“Pathfinder” is an overwrought movie based on a very simple plot – not a happy combination, in this case. This is an example of a film so overdirected it becomes almost impossible to look at.
Think of it as “Apocalypto” with a northern twist. Centuries before the arrival of Columbus, a Viking boat hits the shore of America, leaving only one survivor: a boy, adopted by an Indian tribe.
Years later, the Vikings return. Man, are they mean.
You can tell they’re mean because they wear great horned helmets with silver skulls in front. Also because they slaughter the local Indian villages without remorse. (This is undoubtedly why Vikings don’t celebrate Thanksgiving.)
Even when the Vikings realize that the pale-skinned, muscle-bound tribesman called Ghost (Karl Urban) is the Viking boy from the earlier voyage, they don’t show any pity. And Ghost, the greatest warrior in the New World, doesn’t take kindly to this.
The movie becomes a cartoon-scaled bloodfest, with Ghost going all Conan the Barbarian on the marauders. He gets a bit of help from the Pathfinder (Russell Means, the longtime Indian activist turned actor) and love interest Starfire (Moon Bloodgood, from “Eight Below”), but mostly it’s Ghost.
Karl Urban is a New Zealand he-man who appeared in the “Lord of the Rings” pictures. His requirements here tend toward the physical, and within those expectations he’s quite capable. As for his acting, this movie uses the peak-era Schwarzenegger model: His dialogue is pared back to a minimum, and so is his costume.
“Pathfinder” is based on an entertaining 1987 Norwegian film of the same title, which set a similar story in Scandinavian terms. For this one, the filmmakers have accepted the probability that Norsemen visited North America well before Columbus; the rest is extremely unlikely.
Director Marcus Nispel, a music-video kingpin whose sole previous feature was the abysmal remake of “Texas Chainsaw Massacre,” takes an arty approach to the material. There are some stunning compositions and handsome British Columbia locations.
But there is no logic, narrative or visual. When a big battle scene comes, the action is incoherent, with no way to tell who’s who or what’s what. And maybe it was a deliberate choice to portray the Vikings as faceless and interchangeable, but this doesn’t make for a very memorable villain.
Contrast this with the way Mel Gibson shrewdly staged “Apocalypto,” and the difference is clear. As to whether the Vikings could beat the Persians from “300,” well, you’ll have to wait for the video game.
A scene from “Pathfinder.”
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