“Valhalla Rising” Japanese DVD Cover
Director: Nicolas Winding Refn
Director: Nicolas Winding Refn, Roy Jacobsen
Cast: Mads Mikkelsen, Maarten Stevenson, Gordon Brown, Paul Rhys, Andrew Flanagan, Gary Lewis, Gary McCormack, Alexander Morton, Jamie Sives
Running Time: 92 min.
By HKFanatic
Back in 2009 accomplished Danish director Nicolas Winding Refn, the great Dane behind such artistically unique efforts like crime drama Only God Forgives and the visually thrilling The Neon Demon, tackled the fantasy drama feature Valhalla Rising.
He is without a doubt a director with a unique style and someone whom never shies away from artistry and experimentation which is always prominent on screen no matter what he produces. So, what exactly would he pull out of the bag for when he decided to turn his attentions to some 11th-century fantasy adventure?
Valhalla Rising stars Mads Mikkelsen (Casino Royale, Hannibal) as One-Eye, a Norse warrior who along with a young boy and a group of Christian Norsemen head across the seas in search of the Holy Land.
It’s a concept that could have quite easily ended up in the wrong hands and suddenly become an all-out action and adventure farce. But thankfully it didn’t.
And it’s certainly a film that split opinion from both audiences and critics alike. If you weren’t lucky enough to catch this first time around it’s definitely an artistic effort that deserves revisiting.
It manages to bring a fresh approach to the typical clichéd look and style of Norse-themed movies that many cinema-goers are now so familiar with. It’s a popular theme which already influences a number of TV shows and games such as Valhalla slot.
But with audiences relegated to more mainstream franchises such as Thor, which continues to enjoy huge box office success, a lot of the more human and deeper themes of Norse mythology seems to have been somewhat lost in more recent times, so it’s great to see movies like this still being made.
The movie was sandwiched between Refn’s two directorial efforts of the Bronson biopic, starring a very different looking Tom Hardy, and of course his highly praised cool crime adaptation Drive, which starred Ryan Gosling.
So it seemed that 11th-century Scandinavia for an unusual choice for the rising director. However, he manages to expertly piece together a beautiful cinematic experience that really drills down into aspects of humanity and raw emotion, something that is rarely explored to any great extent in this mythological subgenre of filmmaking.
The plot itself and the characterisations are purposely left unclear enough for viewers to draw their own conclusions. It’s an experience, a life journey, something that can be interpreted in numerous ways and one that will stay with you for quite a while after the end credits roll.
Right at the heart of the movie is of course our lead One-Eye, played by the excellent Mads Mikkelsen. He truly manages to grip the audience and what makes his performance even more impressive is that his character is actually mute and therefore doesn’t utter a word through the movie.
It’s just his on-screen presence that manages to make such a difference here. Coupled with the incredibly visceral imagery we’re treated to it’s a visually stunning piece of work.
HKFanatic’s Rating: 8/10
