Pathfinder
Quite the forgettable experience, which is at least a good thing because you don’t exactly want to remember it.
Review by Sirus

Pathfinder is a movie based on a Norwegian film about a Norwegian legend. The movie was adapted to use a different setting and is now set in early Americas. It isn’t really clear exactly what the legend was about as the movie doesn’t even mention that it was based on a legend. In the movie, a young boy who came as a part of the last Viking raiding party was left to die because he wasn’t man enough to slaughter the villagers. A young woman from a nearby village happens upon the boat he is hiding in and takes him into her home. We are given a very minimal look into his life as a young boy because the movie skips ahead 15 years to a time when he is considered a man.

The people the man lives with know him as Ghost (played by Karl Urban) and come to accept him as one of their own even though he was born as one of their enemies. One day, Ghost goes out hunting with a little girl from the village, and while they are out, the Viking men come and attack the village killing everyone. Ghost fights the men in an attempt to get revenge on his people, something that consumes him for the rest of the movie. The movie is extremely dark in a majority of the scenes making what gory violence is there, hard to see. This is made even worse because every dismemberment is shown for such a split second that you don’t have time to take in what really happened. This is fine for people who are more on the queasy side but gore hounds who will be attracted by the rating that claims to have strong brutal violence throughout should not be fooled; this is not very brutal.

One thing that makes the movie stand out but doesn’t save it from mediocrity is the cinematography. There are some absolutely breathtaking shots of landscapes so beautiful you just want to sit and take it in for a long time. Sadly, the movie shows these for such short amounts of time that, like the violence, these scenes are hard to focus on. If you are considering seeing Pathfinder for the story, you might want to think twice. The story isn’t very deep or fleshed out much like last year’s Apocalypto. Unlike Apocaypto, though, Pathfinder isn’t very engaging for the first half of the movie. It does do a great job coming to a climax in the last parts that at least get exciting but never reaches the level of excitement needed.

Pathfinder looks good from the previews but it just doesn’t end up as good as it could have been. It was also strange to watch a movie in which the Native Americans speak English while their Viking attackers speak a more realistic language (Norwegian?). A few of the actors are able to get the Native American accent to sound right while others just don’t cut it. Pathfinder tries a couple things but doesn’t succeed at making either part of it particularly memorable. In the end, if you are up for a good popcorn flick this weekend, you could do worse than Pathfinder but, if you still haven’t seen 300 or Grindhouse, you should watch one of those instead. I was unfulfilled by Pathfinder and came away from it with the feeling that it will be quite the forgettable experience, which is at least a good thing because I don’t exactly want to remember it.

Final Score: 2.5/5