Submitted by foozalicious t3_yji0rl in movies
I just rewatch Robert Eggers’ The Northman. I am of the opinion that it’s one of the best film representations of a classical drama. It’s gritty, it’s well acted, and it is the most visually stunning movie of 2022.
When it first released, I heard some different rationale for why it’s non-critical reception was lukewarm, and none of it really makes sense to me.
“The trailer was misleading, and people weren’t expecting what they got.” - I think this is a bullshit excuse. How is this trailer in any way misleading. Most of the trailer isn’t even fighting. However, the movie was still gruesome, gory, and had some amazingly violent confrontations. You can’t expect a movie to be 100% action and still tell a decent story. As an analogy, I can walk into a theater expecting to see The Godfather, and if the projectionist shows Goodfellas instead, I’m still going to love the movie that I just saw.
“I didn’t like the ending.” - If you didn’t like the end of this movie, then I don’t think you like drama. It’s a movie about Vikings and vengeance. If you don’t like that Amleth died, then I don’t think you know much about Vikings. Amleth gets his vengeance while protecting his unborn children, fulfills his prophecy, and dies in combat (like Vikings are supposed to). That’s about as satisfying of an ending as you can get in classic storytelling. If the ending surprised you, you’ve been ignoring the plot line to one of the most famous stories for the past 420 years, since Shakespeare wrote Hamlet. Sorry you didn’t get the Lion King ending.
I understand movies aren’t for everyone, they can’t please 100% of viewers, but I have a hard time believing that 1 out of 3 audience members thought it was a bad film (64% on RT). If you saw this movie and didn’t enjoy it, I would love to understand why.