displaying brutal, forceful dominance; an indigenous Tribe of Native Americans adoption of one 'forgotten Viking son' as their own; the lone, hybrid Warrior; a battle for existence in the balance. Yet, it disappoints. A combination of 'The 13th Warrior', 'The Last of the Mohicans' and 'The New World' at best. Karl Urban (Kirill in 'The Bourne Supremacy') plays the brooding Ghost, the adopted Viking. Russell Means (Chingachgook in 'The Last of the Mohicans') the Tribal Pathfinder and Clancy Brown (no explanation required) the dastardly head Viking Gunnar. Throw in sexy gal Starfire (Moon Bloodgood, that's the female actors name - honest) and a Director (Marcus Nispel) who cut his teeth doing Pop Promos for the likes of Billy Joel, Janet Jackson and George Michael. Don't judge, everyone starts somewhere. The direction and lavish visuals are excellent - a treat. But not enough to prevent numb-bum syndrome. At times the line between 'Pathfinder' and 'The Last of the Mohicans' blurs, certain Daniel Day-Lewis was poking around in the woods. Action sequences are good, but nothing especially new or invigorating. Someone can only be chopped up by sword in so many ways. All that said, go see it or rent it. Can't hurt. If it does, it'll only be your bum.

[Highly rated reviewer]

Wonderful camera work and scenery, 7/10.

After watching 300 this week too my wife and I had seen about as many epics as one can stand in any one weekend however despite this we still enjoyed this dark and gritty story. A Viking boy is raised by a Native American tribe and must face his own kind in a dramatic and violent confrontation after the Vikings come back to America killing any tribes that get in their way. After surviving the brutal attack on his tribe our lead character moves to defend the remaining tribes and of course a young lady from certain death at the hands of the Vikings. The acting is impressive generally and the cinematography is excellent, that and parts of the story are likened by other reviewers to the wonderfully shot Apocalypto; a comparison that is true in many respects only Pathfinder is far darker and despite the fact that most of the dialogue is in English Pathfinder is harder to follow because of this. All in all this was a really impressive movie, powerful story, graphic scenes of violence not to mention some wonderful camera work and scenery, however some might find this movie too dark to really enjoy and that should be considered before viewing. Not bad, 7/10. 4 Stars.

[Highly rated reviewer]

The path is long , and ultimately very ,very dull.

Pathfinder is a peculiar mixture of historical drama, action hero thriller, horror and fantasy and manages to be shoddily unconvincing at all of them.It,s a remake of far superior 1987 Norwegian film. It has a grainy stylish sheen courtesy of cinematographer Daniel Pearl that reeks of quality .If only the same care and attention had gone into the script , characterisation, plot , and just about everything else really.

The film feels authentic historically, showing as it does Vikings encountering native Americans around 900AD but couldn’t have been riddled with more inaccuracies if it had been written by the cast of “Hollyoaks”. Some of these , the large horns on the helmets for instance were deliberate and were included for aesthetic and dramatic purposes but others are just silly .Displaying the Vikings as vicious genocidal killers goes against all that is documented about them and if I were a Viking descendant I’d be a bit peeved and feel tempted to go round the producers and directors with a big axe but that would only vindicate their portrayal wouldn’t it?

You could argue that such historical dereliction were justifiable if the film were any good but it’s an oddly uninviolving affair which for a film featuring the mass slaying of whole families in gaudy gory detail is not a good recommendation. Karl Urban as “Ghost” who is found in the wreckage of a Viking ship and adopted by a native tribe has all the action man attributes but displays none of the gravitas or existential pain required for a man supposedly struggling to find his identity….. or path .He just looks like he’s got terrible wind for the most part. Russell Means the Pathfinder of the title dispenses supposedly profound epigrams about destiny and individualism which sound like they have come from a Netto Christmas cracker and Moon Bloodgood as “Starfire” the romantic interest is given a look pretty and occasionally feisty role that requires her to do little other than pout and shout. Perennial baddie Clancy Brown plays the leader of the Norse men Gunnar as a towering hairy behemoth with black pits for eyes grumbling darkly in Icelandic (In lieu of the language Vikings actually spoke). In truth he looks like he should be a member of nihilistic speed metal band .Director Marcus Nispel and writer Laeta Kalogridis have made a film that is straining so badly to be taken seriously that you can almost hear grunting on the soundtrack. The reality is though they have created a visually spectacular but hollow and rather dull movie that has the quick cut edit feel of an expensive music video. If only they had given Clancy Brown a different type of axe it might have been more memorable.

Another Disappointment

Again a good idea for a film but just not thought through, it could have been so much better but ............

[Highly rated reviewer]

Rushed

The film is a little too short for this kind of story! Because of this the scenes seem to go from A to C a bit too quick, and some times miss out B along the way (best way I could explain it, sorry! lol) Some nice gory bits in it, so it may be worth renting just for that - Maybe its because I was expecting more...Watch it as a short sword fighting movie and maybe you will enjoy it more...Watch it for an epic, well told story, and you're going to be gutted!

Will not appeal to everyone

Films like this can be predicable and still be entertaining, by sustained action and interesting sympathetic characters, this, however, was just tedious. Apart from the grey tones and video-game imagery, the acting was appalling and one dimensional, the action was dull, the Vikings might as well have been space monsters and the poor 'Indian' victims. Somehow it reminded me of Peter Pan, with the hero Peter battling the bad Viking Captain Hook, and the girl love-interest Wendy or Tinkerbell I'm not sure. See how bored I was! I was actually thinking about Peter Pan as I watched this film. Like Peter Pan, this film was probably intended for a younger audience, so it was probably my own fault for watching it. I'm sure those who think that moody looks and greasy hair is cool will love this film, but I would not recommend it to anyone over 15, or perhaps I would recommend it to an immature 17 year old, so I've given it two stars.

Watch the Original

Get a hold of the original, Ofelas (Pathfinder), by Nils Gaup and don't waste your time with this rubbish. .