Valhalla Rising (2010)

Too much of everything

As Good As It Gets

Blistering performances.

Actress is magnificent and exudes a hypnotic screen presence in this affecting drama.

To much violence still very very very under rated this movie is way better then at least 99% movies which are being made in hollywood now dayz..........

This has to be one of the lowest budgeted films I've ever seen: a mere handful of cast members dressed in period costume and no sets whatsoever, unless you count a cage and a boat as a set. It's a Viking epic shot entirely in the great outdoors, so if you're a fan of beautifully rugged Scottish scenery standing in for most parts of the world, you're in for a treat with this film.The makers attempted to make the film look like 300 on the Blu-ray cover I purchased, complete with a cast of shield-wielding warriors in the background. It's a total fallacy. Those expecting an action epic will be disappointed, because this is nothing of the sort: it's actually a 'heart of darkness' type film, a journey into madness and despair, more like AGUIRRE, WRATH OF GOD than any other film I can mention. Our hero, One-Eye, is mute and expressionless, a kind of cipher full of mystery and macho coolness, as envisaged by some early scenes in which he takes part in slave fights, gorily dispatching his enemies by breaking necks, splitting skulls, and pulling out all of a guy's internal organs in one gruesome, stick-in-the-mind interlude.After a long time setting up an utterly bleak, dirty and harsh world, the plot begins for real: One-Eye and his buddy, a kid who's the only sympathetic character in the film, join up with a bunch of Christians planning to spread the word in Jerusalem. After a fraught sea voyage, they actually turn up in North America, where they run foul of primitive Indians. It turns out that one of the plot points in this film – a Norse pillar to the Gods on a Delaware shore – was actually found to have happened by archaeologists, so it's cool the film links that in. In any case, there's no happy ending here, just madness, despair, death, and a bit of male rape thrown in too.I was refreshed to see not a single special effect. There are nightmarish red-tinted dream sequences, in which One-Eye experiences flashes of the future. There's a drug-induced spiral into madness featuring the aforementioned male rape and the building of the pillar. There's a head-scratching ending twist that demands second viewing, and sudden moments of extreme violence and death that keep you completely unsettled while watching. I thought this was a great film, and it's one of the best to make good use of the great outdoors. Here, the outside world is a hostile one in which fear of the unknown plays a big part: it's creepy, atmospheric and sometimes totally chilling.

There are many varied interpretations of the film, the most common thread connecting them is the very obvious parallels between the character One-Eye, and Odin from Norse mythology. I, however, believe the film is about violence. That is to say, I don't think it's a violent movie (which it is) or that it's an action movie with some violent scenes (which it has), I mean to say that the movie itself is about violence. More specifically, humanity's violent nature. The main character, called "One-Eye," is a nameless, voiceless creature of pure brutality who comes from an obviously violent past, and is being held (ostensibly) against his will for the sole purpose of committing violence, before he is able to utilize violence to escape his captors and seek violent revenge. Almost immediately afterwards, he stumbles upon a group of Christians who have clearly just committed an act of hideous violence, and invite him to go and do violence with them-- in the name of God-- in the Crusades. They all board a ship, bound for the Holy Land, which quickly becomes the scene of violence after becoming lost an impenetrable fog. Eventually, the fog lifts and they find themselves not in the arid Holy Land but in a mysterious taiga-- seemingly somewhere in the Americas, where even the natural beauty of the landscape seems to belie the aura of menace that surrounds it. Despair, desperation, and even insanity sets in and the Crusaders begin to turn on each other, all the while being stalked by unseen forces from the forest around them. Everyone in the film meets a gruesome end (save for The Boy who, being left alone, can be assumed to have died of starvation or exposure).It is my belief that One-Eye represents the violence inherent in nature, especially human nature. He exists as a silent, nameless presence who seems to haunt the other characters as everything collapses around them. This belief is strengthened by one scene in particular (around the 1:18 mark) where one of the characters begins to question One-Eye on why he has done this; why he has dragged them into such a terrible fate, as if to imply he felt remorseful of his current predicament, brought about by his own violent nature. But, being the embodiment of said violent human nature, One-Eye says nothing, only stands in silent judgment. The man quickly ceases his questioning and wanders off into the distance, most likely to meet a violent end. And when it's time for even One-Eye himself to die, he appears to suddenly surrender all will to fight and allows himself to be killed, perhaps symbolic of his understanding without question the inevitability of death and the unending cycle of violence that was not just the reality for primitives or crusaders or vikings, but is an inescapable part of existence. A fascinatingly slow burn, the movie is unique in that it is savagely violent while still being basically an art film, with very heavy influence on cinematography and symbolism. Dark, brutal, artful, eerie atmospheric and poetic, Don't pass up an opportunity to see this one.

Not even the landscape and cinematography could save this one. It was a slow plod through an unlikely story line. The writing team should (figuratively) be taken out and shot.For heaven's sake, a full seven minutes passed before the first lines were uttered. I knew I was in trouble right there.I had to fast forward throughout just get past the boring parts. And those are too many to count. Add that to the lack of historical accuracy. The Norse were skilled seamen and navigators. Suggesting that a crew of them could get lost while sailing south and somehow end up sailing west is historical nonsense.I simply could not find one redeeming quality in Valhalla Rising. Even the title is misleading.Don't waste the time, money or bandwidth on it.