Trailer Tuesday: Pathfinder

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Viking movies are few and far between. The last pretty decent one to feature the bloodthirsty Scandinavians was The 13th Warrior. Now there's another one.

Pathfinder was released in North America this last weekend.

Just don’t get too excited up front though. The film’s release was delayed multiple times from mid year 2006, it tested very poorly in pre-screenings and it only scored 13% on Rotten Tomatoes.

Apparently the main problem is that the film ignores interesting opportunities, and substitutes them for Action Movie clichés instead. Certainly the history drawn upon for the film is intriguing: Viking raids and settlement in North America 600 years prior to Christopher Columbus. Sounds like the perfect opportunity for some badass Viking vs. Native American confrontation.


By the looks of it, there is some element of this to Pathfinder. Apparently the film is action-packed and filled with limb-hacking gore. However, instead of having the locals fight back, the film makers decided to make the hero of the film a Viking boy left behind, and raised by the Native Americans. When the literally monstrous Vikings return, headed by Clancy Brown, the boy (now grown into Doom’s scowling Karl Urban) has to decide whether to return to his people or defend the community who embraced him. Guess which one he picks?

Apparently if you shut off your mind and just succumb to the grunting, sword-swinging, First Blood-like action, Pathfinder is an OK popcorn flick. I’m certainly getting a definite Apocalypto vibe from the trailer. Anyway, Pathfinder is released in South Africa on 18 May.

And, that is a very cool poster…

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