Review of Valhalla Rising (2009) by Adam G — 21 Feb 2011

I loved this movie! The cinematography was brilliant, the score was excellent, and the acting was nicely understated. The main character and storyline are a lot like the "grim and gritty" graphic novels of Frank Miller, only infused with a real art house sensibility.

This film is very sparse and economical. There is little plot and not much dialog. It relies more on visual aspects to convey meaning. As a result, a lot of people have complained that it's too slow, but I felt that the ultra-violence as well the way in which it was divided into many chapters went a long way to mitigate this aspect of the film.

I also found it very interesting how the homeland that they start out in has a look that is so dark and oppressive in contrast to the green beauty of the place where they wind up that turns out to be their "hell". Kind of cool how they played with your expectations by inverting the feel of those two environments.