Directed by Marcus Nispel
by Chris Worthington
Pathfinder is the touching story of a young Viking who turns his back on his brutal heritage by ruthlessly slaughtering his own people when they mercilessly invade his adoptive Native-American homeland. As a mindless gore-fest, Pathfinder is all right, but problems with characterization, pacing and the filming of some of the action sequences drag down the picture as a whole.
In an effort to help the audience identify with the Native Americans, the film's makers have them speak in English, while the Vikings speak their native and guttural Old Norse. I'm not sure if director Marcus Nispel or writer Nils Gaup should be credited with that choice, but it served to add a lot. Unfortunately, they decided to go the old school Western rout and have all the tribesmen speak in a halting meter with no contractions. The characterization of the Vikings is pretty negative, but they are the antagonists, and I'm not sure it's possible to characterize a Viking in too negative a light. Throughout the movie, Karl Urban reminds the viewers that these "Dragon Men" are bred for war and know more about winter than anyone on Earth. But, apparently, having war in your blood means not being able to hit anything with an arrow unless it's slow-moving and prone. It also appears that near limitless knowledge of winter does not include any information about ice, or that spring follows winter.
The pacing of the film could best be described as spastic. For the most part, the film is an extended chase scene, but the chase is occasionally interrupted with islands of what one could assume was intended to be characterization. This "characterization" is wasted for the most part, as the director shows you characters only long enough to recognize who is dying in the next scene or two. But, all of these problems are small compared to the poor filming of some of the battle scenes. These frenetic sequences are plagued with continuity violations and compositions that often obscure the action. That said, Nispel does an excellent job of getting beautifully silhouetted shots of the Vikings in full regalia. In fact, he does such a good job of this that he spends at least a third of the movie on it.
In the end, you have to admit that Pathfinder is not a good movie. While it isn't good, it isn't a totally waste of time, but save it for a rental on a slow weekend.
