Review of Vikingdom (2013) by Atardecer — 21 Dec 2013

It's only when you watch an action movie like this that you realise all those average action movies you've watched previous were actually quite good. You know that when you sit down to watch a movie like this it ain't gonna be Shakespeare or deeply profound, but you hope a certain minimum level of standard across the board is met. It is not.

Script, acting, production values, CGI, editing, plot, wardrobe (possibly the worst wigs in cinema history) are terrible. The music is to standard (apart from the god awful metal intro) but is typical action fare and lacks depth and subtlety.

The whole film has a sickly grey glow from poor CGI/Green Screen and poor lighting. There's barely anything real or organic about anything in the film. I guess, geographically speaking, Malaysian vistas do not lend themselves to Medieval Scandinavian geography. The acting is embarrassing for the most part. Dominic Purcell phones in his performance, appearing uninterested and embarrassed to be there. Craig Fairbrass plays a great Viking, but that's not a good thing given the context. This ain't a film that's going to go on their show reels.

The plot has more holes than a sieve, lurching along inexplicable and without foundation or direction. The film is a vessel for each staged fight scene where undue attention (undue given to the fact the film is set in Sweden) is given to the obligatory martial arts performer.

The wigs. Oh God, the wigs. And then there's the 'dragon'. I'll speak no more of THAT abomination.

This is a Malaysian action movie about Vikings with English speaking actors. When you think of it like that, it's actually exactly what you'd expect it to be.