The cover of the DVD leads you to believe this is going to be some kind of 'Game Of Thrones' style gore-fest. Mads Mikkelsen stands against a brooding, dark background looking suitably muscular and dangerous, one imagines him disposing wave after wave of extras in imaginative ways. This is precisely what you don't get, refreshingly enough. It's hard to give any broad sense of what happens, because not a lot really happens, probably the best description I can give is that it's basically 'Aguirre, the Wrath of God', but starting in Scotland. Mads trudges across various oppressive, but beautiful, landscapes, accompanied by a brooding synthesizer soundtrack. If all this sounds negative, that's not the intention, the movie successfully projects you into its bleak landscape and Mikkelsen's presence gives the whole affair a menacing tension. Whilst the plot is not brisk, it didn't feel like it was being slow simply for slow's sake. My only criticism is that Refn does not seem to have successfully integrated his influences, all the usual suspects are in evidence (Bergman, Tarkovsky), with a huge dose of Herzog, but I assume this is of little concern to most movie viewers. Overall, if you can dispense with any preconceptions generated by the DVD art work and you enjoy some ambiguous atmosphere, then you should enjoy this movie.
Review of Valhalla Rising
