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Pathfinder [2007]


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Editorial
Amazon.co.uk Review

Pathfinder is a curious, cross-genre movie with elements of horror, sword-clanging fantasy, historical fiction, and Native American mysticism. A classic story of an outsider-hero, Pathfinder is set approximately five centuries before the arrival of Columbus in the New World, a time when Vikings were claiming real estate in Greenland and eastern North America. A young Norse boy is abandoned by his disapproving, conqueror-father and adopted by an aboriginal tribe. He grows up to become Ghost (Karl Urban), almost-but-not-entirely accepted by natives, yet a fierce swordsman and defender of Indians after a terrible assault on those whom he loves best. Clancy Brown (The Shawshank Redemption) plays the fiercest of the invaders, a merciless leader who tangles with Ghost’s inherent prowess as a fighter, and engages in a psychological as well as physical struggle with him in the film’s final third, which involves a harrowing journey through an avalanche-prone mountain path. Russell Means (The Last of the Mohicans) is a typically comforting presence as the all-wise Pathfinder, leader of a tribal nation and Ghost’s supporter, while Moon Bloodgood (Eight Below) is outstanding as a love interest with nerves of steel. Marcus Nispel (who directed the 2003 remake of The Texas Chainsaw Massacre) guides the brutal if often exhilarating action as if it were amplified history. He makes the point for a contemporary audience that Vikings were as terrifying a danger to those whom they conquered as, say, Klingons are in Star Trek--precisely by making his Vikings seem so reminiscent of Klingons. --Tom Keogh


Die Hard With Vikings
Review date: 2008-10-18 Rating: 6 out of 10

It's Pathfinder! It's got Karl Urban in a loin cloth! It's full of scary massive Vikings! It's... kinda okay.

There's some great action and fighting complete with lovely graphic CGI blood splatters and the panoramic scenery of the New World is beautifully shot. BUT the movie itself is just lacking something to me. Personally, I think its pace is too fast and bar a cheesy destiny and a hasty intro to Karl's romantic interest VS tiresome rival, it doesn't really deliver much in terms of story or character development that we haven't already seen before. Sometimes you can get away with that in action movies, but this world offered interesting insights to both cultures and didn't ruddy do anything with them. Which is a pity. So the Dragon Men remained monstrous and snarly and the People of the Dawn just kinda got barbecued and ran away a lot. Karl of course gets upset that his adopted family is minced by his nasty horny beardy skull wearing finger collecting kinsmen and pulls a Die Hard on them.

A below average movie with above average effects. Nothing all that special really but worth a gander if you fancy a cliche ridden action flick...and Karl Urban in a loin cloth.

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Reviews


Difficult to take seriously...but don't let that stop you.
Review date: 2008-08-12 Rating: 4 out of 10

Hmmm... In fairness, the action stuff isn't bad, although as a lot of other reviewers have pointed out the historical accuracy is rather dubious. It's basically a fantasy action film coated with a light dusting of mythic history to give it a bit more credibility than a simple Lord of the Rings knock-off. There's no mistaking who the good and bad guys are intended to be; the Vikings are completely over the top - all horns, beards, grunts, big axes and beheadings - and the Native American braves are hopelessly wet and unable to organise a simple ambush in forests they supposedly know like the back of their hand.

The plot's not big on resolving inconvenient detail - for example, it's never explained how Karl Urban grows up to be master swordsman in a Native American village with no-one around who knows what a sword is, let alone someone able to train him in the weapon. Also, I'd love to know how the Vikings get so many warhorses all the way across the Atlantic in what would have been a weeks-long voyage in a longship - especially as the Vikings didn't use horses in battle but always fought on foot... and I guess nor did they wear black eyeliner to make themselves look extra hard!

Historical nitpicking aside, the fights and the action setpieces are good. It's a very dark film, not so much in terms of content (despite the gore) as in lighting, which is grim all the way through, even in day scenes, and sometimes makes it hard to see what's going on. Lots of character strands are hinted at but not developed, ie the Viking leader, Gunnar, says he knew Karl Urban's character Ghost's father, but that intriguing revelation never goes anywhere, which is typical of the script as a whole. If Gunnar had turned out to be Ghost's uncle, for example, that could have added much more depth to the story and introduced genuinely conflicted loyalties. As it is, it's all a little one-dimensional. The concept of Vikings encountering the New World is very strong and with a sharper script and a bit less emphasis on horned helmets, it could have been quite a good film. As it is, it's a competent hack and slash movie. Don't expect too much and just enjoy it for what it is.

A VIOLENT MIX OF THE 13TH WARRIOR AND APOCALYPTO......
Review date: 2008-07-08 Rating: 8 out of 10

Anyone who enjoyed the above movies and obviously, The Vikings is going to enjoy this. Remember it's historical fantasy, NOT history!
It's visually stunning, with lots of action and a fair dash of blood and gore. The Viking Raiders are extremeley brutal, with impressive costume design and some serious dark age weaponry! Photography, editing and Visual/Make Up FX are first class, and I particularly enjoyed the intensity of the opening titles; a heartstopping montage of Norseman 'knifework'.
Lots of great combat setpieces and well choreographed sword play (and axes, spears, arrows, flails etc!).
Decent direction, and (as if it really matters here) acting.
Good to see Clancy Brown, most famous as The Kurgan in Highlander, in another uber-evil warrior role!
Karl Urban is up to the action hero role and as an actor is certainly no worse than Orlando Bloom!
This isn't a chick flick!
There is a slight mystical angle - not enough to class this as Fantasy but it is very stylised, with perhaps the feel at times of a graphic novel.
Certainly as enjoyable as 300 or Beowulf!

BRILLIANT!!! better than apocalypto!
Review date: 2008-04-25 Rating: 10 out of 10


This film is superb. it is an action adventure film, set in the time of the Vikings, when they tried to conquer North America. 'Pathfinder' tells the heroic story, of a young Norse boy left behind in a strange land, after the war party from his Viking clan, shipwrecks their longboats after an intense battle, on the North American, Eastern shores, some 600 years prior to the arrival of Christopher Columbus. Despite his Viking Lineage and heritage, the boy is raised and nurtured by the North American Indians, that his Norse kinsmen set out to destroy. Fifteen years later, as the Vikings return to stage another barbaric raid on his adopted village, the 25 year-old Norse warrior played by Karl Urban, who is known as Ghost, due to his pale complexion, wages a personal war to stop the Vikings' trail of death and destruction, when the Viking's slaughter the villagers. Ghost, upon discovering the pile of bodies, left by his brethren from the North, sets out on a path to kill as many of the interlopers as he can, a suicide mission to be sure, but an honourable undertaking in the eyes of the young warrior. in doing this, the young man begins, finding his own path, navigating between the two worlds. On one hand he is born of the Vikings, and is inextricably tied to that culture, but he has also become firmly entrenched in the vastly different lifestyle of the native tribe. Ghost must find out who he is; is he to be forever linked to the world of his birth and their bloodthirsty ways, or can he discover the path that will lead to happiness in his adoptive home. by forging his own path, his destiny is revealed and his identity re-claimed. well worth renting out.

Crap!
Review date: 2008-03-14 Rating: 2 out of 10

Ok the 1 star is for the costumes of the vikings, thats the only thing good about this film.

The story is really really bad, vikings invade america but die apart from 1 boy, he gets found by indians and gorws up becoming one of them.

Vikings then come back kill all the indians, you only see like 20 vikings at a time but the boy who by now is a man kills like 500 of them lol.

After he kills them all the movies over, i told my family this would be a good movie as it was on at the cinemas and made them watch it with me on a sunday night, i felt soo ashamed of myself afterwards, that says it all lol.

Product Details/Specifications


Actor(s):
Karl Urban
Clancy Brown
Ralf Moeller
Russell Means
Nathaniel Arcand

Creators:
Karl Urban (Primary Contributor)
Nathaniel Arcand (Primary Contributor)

Director(s):

Recording label: 20th Century Fox Home Entertainment
Manufacturer: 20th Century Fox Home Entertainment
EAN: 5039036035170
Binding: DVD
Number of items: 1
Format: Anamorphic, PAL,
Release date: 2007-09-24
Aspect ratio: 1.78:1
Audience rating: Suitable for 15 years and over
Region code: 2
Running time: 103 minutes
Theatrical release date: 2007
Language: English (Original Language)

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